The Burning Plain

New movie by Guillermo Arriaga, whom I had the honor to meet personally last week. Review and thoughts and photo with him and Joel (& moi) coming up as soon as I receive the photo and manage to sort out my head to put something readable down again =) Till then, enjoy the preview…

Rumi`s Restaurant Reminisces

از جمادی مُردم و نامی شدم — وز نما مُردم بحیوان سرزدم

مُردم از حیوانی و آدم شدم — پس چه ترسم کی ز مردم کم شدم

حملهء دیگر بمیرم از بشر — تا برآرم از ملایک بال و پر

وز ملک هم بایدم جستن ز جو — کل شییء هالک الاوجهه

بار دیگر از ملک پران شوم — آنچه اندر وهم ناید آن شوم

پس عدم گردم عدم چو ارغنون — گویدم کانا الیه راجعون

1207-1273

I died as a mineral and became a plant,
I died as plant and rose to animal,
I died as animal and I was Man.
Why should I fear? When was I less by dying?
Yet once more I shall die as Man, to soar
With angels bless’d; but even from angelhood
I must pass on: all except God doth perish.
When I have sacrificed my angel-soul,
I shall become what no mind e’er conceived.
Oh, let me not exist! for Non-existence
Proclaims in organ tones,
To Him we shall return.

(Mawlānā Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Balkhī / مولانا جلال الدین محمد بلخى)

Pouf: cinq

There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened. (- Douglas Adams)

For me, five times. And the last one, even without changing the country of residence but all within Japan. The pouf-process (explanation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AO9Z4bAvMU) got started when I changed my job and the full click and corresponding realization came last night when the source of the final click told me that it is possible to see the other side of the universe through me. Or vice versa, in my case.

These kind of transformations are quite dangerous though, people have been known to lose their mind in the process, especially if love is involved. But then again, the only thing that keeps you sane is not thinking about falling off the comfortable safe track but stepping quite consciously off it on your own will, and with that step, taking flight above all the small concerns that may attack you were you stubbornly trying to cling to the cozy soft path laid ahead. Oh, if I just remembered my own advice every time this moment comes, in that split second where I feel like getting lost in the darkness that surrounds it. This little post should serve as a reminder for me. And to make it even more pleasant, let`s also post a photo here below (no me contestes!). But first, a poem by Rumi.

This is love: to fly toward a secret sky,
to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment
First, to let go of life.
In the end, to take a step without feet.
To regard this world as invisible,
and to disregard what appears to the self.

Heart, I said, what a gift it has been
to enter this circle of lovers,
to see beyond seeing itself,
to reach and feel within the breast.

My soul, where does this breathing arise?
How does this beating heart exist?
Bird of the soul, speak in your own words,
and I will understand.

The heart replied: I was in the workplace
the day this house of water and clay was fired.
I was already fleeing that created house,
even as it was being created.
When I could no longer rest, I was dragged down,
and my features were molded from a handful of earth.

Eclipse

The eclipse that was to happen today at 11.12 AM was instead replaced by a small eartquake at exactly the same time. The eclipse just must`ve slept in, like I did, or to be correct, my wake-up was also replaced by something resembling an earth quake. No complaints in either case, the sky is full of clouds today and the details of the eclipse wouldn`t have been as clear as the earthquake was.

While on the topic of waking up, my iPhone (and hence alarm clock) has been acting up (er…down?) recently, and I now heard my colleagues are experiencing the same problem. Below are the steps I found on the great google-net to fix the problem:

1. Backup and sync your phone. Connecting your phones to iTunes and doing a sync will also backup your phone.
2. Reset your settings. Settings -> General -> Reset -> Reset All Settings.
3. Hard Reset your iPhone. Press and hold the home button and the power button together until the silver apple logo is shown  on screen [First the “Slide to Power Off” message will appear and then the screen will go blank and then the apple logo will appear]. Once the apple logo appears you can release the buttons.
4. Disable Push for your accounts. To disable Push you need to go to Settings -> Mail,Contacts,Calendars -> Fetch New Data. Turn Push off and set the fetch interval to whatever you desire.

Uued väliseestlased

Aikido

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but nature more,
From these our interviews, in which I steal
From all I may be, or have been before,
To mingle with the universe, and feel
What I can ne’er express, yet cannot all conceal.-

Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean-roll!
Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain;
Man marks the earth with ruin-his control
Stops with the shore ;-upon the watery plain
The wrecks are all thy deed, nor doth remain
A shadow of man’s ravage, save his own,
When for a moment, like a drop of rain,
He sinks into thy depths with bubbling groan,
Without a grave, unknell’d, uncoffin’d, and unknown.

(G.G. Byron)