some signs... but pointing to what?

Sign #1:
So yesterday I wrote a pretty toxic post about Aidil Fitri, with full intentions to post it once ready. However, once it was ready [over an hour after starting to type...], something made me "ctrl-a ctrl-c" before hitting publish... and whaddaya know, Blogger was down and everything I'd typed would have been totally lost.

So I pasted that toxicity into a Word file. But by the time I was up and about this morning, I'd figured out a better, less toxic way to say what I'd spewed yesterday. And by the time I was surfing around the net this morning, I figured I was better off not posting what I'd written anyway, for so many reasons.

So instead, I'll just link you to my post of TWO YEARS AGO that raises some of the same things I'd typed, minus the depth, flashbacks and much of the toxicity.

And for those to whom Aidil Fitri actually *means* something beyond the superficial, please allow me to wish you and yours:

SELAMAT AIDIL FITRI

Disagree that this is a "sign"? You're entitled to your opinion, of course - I just think that I was "saved" from posting something that I knew was actually too truthful and too blunt to be consumed by anyone who actually knows me, especially those who know me from school / work / Malaysian side of my family.

Intrigued? Wanna know what I actually wrote?? Too bad :-)


Sign #2:
I've mentioned that I've started reading books again. When I entered the library with the intention of checking out one or two tomes for the first time, I did not have any specific books in mind. I just browsed the shelves, running my eyes over the books but not really reading the titles or anything... then my eye stopped on Yann Martel's Life of Pi.

I remembered that I'd wanted to read this for the longest time already, but from reading the cover I wasn't confident that it was something worth the cost of the book [in Malaysia I didn't have a library to frequent.. if I wanted to read a book, I had to buy it!]. But hey, it was available for check-out, so I grabbed it and another book, checked them out, and headed back, where I proceeded to read the other book first.

Then came my meditative weekly yoga class in town. Again, it was just me and the "instructor" [let's call him Nick], who is very keen to give me what are essentially advanced tutorials because of my affinity for the system [for lack of a better word]. So that day, he overdid it. Sure, the system originates from India, and yes, the founder might draw on personae and characters more familiar to the Indian collective... but to then teach mantras in Indian [i assume it is in Hindi, actually, but don't actually know-know],,, and to "call on" characters predominantly from Indian myths and lore that I totally don't relate to,,, ,,, heck, that's part of my problem with how religion is taught, where you memorise sounds but don't really know what they mean.

Anyways - so I questioned the validity of drawing mainly on the Indian pantheon, and poor Nick had to go through a LOT of explanations to appease me. An important thing to understand was that the mantras were essentially calling on the "properties/ characteristics" associated with the specified "deity"/"character"/persona, and not on the deity/character/persona itself. For example, calling on Ganesha [considered the master of intellect and wisdom] when focussing on the bottom-most chakra, which, surprise surprise, is associated with [innocence and] wisdom.

I found it amusing that all these associations were Indian in nature, except for "Shri Mary Jesus" [in association with chakra dealing with forgiveness - which makes sense except that technically it was Jesus, more than his mother, who is associated with that character, right?]

I also questioned where someone like the Prophet Mohammed would be: so he's lumped together with 9 other gurus [Nick couldn't remember who most of the others were], associated with the self-mastery chakra. These gurus may have had different messages, but they all dealt with different aspects of life and essentially preached self-mastery. Interestingly, Islam istelf can be associated with the chakra located at the throat which deals with charisma, collective communication and can be blocked due to "guilt".

Anyways - Nick conceeded that mantras weren't set in stone or anything. In fact, I could substitute any person/character I wanted into the mantra, if I had anyone/anything in mind that had qualities associated with the various chakras. The challenge for me was that I didn't really have any. So while I would be more than fine continuing as I have using English and addressing the chakras' qualities directly, it certainly wouldn't hurt for me to educate myself on the Indian pantheon of deities, nor to brush up on past "messengers" and their "messages". After all, it's not much use saying "all religions have the right idea" when I don't actually know what these religions are saying, eh? [note, when i say religion i am not limiting myself to those "of The Book", k?]

Okay, so how does this tie in with Life of Pi?

Well, I started reading it the day after the yoga session,,, and was amazed to find that the book is set initially in India, and the character is a Hindu so you get a flavour of that perspective... then he also becomes a Christian, and later a [Sufi] Muslim; he essentially subscribes to different attributes of the different religions and sees no conflict in believing in and practicing all three.

The "sign"? It just seemed to resonate with the message from the day before of understanding the lessons of different religions.


Sign #3:
On my most recent trip to the library, I picked up Christopher Moore's Fluke: Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings: again, it wasn't something I'd set out to borrow, but I'd noticed the long/unusual title on maybe Life of Pi's amazon page, so I recognised the title when skimming the shelves that day.

Started reading it yesterday - didn't get too far, but far enough to already appreciate the use of a hydrophone, and that the whales' tails/flukes are used as identifiers.

And last night, after dinner, refusing to watch more Family Guy / American Dad tapes due to overdoes/overload, I ended up watching some PBS.

A show about whales. and flukes. and hydrophones. [and lots of other things too, of course! would have been a lame show otherwise].

That was kinda cool :-)

More resonance of sorts ;-)

= = = =

So, the title of this post is "some signs... but pointing to what?"

I'd like to think of the above as indications of a greater collective uniting all-pervasive force out there... something that interacts with and impacts us in ways we don't even realise. Yes, even through apparently random book choices in your local library ;-)

Cheers!