beauty

24 Apr 2012 No Comments

42 Things I Love About Santa Monica

Almost three months ago I was on a very rough flight from Boston to LA. There was turbulence, there was horrid pain in my ears and there was fear that this time the plane may not make it to LA. To my big surprise we landed. I saw my friend but couldn’t hear her. She picked me up and drove me to her home in Santa Monica. I instantly felt warmth both of her presence and warm air of LA. No more cold of Boston winter. I saw light-minded palm trees instead of trees with no leaves. It felt as if I died and wend to paradise. I was still sick but I knew I was going to get better. I stayed on my friend’s couch, wrote and looked through the bay windows at the lush tropical vegetation that was curiously looking back at me as if saying: “Who is new here?”

On the second day I walked to the beach and sat on the bench, it was all I could do, as I had no energy to exercise yet. I just wanted to absorb ocean breeze and see the beach. It felt familiar, just like back home in Sochi. People mainly with dogs were passing by and we didn’t know each other’s stories. But I wanted them to know that I was happy just to be here. Everything may pass you by unless you choose to take a note and appreciated every moment of it. I’ve been looking around me and noticing all. I made a big step into improving my life. I’m so glad I came and explored Santa Monica, but it is time to leave. How familiar can you get with something in just over 2 months? Familiar enough to love it:

  1. Wind-bended rows of Palm trees on the 4th Street
  2. Strangers on the beach walk asking you to try their products or validate their business ideas
  3. Captive chess pieces waiting to be released in the chess park cells
  4. Homeless people sleeping in the Palisades Park in the morning with child-like peaceful faces
  5. The bucket of Shrimper’s Net Catch with Secret Recipe Cajun spice at Bubba Gump
  6. Dragon Roll at Hara sushi, always packed and serving only fresh, tasty and half-priced sushi
  7. Jazz nights at Casa del Mar with older than your average crowd
  8. Quantified Self events, where people and numbers meet at Coloft
  9. Writing from Inner Self Class with Rachelle at Santa Monica Community College
  10. Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine Herbs at Yo San University Clinic
  11. Chocolate croissant at the Coffee Bean with fire pit on Wilshire Street
  12. One Dollar Oyster specials at Enterprise Fish Company on Main Street
  13. Church bells ringing  at The First United Methodist Church on 11th street at 11AM
  14. Socializing with drinks in the garden by the pool at Viceroy
  15. Urth café on Main street, where I organized my first CA happiness formula testing
  16. The drills of beach volleyball with Thao Pham at 106 Entrada Drive
  17. Pet center on 826 Wilshire Blvd, where you can volunteer to walk the dog, who is unfortunate
  18. Handsome men working as cashiers in the Whole Foods store
  19. Tall grown up man walking an elderly woman on Washington street every day
  20. Lounge at Sonoma wine country in Santa Monica Place
  21. Drivers’ and pedestrians’ agitation during Farmer’s market on Wednesdays
  22. Monthly Philosophy Club with Brian at Yahoo center
  23. Beautiful courtyard of the Main Library and its themed events
  24. No plastic bag policy in the stores
  25. Lean LA events with panel discussions in the Civic Center
  26. Post office as a remainder of the old era: while you can hardly find a post office box on the street, some people still use snail mail
  27. One week free pass to work at the Coworksla sharing space
  28. Muscle gym puzzle because you never know if those who practice there are normal people or Circle de Soleil gymnasts
  29. Napoleon cake at the Ukrainian Deli on Wilshire
  30. Vons smart-phone friendly sophisticated coupon system
  31. 24 hour Fedex on Wilshire with its ivy-covered wall
  32. Eclectic plays like “Why we have a body” at Edgemar center for the arts
  33. The Aquamarine color of the Lady, The Georgian Hotel
  34. The feel of the Callahan’s diner reminds me of New York
  35. Montana Street’s Fathers Office, where noone under 21 is admitted
  36. Fog and rain, and you are in a completely different place altogether
  37. Tourists off sightseeing buses eating Krispy Kreme donuts as part of their tour in the Palisades Park
  38. Architectural feats of different ages, shapes and colors
  39. Group joggers, boot campers and serious cyclists in full gear in action by the beach
  40. Exotic trees and flawless flower beds in very unexpected places
  41. The challenge of the big stairs from the beach to the bluffs
  42. Wide white beach, the ultimate answer to Santa Monica’s heart

by polyachka in Happiness Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

19 Apr 2012 No Comments

The Man With The Violin

A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that thousand of people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

Three minutes went by and a middle aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried up to meet his schedule.

A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping continued to walk.

