Among other talented artists Amar Ujala (a Hindi Daily) featured our meditation experiments today appreciating all efforts spreading art and positivity esp. during #COVID19 #Corona related #Lockdown đźđâĽď¸âď¸
#InTheNews
Among other talented artists Amar Ujala (a Hindi Daily) featured our meditation experiments today appreciating all efforts spreading art and positivity esp. during #COVID19 #Corona related #Lockdown đźđâĽď¸âď¸
#InTheNews
A proud moment.. my sis‘ first song with guitar đ oh am so proud! đ
Jhuki jhuki si nazar đ #âGhazal #âUnplugged #âAcoustic #âGuitar #âFridayNight #âMaahaul đ
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Join in at YouTube for #âMusic #âTravel and more #âjoyous and #âdestressing moments @ YouTube.com/AdityaPathakUtube đ #âJashnHaiZindagi
Perhaps the best ‘artist collaboration’ one can ever have đ Recorded mom recently for our new meditation/healing music soundscape đ She played the singing bowls and chimes ..awesome experience ..a special one indeed đ Working on the mix and the video now.. will share soon @ our YouTube channel đ Cheers n blessings for all! đ
Much recently I’ve been reading about nurturing creative thinking, innovation and out-of-the-box thinking and how some purposeless and light and artful team-engagements can positively contribute to a team’s creativity. Some like to call this “planned spontaneity” ..and I like this phrase too đ
We are celebrating “Culture Week” at my organization this month where we celebrate “Diversity and Inclusion” in all it’s form and spread awareness about the same. This involves various fun as well as informative workshops and activities that help in spreading awareness about the matter.
In my parallel world, outside office that is :), since past few years I’ve been video-blogging extensively about a lot of ancient and medieval heritage and archaeological sites in and around my city…mostly on weekends. And seeing my video and photo blogs on social media, my office friends have often expressed their liking for such excursions and heritage/photo-walks….and how every time they are not able to find time for doing something that they like!
One fine day recently.. I was reading some articles on the web about best practices for nurturing Planned Spontaneity in Corporates when the “Culture Week” invitation mailer arrived in my inbox. The mailer mentioned about a “Photography Competition” with “Diversity and Inclusion” as the key theme. I suddenly saw some dots getting connected and thought that what if I take my team out for a heritage/photo-walk on a weekend …where we just walk sedately on the grass, take some candid snaps and also learn about how the culture has shaped up since the ancient ages through the medieval and modern times! I was perhaps very hopeful that this activity will help us experience some moments of planned spontaneity and creativity which we’ll be able to apply at our office work as well…and also will fetch us some nice shots for the photo-competition đ
I floated the idea with the team after our daily meeting and some of them seemed to like it….and it was fun to see the enthusiasm grow as the weekend arrived đ We chose the Mehrauli Archaeological Park for our visit – it is a place that has been a major settlement ever since the ancient and medieval times and has seen so many human civilizations come and go! The area is still an active hub for archaeologists in this town and is literally littered with ruins from the ancient Indian empires, the Sultanate period as well as the British empire!
We reached the site early morning on a Saturday …roamed around…discussed about the history of the place..clicked snaps..played badminton and Frisbee.. had moments of hearty laughs.. and the heritage/photo walk was followed by some awesomely delicious authentic traditional food đ It was fun to see grown-up “Engineers” playfully roam around like kids mimicking birds, enjoying the magic of trick-photography, clicking selfies and photographing cute little dogs and piglets apart from the monuments and ruins in that ridge!
The team seemed to have loved the experience and I’ve treasured some of these moments in the photos shown below. Really looking forward to more moments of such planned spontaneity ahead đ Amen!
Here’s an illustration of how to make a simple movie using Apple iMovie.
In this 3 part video series we discuss some basics/tips/tricks/concepts of video editing esp for Beginners. Part 1 of the 3 part series discusses the Hows and Whys of video editing and some simple concepts and theory. Part 2 illustrates a simple video editing project using Apple iMovie. Part 3 illustrates a simple editing project using Windows Movie Maker.
There’s another video that we shared some time back where we discuss the Basics of Film Making (Planning, Shooting and esp shooting with digicams and phone cameras).
Hope this helps folks across the globe đ Best wishes!
I’ve loved listening/reading about a few newer perspectives on MUSIC. Compiled some of them here:
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MUSIC COMES CLOSEST..
Music has tremendous power. It can possess. It can almost make you ecstatic.
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To me, music and meditation are two aspects of the same phenomenon. And without music, meditation lacks something; without music, meditation is a little dull, unalive. Without meditation, music is simply noise â harmonious, but noise. Without meditation, music is an entertainment. And without music, meditation becomes more and more negative, tends to be death-oriented. Hence my insistence that music and meditation should go together. That adds a new dimension â to both. Both are enriched by it.
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Music has been used by many religions as an approach towards prayer â because music will make your ears more vibrant, more sensitive. One has to become more of the ears and less of the eyes.
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Real music helps you to transcend your biology, your physiology, your psychology. Real music takes you to the world of the beyond â what Buddha calls the farther shore, even beyond the beyond.
