I found some amazing meditation videos. I wish I could meet the people who made the videos.

Lord Hanuman mantra
[www.youtube.com]

Shiva meditation, I find this one particularly peaceful
[www.youtube.com]

Ganesh mantra
[www.youtube.com]

"Religion is like the banana skin and spirituality is the banana without the skin."

I'm in luck, I really like bananas.

coco Wrote:
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> "Religion is like the banana skin and spirituality
> is the banana without the skin."


That's awesome coco.

I am not sure what this has to do with the meditation videos.

It was a quote connected to one of the meditation videos. I meant to post a link to a Mantra associated with Vishnu but couldn't find one I liked. Om Namo Narayanaya. Here it is...

[www.youtube.com]

sounds nice. sometimes certain scenes remind me of alaska, I guess just the snow, ice and mountains. I remember that Denali is considered a sacred mountain to athabascans. Its for good reason, you can see denali from anchorage, and also from fairbanks.

But when you are in denali park the mountain itself just looms so large and has such 'energy'. I am surprised it hasn't somehow been included in some sort of special meditation imagery. Perhaps it is and I just don't know about it. I used to always keep a poster of some natural peaceful setting somewhere in my home but just haven kept on in the last few years. Maybe that is why I feel unsettled. (amoung other reasons) I think some taoist sages recommend that or flowers, or something along those lines to help make ones home feel safe. I haven't had many plants either, and I usually keep them. Its my partner who always thinks that plants are doing to be source of dirt or bugs.

Ohhhh, this is one of my favourite artists. The music, it's just mind bending.

[www.youtube.com]

I can see the roti, rice with peas and some lentil and other dishes in small tin bowls on the table. A statue of shiva in somewhere. I don't know why, but I just associate the citar with indian resturants. It seems mandatory to have it playing in the background. I actually like it alot. i suppose it would help If I listened to the music outside of the context of indian resturants.

I actually went to a concert and heard him live, which was a real special treat. I didn't know much about what I was hearing. Every piece sort of sounded like each other. I think its just my understanding of the music is limited.

I am SO jealous.
There was a concert with some supposedly famous and wonderful musician when I was at the yoga ashram but he was just bloody awful, for the first 20 minutes we all thought he was tuning up but that was the song! I left. I love Ravi though, and his daughter is pretty fantastic too. I didn't like spicy food until my late 20s so didn't eat in Indian restos, a BF had traveled in India and brought back some traditional clothes and instruments and recordings of the masters too of course, so that was my exposure to sitar music. It is positively unearthly, I adore it.

Look what I found : [www.youtube.com]
(Nithyananda Satsang 20 Feb 2011)

Coco,
I had heard of Ravi before the concert, but it was more obscure. Like a name that sounded familiar, but yet I didn't remember where I had heard it. I did enjoy the evening very much. A friend brought me there, free, his treat. He had a season pass and they gave him an extra ticket for selected concerts. He brought me.

I thought it was unusual, I listened to this music with a jewish intellectual, graduate from yale. Yet he didn't have the slightest about how to 'listen' to the music. I was kind of beside myself, thinking wow, he doesn't really know how to just listen and enjoy? That was kind of the joy and sometimes a downer with him for me. Going to movies, plays and concerts. There was always a discussion group afterwards, just like the professor he used to be. At times it added to enjoyment of the arts, but at times I just thought aw man, how could you not just feel the raw emotion of these things, or just the sensation of seeing and hearing and experiencing. Sometimes that can be enjoyed just in themselves. Sometimes better that way.

The other thing was that he liked to use terms that I wasn't familiar with, and later would make degrading comments that I had a 'vocabulary of a 5th grader'. I found that hurtful and distracting. I just wanted a friend in him. I didn't want to be in class all the time! I already had finished my college program, and in social settings I didn't feel the need to always get so heady and deep and use such obscure terms that only an english yale professor would use. I correctly assumed that what I studied would not be of interest to him, and that was confirmed on a few occations when he didn't show any interest at all. I left it at that.

Wow, that was healing for me to say that!

I wanted to post some new videos I found. I have discovered a hindu deity Nrsimha. Its an avatar of Vishnu. I found the image of the form of Vishnu in this video, which I found very moving.
[www.youtube.com]
The image for me was actually kind of shocking. It was an image of the lion-headed God looking like it was in battle with a number of people. It made me curious to understand more, so looked it up.

I found the name, and looked it up and found more videos. I just loved the chanting associated with this one, and at first I thought it was something a western convert made up, but it turns out its actually a traditional chanted prayer, but I think its their own version, slightly. Its "safe in meditation". Curiously, one of the comments below mention that they were stictly vegan, and interested in an album associated with it. I have yet to find the album. I hesitate somewhat to post it, but I suppose I could. Please I make a warning that the imagery of Nrsimha is pretty gory. But after I read up on it, the particular imagery is supposed to actually reduce negative emotions, like anger, rage, lust, greed etc....I am not sure how. I guess the answer lies in knowing that story behind the imagery. But without knowing it, maybe one would subconsciously be influenced by it?

"Safe in Meditation-Nrsimha prayers" Including imagery of Nrisimha destroying a human demon. WARNING, rather gory.
[www.youtube.com]