A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work.

The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.

In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written with a violin worth 3.5 million dollars.

Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston and the seats average $100.

This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of an social experiment about perception, taste and priorities of people. The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context?

One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be:

If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?

Watch video of the performance Pearls Before Breakfast.

From Washington Post by Gene Weingarten.

by polyachka in Happiness Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

02 Jan 2012 1 Comment

The Feeling of Happiness Poem

“Good day,
I read with great interest this article about happiness. I would like to send a poem that I wrote some time ago. I’m not a Writer, which you will notice on the poem, but everything I write, what moves me in poem form.
With best wishes from Buten-Bremen.
Brigitte Stürmer”

Thank you, Brigitte, your poem is beautiful!

Dieses Gefühl von Glück 

Kennst du dieses Gefühl von Glück,

diese Momente zwischen der Mühsal des Lebens,

diese schwebenden Augenblicke

Lichtpunkte am Himmel?

 

Dieses Gefühl von Glück, 

wenn Meeresbrandung deine Ohren berauscht

wenn der Geruch von Seetang in dich strömt

wenn der Wind deine Haut umfängt?

 

Dieses Gefühl von Glück, 

 wenn Vollendung und Schönheit

in den Abgrund dich reißen,

wenn du halten willst,

was nicht zu halten ist?

 

Dieses  Gefühl von Glück, 

wenn Weinen und Lachen dich sprengen wollen,

dein Körper zum Theater wird,

alle Gefühle gleichzeitig die Bühne betreten,

wenn die Stille mit wirbelnden Kobolden Purzelbäume schlägt,

wenn Glück die Fassung verliert?

 

Dieses Gefühl von Glück, 

wenn Luft zur samtigen Materie wird

durch deine Hände fließt

deinen Körper berührt

ihn umschmeichelt

sich löst

    an anderer Stelle wieder verfängt?

  

Dieses Gefühl von Glück, 

wenn ein Mensch dir begegnet

der deinen Akkord zu spielen versteht

wenn ein Lächeln nur dir gehört?

Kennst du dieses Gefühl von Glück

frei zu sein unter dem Blau des Himmels

im Augenblick des Alles Seins?

  

This feeling of happiness

Do you know this feeling of happiness,
these moments between the hardships of life,
these floating moments
Points of light in the sky?

This feeling of happiness,

if your ears surf intoxicated
if the smell of seaweed flowing into you
when the wind envelops your skin?

This feeling of happiness,

if perfection and beauty
tear you into the abyss,
if you want to keep,
what not to keep?

This feeling of happiness,

Tears and laughter when you want to blow up,
Your body is the theater,
all feelings simultaneously enter the stage,
when the silence beats with whirling goblins somersaults,
if luck loses composure?

This feeling of happiness,

when air is used to velvety matter
flows through your hands
your body touches
it flatters
dissolves
elsewhere again caught?

This feeling of happiness,

when a man meets you
of your chord playing to understand
only when a smile is to you?

Do you know this feeling of happiness
to be free under the blue sky
Everything at the moment of being?

Brigitte Stürmer

English translation of the poem is done by Google Translate

by polyachka in Happiness Tags: , , , ,

06 Nov 2011 No Comments

Philosophy Works (Class Seven)

I had all the intentions to skip this class, as I felt sleepy, but my curiosity in what next class brings prevailed. I was 20 minutes late and found no Meta, but a substitute instructor instead. I asked for class notes, but was given a surprised look as if class notes were a luxury philosophers could do without… New instructor was reading passages from several books and I struggled to stay awake and keep my attention focused, but was able to make some notes, which I’ll try to recreate now…

We suffer from distracted attention by thinking about things that are not present (either past events or contemplation of future events), but instead we can and should prolong moments of being in the present by paying attention to what we see. What have you observed by walking down the street? Very often we can’t recall what we passed by, because attention was given not to surroundings, but to our thoughts.

Then we were asked if we were happier when we were children and the answer was yes, almost unanimous. Normal child is observant and happy. Why is that? I said that children don’t have responsibilities…as adults do. But the answer was  that yes, we do have responsibilities and things to do, but it makes a short list and could probably be done in seconds sometimes, if only we don’t dwell on it.

I also thought that children are not spoiled with desire yet, or their desires are still minimal. They don’t yet know what is out there possible and they are still learning about possessions, wants and needs, haves and hot haves.  And they don’t have the pressure of expectations, maybe minimal. Expectations surely grow with age. We are supposed to pay back for what we were given during childhood, either by our parents or our society.

