Tuesday, October 22, 2013

National Novel Writing Month

So I am thinking about doing Nanowrimo again... For those of you who don't know, it is an online competition that challenges participants to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days (during the month of November). Below is the idea I am working with. Have the outline all done. Fingers crossed I have the time (and energy) to do it!


40 Drops of Rain

Synopsis


When Adam awakes in a foreign city, he is disillusioned and in pain. He struggles to remember who he is or how he got himself into his current predicament. His confusion increases exponentially when he realizes the city he is in is filled with beings he cannot comprehend. The citizens of Sunya appear to be formless opaque beings with no distinguishable features and a robotic mentality. As Adam struggles to gain his bearings he pursues his most basic needs, water, food, shelter. Adam quickly realizes that his actions for fulling his desires seem to have a direct effect on how he perceives the citizens of Sunya. His need to understand this world and the people in it lead him on a dark, yet grandiose, path in the black markets of Sunya. His rise to glory within the city's alleys and drug trade seems to give him everything he is looking for, but what really happens to us when all our desires are fulfilled? 

This novel focuses on the human condition and how our decisions build our perception of our environment and what happens when our perceptions are shattered. 

40 Drops of Rain is a story of desire and redemption, questioning how far we will go to define the world around us.

Excerpt

In the void he was formless. No memory. No knowledge. Only void.

Floating among nothing and everything, he was nothing and he was everything. This is where he waited. Where we all wait. A drop of rain in an endless ocean, where jetsam and flotsam have no name, have no substance. Where currents are not pulled by the revolution of the moon, but by the hearts of men. 

In the darkness a storm arises from the void. Starting as a steam on the endless ocean it rises, growing exponentially outside of time. Like a colossus it emerges, roaring with peals of thunder as it swirls over the ocean, with form and without. A million voices cry out in joyous anticipation, a question of whose time has finally come. With its fiery hand he is retrieved. A drop of desire waiting an eternity to be absorbed into the plane of form. He is born from the dark waters, ascending into the raging storm. The stars have to shield their eyes, blinded, as he glistens with the placenta of the void. In a momentary balance between a shell and a being he is filled with love, a final embrace from the universe, and his only hope of return. 

In a final display of power the storm expands into infinity and collapses on itself, tearing at the fabric of reality. In a blinding flash of light, it is gone. The desires of men tremble in its wake. In love and sadness they enter back into the void. 

In the void he was formless.

A Return To The CyberSphere?

اسلمُ اليكام

This is an attempt to re-vamp my blogsphere. I have been filled with the interest to begin sharing my words and life again through my long forgotten blog. This is part of a current self-realization and re-definition phase I am going through/working on.

Instead of a long update on my current life I will post a synopsis with a miscellaneous list of words I would use to define my current life:

RVA | Downtown | VCU (Still) | Religious Studies (Still) - Islamic Studies and Arabic | Gay - Engaged | Fashion | Illume | Modeling | Wine | Interior Design | Wine Club | Spiritual | Cosmopolitan | Audiophile | Urbanphile | Foodie | Traveler | Languages | Bookworm | Art | Sensual | Empathetic | Coffee | Thrifting | EMTJ | Instagram - @sirenum_oculi | Socialite  | Party | Middle East | Anthropology | Sociology | Jung | Plato | Cats | Alexander McQueen | DownTempo | Treasure Hunting | Opportunist | Optimistic |

In theory any followers still on board should begin to see article pertaining to the above list and more rantings. I am not sure how this will play out, but you can be assured that if you follow along it will be a hell of a ride.

XOXO,
Steven
_______________________________________
Current Fads - Modeling, Wine Club, Ties, Thrifting, Re-inventing, Moderation
Listening. Running From the Sun - Chromatics
Activity. "Studying"
Newest Find. Pioneer Audio System - Stackable, Floor Speakers, (SIK) - $60.00 - Pieced Thrifting
News Source. aljazeera.com
Reading. A Fag For Her Fifties - B MacGreggor | Islamism - Strinberg & Warn
Writing. "How the Cliques Stole Pride" - Article

Monday, August 15, 2011

The Basilica Of The National Shrine of The Immaculate Conception

In the spring I visited The Basilica Of The National Shrine of The Immaculate Conception, in Washington D.C. It was fantastic! The energy inside was phenomenal, it held the air of sacred like no place I have been before, including The Vatican. I recommend you read more about it here, and plan a visit soon! Here are some pictures I took while there:
















Monday, September 6, 2010

The Sacred Architecture of LOTUS

Last weekend I went to the LOTUS temple at Satchidananda Ashram in Yogaville, VA. At noon every day they have a thirty minute meditation in the main temple. Upon entering the shrine immediately feelings of peace and serenity wash over you.

