Adi, drawing

An old, old finding in a stray sketchbook

on a bus

Sketchbook scraps: from the 'Learning with Kabir' workshop

"This is the house of love, not a bed of roses.
Cut off your head,
place it on the floor,
then come and sit in it."

On 'nyara':
Linda Hess: The meaning is 'different' or 'other'. Utterly other. Not just different, but different from anything we can conceive.

Bits of 'Sakhiya va ghar sab se nyara':

that house is utterly other...

there's no grief or joy, no truth of lie, no field of good and evil.
there's no moon or sun, no day or night, but brilliance without light.

no wisdom, no meditation, no recitation, no renunciation, no Veda, Quran, or sacred song.
action, possession, social convention, all gone.

where that one lives, there's nothing.
kabir says, I've got it!
if you catch my hint, you find the same place --
no place.




Every day I die singing (Ashok Vajpeyi)
He said, I'm a practitioner of the most perishable art: every day I die singing. That Kumar Gandharva who was singing, that raga Tilak Kamod he sang -- both are dead. Tomorrow again Tilak Koamod will be sung, and Kumar gandharva will sing, but not the same. In music whatever has happened once, by whatever person, may happen again, by that person again, but not the same.

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Prahladji: guru is wisdom, or a 'samajh' -- not necessarily a person.

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We're quick to challenge the authority of a guru, of someone outside, but don't seem to challenge the authority of experience. By this I mean our own particular limited experiences, our opinions, our feelings. The importance of an unconditioned voice (Krishnamurti, the Buddha, Kabir, etc) strikes me. Merely bouncing things off each other or our experience might limit enquiry to the field of experience?

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Kabir wasn't interested in domination.

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Words stronger than bullets.

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The distinction between debate and dialogue.

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Kishori Amonkar: You render a raaga. You do not conquer/control it; you submit to it.

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Relativising everything: there is your truth, my truth, a million truths, and therefore no truth at all!

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"I set out to find evil and found no evil one.
I searched my own self and found no one as evil as I."

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Art/music that arises from suffering and art that arises from silence: Is there a difference?

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Prahladji: Teach them songs. Teach the younger ones songs about love and unity. Teach the older ones songs about the conflict in the world.

:)

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Vishakha shared a lovely story about a leaf and a clay ball, which I will share with you through the little illustrated book I'm making for a friend! :). Here's one page:

A joke book for Chintan!

It all started with telling Chintan this joke, which I heard from KJ:

What did the Buddhist say to the hot dog vendor?

"Make me one with everything."...!

The Buddhist paid the hot dog vendor and the hot dog vendor moved to the next customer. When the Buddhist asked for change, the hot dog vendor said.....

"Change comes from within!"

Quick sketches of people...

Come to the Edge

The book of poems Angie and I put together for Adi on his last birthday (though now a little wet and smudged). The title comes from this poem:

Come to the Edge

by Guillaume Apollinaire

"Come to the edge."

"We can't. We're afraid."

"Come to the edge."

"We can't. We will fall!"

"Come to the edge."

And they came.

And he pushed them.

And they flew.

Drawings on trains

On the Delhi metro:

Delhi - Bangalore:

Bangalore - Chennai:

Chennai - Bangalore:

At the RTO

'Living' - a long-ago drawing