The instructor said that a child has less distracted thoughts. Attention is root of clear thinking. Children are always in present. That is why when we ask children what they want to be they don’t understand the concept of time (somewhere there). They want to be what they like now. There is no there and then for children, it is always now.

We continued our conversation about distracting thoughts, as surely we like to escape present sometimes, especially when we need to do something unpleasant (or so we think). We discussed washing dishes. It is a simple act, but we can focus all our energy on creating this negative vibe about it. Someone said it is a short activity; at least it is not long! I said that you can derive pleasure from seeing a stack of clean dishes and be proud of the results. I was wrong… We can find our bliss in present moment while we are doing dishes.

Bliss is one of the qualities of being/self; together with consciousness and knowledge, bliss is nature of self. Enjoyment is nature of experience, but bliss is inside us.  Bliss only needs attention and stillness. Bliss is internal happiness or basic goodness. It is about taking one moment at a time. To find it we need to introduce stillness in our lives.

In Buddhism there are four main states: activity, sleep, consciousness and stillness. We don’t do last two enough.

The Self/Being/Absolute is truth, consciousness and bliss. The creation is for bliss. You can be blissful as a witness, not a doer (without getting involved). You can still be active, but you don’t have to be active in order to be happy, as your happiness is in stillness too- appreciating the world around you and our connection to it.

Today we have boundaries and little bliss in a little box called “me and my life”. The self is not satisfied with little bliss, but more bliss derived from consciousness and stillness. All we need to do is to be able to switch thinking from doing to observing, even during action so that we observe and attend.

The instructor suggested we do an unusual exercise – go for a walk and try to see beauty by being grounded (by paying attention to our feet on the ground and attention to everything around us). Think what you really see, not think of what you saw last time walking down the street.

It is amazing how 15 minutes of a stroll can be so powerful in showing you the beauty of the world we so underestimate. I was walking slowly, making sure I feel my feet touching the ground with every step.

No matter how strange it sounds, but I felt that I have legs! I was so aware of the fact that I’m able to walk and I was appreciative of that, as being able to walk is a luxury to some people.

I paid attention to everything I saw around me. I met one pigeon and two sparrows busy looking for food, several happy dogs, three lonely ghosts, several dozen pumpkins, about twenty humans, and a multitude of buildings and plants…  and one huge sun shining brightly. It was a little cool but it was so pleasant that I couldn’t stop smiling. I went to see a house where I used to live years ago, and I found a new building still under construction instead of my old house. I talked to a man and his son about my living at that house, because I just wanted to share my experience with other humans.

When we came back to class, we all discussed our findings. One woman mentioned that she saw beautiful flowers that she didn’t think were still around in chilly November. We need to appreciate what we have both individually and as a group. There is so much beauty around that is unseen.

We think that if we are not doers, we are not useful and we are not worthy. But even in stillness we can find our usefulness by appreciating others and emitting positive energy. By rushing and thinking negative thoughts, we contaminate the environment with negative energy.

The question is: “Was the Buddha a useful person even if he wasn’t a doer in our modern way?” He said “I’m awake”, and by simply being that we can change the world for better.

by polyachka in Happiness Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

28 Oct 2011 1 Comment

Philosophy Works (Class Six)

Beauty is within and without. Find it!

Class Notes:

What is beauty itself? Is it a different beauty appearing in separate objects, actions or ideas, or it is the same universal beauty shining in a million different forms? Plato taught that there is only one beauty absolute. Wherever we see or know beauty, it is this single absolute beauty that is being experienced in a particular form.

Beauty is everywhere, inside and out. “If there were no beauty in the observer then he would not find beauty outside. The mere fact that beauty is seen proves that there is beauty already present in the being of the observer. Nowhere in creation does beauty stand by itself. The physical or sensory beauty has its foundations in the mental or subtle realm. The physical forms look beautiful because the mind is beautiful.”

Shantanand Saraswati

When we say “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, we must also consider what else is in or behind the eye that will determine our receptivity and appreciation of beauty.

Principles and Practices

-Look for beauty. If you don’t’ see it, look again – and again.

-Practice attention open and attention centered.

Passages for study:

The highest praise for a good theory was not that it was correct, nor that it was exact, but that it was beautiful.

Albert Einstein

He who has been instructed in the things of love, and who has learned to see the beautiful in due order and succession, when he reaches the goal of his journey , will suddenly perceive a wondrous beauty – a beauty which … is everlasting, knowing not birth or death, growth or decay; not beautiful from one point of view or ugly from another… but beauty absolute, existing by and of itself, simple, and everlasting, which is the source of the ever growing and perishing beauty of all other beautiful things, without itself suffering diminution or increase, or any change.