The kundalini and chakras.
"Just as in the human body there is the kundalini—the spiritual energy that moves from the base of the spine through the chakras (spiritual centers) to the top of the head, heralding spiritual realization—the energy of the LOTUS moves from the base of the foundation to the top spire. The two spiral staircases that wind upward from the ground level to the upper level of the sanctuary represent the ida and pingala, two of the subtle nerve channels. These channels crisscross the sushumna—the third nerve channel that moves up the spinal column. At the points where they intersect, we find the chakras, represented by yantras within the LOTUS. The LOTUS has seven yantras. The structure itself is a yantra and it contains six more yantras from the foundation up to the ceiling of the sanctuary—one above the other, all in line, going through the central core (sushumna)." - LOTUS.org

This is the yantra in the foundation of LOTUS.
At the center of the shrine, placed directly into the foundation there are crystals from all over the world, holy water and holy soil from all over the world, and a peace yantra. This yantra represents the root or muladhara chakra.


"One World"



 Directly above the yantra in the foundation is the "One World" sculpture, which depicts all races, ages, and genders. Directly above that statue is another yantra, in the ceiling of the lobby- further carrying the energy from the foundation up into the main shrine. This yantra represents the svadhisthana or second chakra.
Yantra in the ceiling of the lobby.

The central altar.

"Directly above the yantra is the main altar in the temple. Inside the altar is an embedded yantra, it represents the third or manipura chakra. This chakra is the power center of the body, just as it is the core of the altar. The altar itself represents the fourth or anahata chakra representing the heart center. Erupting out of the altar is a beam of lightUpstairs, on the sanctuary level of the Shrine














is the third yantra (also in line with this central core) which is embedded inside the center altar. This yantra represents the
manipura chakra, the power center (fire). The fourth yantra is in the form of the center altar that holds the central light. This is the fourth chakra, the anahata or heart center (air). The outer gates of the yantra are open and represent the infinite nature of God’s manifestation; the three gunas (elements of nature) are represented by the circles on the central altar in stone. The black carved granite star holds live flames (fire). The bindu (dot in the center of the yantra) is the central light in the sanctuary. It is moving energy, filled with a liquid containing bubbles that rise to the top of the dome through the air element. This shows us the path our lives should take—if we can move toward higher aspirations, our lives will be more peaceful and, thus, inspiring to others." - Lotus.org

The beam of light goes through the fifth yantra (representing prana and apana or the flow of upward and downward energy) in the ceiling and erupts. The beams of light descending down to individual shrines for the different religions of the world.

The sixth chakra or ajna is represented by the circular clerestory of windows. The seventh and final chakra (sahasrara) is represented by the spire on top of the temple, radiating the energy out and into the world.









This is an arial view of the shrine, you can see the yantra symmetry in the entire design.

The entire temple radiates with a sacred energy, that encompasses anyone who visits it. Its sacred architecture further enhances the amazing spiritual energy present.

All information derived from LOTUS.org and personal tours/visits of Satchidananda Ashram, Yogavile, VA.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: Samadhi Pada, Sutra 2


योगश्चित्तवृत्तिनिरोधः ॥ २॥

yogaś citta vṛttini rodhaḥ

 

2. Yogas meaning Yoga, citta (or chitta) means the workings of the mind, vrttini means fluctuations or changes, and rodhah means restraint. 

Lit. translation: Restraint on the modifications of the mind is Yoga. 

 

Swami Satchidananda says that the entire philosophy of Yoga can be summed up with this one sutra, and that all the following sutras are just explanations and embellishments on this one sutra. The meaning is simple, yet complex; deep, yet shallow. By watching the course of your mind, you can see that when your mind is in its natural state, that is when you are content. When a desire arises you try and fulfill it, when you have justified to yourself the task is complete, then you are back in the state of contentment.

 

Through Yoga we learn practices to restrain the "modifications of the mind" and therefore stay in the state of contentment.

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Exploring The Yoga Sutras - 1

I am reading the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, perhaps the most widely revered and practiced sutras dealing with Yoga as a comprehensive guide to the mind. The Yoga I speak of here is not the western concepts of bodily contortion for health and flexibility(which is a vital part of Yoga, but only a small part, called Hatha Yoga), but is the ancient practice of Yoga as a path to spiritual enlightenment.

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali is arguably the "bible" or canonical text of Yogic practice, to many if not all Yoga practitioners. I will choose a sutra (meaning thread or verse)  every couple of days to contemplate and comment on. I will begin at the beginning.

1. ओूपो बदुोलहेोेोलोस
Atha Yogānuśāsanaṁ.
Atha meaning now, Yoga meaning yoga of course, and ānuśāsanaṁ meaning instruction.

So basically it translates to simply this will teach you Yoga.

When I opened the book and read this it said now is the time for you to learn Yoga. The education shall commence.

Imaginaton

As I was driving today I began thinking about what it means to "imagine" something in our times today. The thought that struck me was this, can we actually create something completely our own, or in our minds do we re-appropriate images and instances we have experienced in our lives or in the media?


Is there ever a time when we can truly create something in our minds that we have no prior memory of. We can imagine a scenario whose probability is somewhere in the 1:1000000000 region, but is any of that scenario something we are completely unfamiliar with? Can we as humans create something within our conscious that has never existed there before?

Just a thought.


Current Fads
Listening. Makes Me Wonder - Maroon 5
Activity. Budgeting
Gadget. HTC Hero
Reading. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
Writing. Numbers... lots of them.