Shanti Path

This is one of the most important meditative songs that are used in yoga:

Shanti Path

Asato ma sad gamaya
Tamaso ma jyotir gamaya
Mrityor ma amritam gamaya
Saravesham svastir bhavatu
Saravesham shantir bhavatu
Saravesham purnam bhavatu
Saravesham mangalam bhavatu
Lokah samastah sukhino bhavatu
Om trayambakam yajamahe
Sugandhim pushtivardhanam
Urvarukamiva bandhanat
Mrityor mukshiya mamritat
Aum shanti shanti shanti
Peace Chant

Translation

From the unreal lead me to the real
From the darkness lead me to light
From death lead me to immortality
May all beings dwell in happiness
May all beings dwell in peace
May all beings attain oneness
May all beings attain auspiciousness
May all happiness be unto the whole world
We worship the three eyed one (Shiva) who is fragrant and who nourishes all beings. May he liberate us from death (ignorance, belief in our transient nature) for the sake of immortality (knowledge of our immortal nature) even as the cucumber is severed from the vine (that its seeds may be kept).
OM peace peace peace

Next week you won't be allowed to park your bike in Canada Water tube station, why? Don't ask, thank you:

Expensive public transport: YES

Cars: YES

Pollution: YES

Fascism: YES

Intolerance: YES

Wars: YES

Bikes: NO

I wish I was more moomin - minded

Peter Doig

Hoy fué un día de mucho sol y calor en Londres. Por el contrario ayer hizo un frío polar. Hace un par de semanas nevó. Aunque en la mañana estuvimos ayudando a hacer y revisar la traducción de un libro de yoga, Sr. P. y yo salimos a tomar las pocas horas de calor que quedaban del día para ir hacia la Tate Britain, donde se expone la obra de Peter Doig. Una señora que está en el negocio del arte me la recomendó mucho, así que antes de que me agarrara la apatía convencí al Sr. P. para ir -aunque lo que más quería era comer.

Para mi sorpresa el primer cuadro de Doig era de unas ardillas, bajo las cuales estaba una regla de escuela. Pensé que no me iba a gustar nada el trabajo de este artista. En la segunda sala había un cuadro rojo en el que se distinguía un paisaje con un lago y un pequeño barquito solitario. Sobre el cuadro de distintos tonos de rojo había unos puntos negros de pintura muy espesa. Poco a poco descubrí tonos y colores que recordaban a Monet, a Hockney y al mismo Turner. No pensé que todavía hubiera pintores que quisieran explorar la manera en que trabajaron sus antecesores, y me sorprendió ver que es posible hacer pintura con óleo que retrata paisajes de ahora sin tratar de imitar la foto.

Doig se inspira en fotos para hacer sus paisajes, pero no trata de hacer fotos con su pintura. En muchos de sus cuadros sitúa al espectador dentro del paisaje que retrata. Así uno se descubre enmedio de un bosque de pinos frente al cual se distingue un edificio de concreto. O uno siente que está en una pequeña colina con alambre de púas como protección, mientras se observa a un hombre caminar por debajo. En la última sala donde se encuentran sus cuadros hay un paisaje visto desde una ventana en alto y detrás de una cortina de gaza. Los puntos que se esparcen en el cuadro son ahora blancos, y podrían ser los reflejos de las luces de la calle o comentarios que nos recuerdan que lo que estamos viendo no está hecho de gaza sino de óleo sobre tela.

I promised someone somewhere that I wouldn't write stupid things in my blog... such as the one I am thinking of writing right now. I went to the Homeopathic Hospital after two months wait. The doctor was a lovely lady with whom I talked about my health history, my life in London and my parents' happiness. The doctor thinks that I should stop drinking coffee. I told her that I drink like 5 cups a day and she thinks it is a lot of sugar in it that might be affecting my whole system. A Philippine nurse took some blood samples off me and cracked a couple of jokes that relaxed me a little bit. The first thing she asked was, 'have you ever done this before?' I said 'yes, but unlike other nice things it's always like the first time'. Later I walked to Oxford Circus and ended up buying a coffee and a palmier. But i promise that's gonna be the last coffee of the day. El ultimo cafe del dia. My head aches, my heart is beating fast. But i love coffee with sugar.

I haven't posted anything not because I have nothing to say but because I have been lazy. Lots of thoughts burst in my mind everyday though. I think about the Rainbow of desires workshop that I just took with theatre director Augusto Boal, his son Julian and Cardboard Citz director Adrian Jackson. The workshop was damned expensive and I had booked tickets to go to Paris but they called me last minute to say they had a place for me in the workshop and I felt too tempted to do it. It was very different from what I thought and the focus wasn't so much the acting but the therapeutic aspects of theatre, which I always thought were wishy washy -? Boal knows his Shakespeare very well, and his English is impeccable -not like mine- and except when he is directing an actress that isn't giving what he is asking for on-stage, he is a very charming man.

Rainbow of desires is a technique about how to deal with our wishes, as well as the reasons why we don't accomplish our objectives in life. We performed scenes that reenacted our experiences of frustration or powerlessness. it was very liberating and crazy at the same time. Absolutely mental sometimes. I made a scene in which I had lots of 'cops in the head' telling me why I shouldn't do what I wanted to do. To my surprise, amongst my 'cops' was the sweet single lady -solterona- that gave me class of catechism! Boal's technique was very insightful and it involved all the people in the audience. They would often come and change something that they didn't like or they would try to fight with my integrated 'cops'. It was amazing and I had lots of anticuerpos to fight them. And now I should run, to be continued...