Diotima, Prophetess of Mantinea, teacher of Socrates, Plato, Symposium 212

Years ago there used to be a comedian and he always introduced his act with the words: “Oh, you beautiful people!” In fact, he was quite right, and it was also a rather popular statement, and the audience would shine back with beauty on being reminded… And this beauty, which shines from people when it is allowed out, is the beauty of the Self; all beauty, whatever it shines from, is the beauty of the Self. A thing is never beautiful; It is the Self that is beautiful, and it shines from different things according to their qualities.

Leon MacLaren

Beauty doesn’t change, we can perceive it through physical objects, through our mind or through conduct (Plato). Being on the journey, soul itself partakes in the internal discern of becoming from being.

by polyachka in Happiness Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Hüzün in Istanbul

13 Sep 2011 No Comments

Hüzün in Istanbul

“Hüzün happens when we invest too much in worldly pleasures and material gain. If you hadn’t involved yourself so deeply in this transitory world, you wouldn’t care so much about worldly losses. Hüzün is a spiritual anguish we feel because we can not be close enough to Allah, because we can not do enough for Allah in this world. Hüzün is also when someone has no interest in worldly possessions, but suffers from grief, emptiness and inadequacy because he can never be close enough to Allah. He suffers because he has not suffered enough. Hüzün is in high esteem.

Nothing came to fill the spiritual void. Everyone talks openly about math, success at school, soccer and having fun, but not basic questions of existence – love, compassion, religion, the meaning of life, jealousy, hatred (in trembling confusion and painful solitude). The distance between us (the author and very rich and stupid) was not quite as great as I thought: giving painting to museum or following their passions and living timid mediocre lives. My father wanted to warn me of life of unhappiness I was heading to. A recipe to keep small disaster from me: quick adventure (imagine other Orhan), escape into my second world, paint, fall into a disaster of my own, pick a fight with my brother or count ships.

The main thing I learned at school was not enough to accept the facts of life but you had to be dazzled by their beauty too.

Why I liked painting:

1. Pleasure to draw because it allowed to create miracles everyone appreciated. Get love and praise from others.

2. Escape into another better world.

3. Smell and tools and doing.

4. Create a better world, where you are happy (and perhaps others).

If I prepared to be as bad as I could be I’d be able to paint whenever I liked. Comfort I took in defeat, the damage, the bruises, but then I thought that one day I would do something great.

I forgot the world and played about with my melancholy, its darkness would begin to fade away (when he wrote). Father said that the best thing that a person could do was to live by his own lights – money could never be the object, but if happiness depended on it, it could be a means to that end.

It seemed to me that while we would never find answers to these fundamental questions, it was good for us to ask them anyway, that the happiness and meaning resided in places we would never find and perhaps did not wish to find, but the pursuit (answers, pleasure, emotional depth) mattered no less than the attainment, the asking as important like memories plucked from dreams.”

My favorite parts from “Istanbul” by Orhan Pamuk.

by polyachka in Happiness Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

19 Aug 2011 1 Comment

Forgiveness Class (Part Six)

Then we switched to the second part of the meditation exercise, when we forgive ourselves. I started crying even more, as I realized that I did hurt myself over the years– not eating properly, not working out, stressing out, staying in miserable relationships, being stuck in unsatisfying jobs. Stress was eating me alive from inside out, and I should have released all negativity long time ago, instead of carrying it within me for so long. I forgive myself and I love myself. What’s done is done, but I will not do those things to myself again. I will take care of myself: exercise, eat healthy food, have no negative circles of thoughts damaging my soul. I will protect myself from now on.

In the third part of the meditation, I saw more people I held grudge over the years whom I couldn’t forgive but wanted to forgive. Again I imagined them for what they truly are – people who had a lot of issues themselves and out of fear, pain, anger, and confusion, but mainly out of weakness they acted harmfully, but I had so much love in me suddenly that I was able to forgive them. Let the Universe take care of them. Instead of bad things, I wished them happiness and inner peace that maybe they never had.

Then we were asked to think of five things we are grateful for and five beautiful things.

My five things on the grateful list: my parents, my sister, my friend in the class, myself, and my values and beliefs that keep me going.

My five beautiful things (I had to step out to the window to wipe my tears away and I saw immense beauty around me): sunset, clean air, trees, houses, warmth.

We shared our experiences with other people. The person who sat next to me thought that the sound of a gong was beautiful, the people and plants in the room.

Indeed, what a beautiful world around us.

by polyachka in Happiness Tags: , , , , , , , ,