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Music comes closest to meditation. Music is a way towards meditation and the most beautiful way. Meditation is the art of hearing the soundless sound, the art of hearing the music of silence â what the Zen people call the sound of one hand clapping. When you are utterly silent, not a single thought passes your mind, there is not even a ripple of any feeling in your heart. Then you start, for the first time, hearing silence. Silence has a music of its own. It is not dead, it is very much alive, it is tremendously alive. In fact, nothing is more alive than silence. Music helps you from the outside to fall in tune with the inner. Music is a device; it was invented by the buddhas. All that is beautiful in the world, all that is valuable in the world has always been discovered by the buddhas.
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There is much more than music, because music is after all sound, and there is silence too. Music is beautiful but you should not forget silence. Dance is beautiful, but there is something beyond it: an absolute unmoving state of consciousness⌠no dance. There are beauties and beauties⌠and there are categories. Music and dance are very physical. As far as they go they are beautiful, but one should not get stuck with them, one should not be stopped by them. They should open the door for the higher realm. For example, if you are really a lover of music, soon music will be forgotten and you will be entering into silence. If you are really in deep attachment with dance, soon the dance has to disappear, so that you can be in an unmoving state of being.
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When you are listening to music, what really touches your heart is not the sound but the gap between two sounds. How to bring that gap to your heart is the whole art of music. But if a man can bring that gap just by his presence, and you fall into deep silence, you will know the real music. Then you will know that what you used to think of as music was only a preliminary training. And the same is true about dancing, the same is true about every creative art. What it appears to be is not the reality; it is just a device so that you can become aware of something intangible, hidden, beyond. But to love music is good, to love dance is good, to play music is good, to dance is good â but remember, that is not the end. You have to go far â away from music, away from dance â to understand the real beauty of any creative art. Every creative art brings you to your innermost being where there is just calmness, utter quietness, absolute silence.
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Sometimes you hear music and the mind stops. The music surrounds you, you are drowned in it. You are no more there. Just a transparent presence: the music goes through and through. In that moment, it is not only music that is happening; it is religion. But you donât recognize it.
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Music will make you silent, will make you disappear, will make you almost absent. Only the music will be there, not the musician â because in meditation the musician cannot exist. And if you are listening, soon you will find yourself melting, disappearing. It will create a new space within you. It has come out of meditation, and anyone who listens to it will feel something of meditation.
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Music helps you from the outside to fall in tune with the inner. Music is a device; it was invented by the buddhas. All that is beautiful in the world, all that is valuable in the world has always been discovered by the buddhas. Only they can discover because they have traveled the inner country, the inner, immeasurable universe. Whatsoever they have found in the inner world, whatsoever they have experienced in the inner world, they have tried to make something similar on the outside for those who can only understand that which is objective, who are not yet able to enter the interiority of their own being, who are not yet even aware that there is an inner world. Devices can be created on the outside which can help.
Listening to great music you suddenly become silent â with no effort. Falling in tune with the music you lose your ego with no effort. You become relaxed, you fall into a deep rest. You are alert, awake, and yet in a subtle way drunk.
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Listening to the music of the winds as they pass through the pine trees, what can you understand? Or listening to the sound of running water, what can you understand? Or looking at a beautiful sunset and all the colors spread over the horizon, what can you understand? What do you understand? But something happens which is far more precious than understanding. You fall in love, you feel it, you become it.
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If you want to enjoy classical Indian music you will have to learn. You cannot just go and enjoy it, it needs a certain preparation in you, it needs a certain receptivity in you. It is not vulgar. It needs a certain understanding in you⌠a deep understanding of sounds and silence â because music consists of sound and silence. It is not only sound, it contains silence in it. The music becomes higher and deeper when it contains more silence in it. When it provokes your silence, when it penetrates your heart and releases your inner silence, when listening to it your mind disappears, your thoughts stopâŚ. But then you will have to learn, you will have to go through a certain discipline, you will have to become more meditative. One day you will be able to enjoy it. But if you want to enjoy it right now and you are not ready for it, donât blame it.
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A song has not to be thought about. If you start thinking, about a song, you are already missing it. When you listen to music, how do you listen? Do you bring your mind in? If you bring your mind in, where is the music? Music and the mind both cannot exist together. That is the mystery of music: you have to put your mind aside. You cannot argue with music; you cannot nod your head in agreement or disagreement. You cannot say, âYes, I agree,â or âNo, I donât agree.â There is no question of agreement or no agreement. With music you simply become one. If you want to feel it you have to put your head aside. The heart has to open towards it. It goes directly to the heart, it showers on the heart. It helps the flower of the heart to open and bloom. It is a nourishment for the inner lotus.
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Gurdjieff used to call real art âobjective art.â Modern art is not, in that sense, objective art. In the past the awakened masters have used all kinds of devices: painting, sculpture, music, dance, drama. Every kind of device has been used to help you, because there are different types of people who can be helped in different ways: somebody through music, somebody through painting, somebody through poetry.
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Most of these quotes are sourced from various dicourses by Osho. One particular series that I loved is “The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha, Vol. 12” .
Thanks and best wishes.
-Aditya