For those of you not familiar with TED Talks here is a brief summery of them from www.ted.com:
TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with two annual conferences — the TED Conference in Long Beach and Palm Springs each spring, and the TEDGlobal conference in Oxford UK each summer — TED includes the award-winning TEDTalks video site, the Open Translation Project and Open TV Project, the inspiring TED Fellows and TEDx programs, and the annual TED Prize.
Today’s video addresses the issues of light and dark, specifically in architecture, but also in life. According to www.ted.com:
Lighting architect Rogier van der Heide offers a beautiful new way to look at the world — by paying attention to light (and to darkness). Examples from classic buildings illustrate a deeply thought-out vision of the play of light around us.light
Lighting designer Rogier van der Heide creates (and oversees) engaging, inspiring, three-dimensional design that fuses light, image projection, architecture and product design to create a memorable, authentic experience. He’s been internationally recognized as one of the leading architectural lighting design specialists. He’s the Chief Design Officer for Philips Lighting; before that, he was Director at Arup and Global Business Leader Lighting Design of Arup Lighting.
Enjoy this video and contemplate how darkess, on all levels. serves you in your life.
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I look forward to your thoughts and comments!
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Today’s post is courtesy of Article Legacy (Note: this article was clearly translated into English. I have taken the liberty of correcting grammar and awkward sentence structure.)
The idea that painting and graphics have the ability to influence the spiritual state of a person has been known from the ancient times and is also proved by the latest scientific researches. In India special graphic images for entrance to the state of trance have gotten the name “jantra” or mandala. Meditation with mandalas allows one to carry these images to your consciousness in the visual form, to consolidate them and also to come to higher levels of the spontaneous, “direct” perception of the objects of meditation and the whole world in general. Besides, in mandalas within the graphic forms many esoteric aspects of secret teaching have been coded, these teachings show that with every new experience a mandala can show new sides of its inner sense to a student and aid in spiritual awakening.
The methodology of mediation.
1. Sit down in a meditative pose and relax. Calm your breathing, taking it into your control.
2. Concentrate on the image of the mandala. The mandala has to be placed on the level of your eyes at distance of 2-8 inches (depending on the size of the drawing).
3. Imagine that while taking deep breathes, you bring into yourself the innermost essences of the mandala, and breathing out you get rid of all negative thoughts. In 30 seconds to one minute of this “figurative” breathing you will stop paying attention to breathing, as if it does not exist at all or is some insignificant attribute of your body form.
4. Keep opening to the inner sense of the mandala.
5. Try to open to the meaning and properties of very part of the mandala by isolating it separate elements.
6. Come back to the complex generalized perception. The mandala is not just a disorderly set of some symbols. There is its own special sense in this combination and connection of the parts of the mandala. Try to perceive this sense.
7. If you feel yourself tired, stop the exercise, be satisfied with what you have found out about the mandala (“from the mandala”) at the given moment. Take your attention to your breath, repeat “AUM” three times and stand up slowly.
What does this exercise give to you? First of all it is really a great relaxation. You spend about fifteen twenty minutes doing this exercise but after it you will feel as if you had been having rest for several hours. Your abilities in figurative thinking become much better also.
Texts of mantras you will easily find on the Internet, as for a mandala itself you also can find the drawings in Internet, but it would be much better if you draw a mandala yourself. It is very easy and your own mandala will work much better for you.
The current world is the world of rush and urgent matters. We hardly can find a minute to stop and think about the Universe and our inner selves. In this case mandalas could help you divert away from routine and contemplate for a while.
Please make sure to get back to this web site, Article Legacy on a regular basis to find information on a variety of topics.
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There are a variety of mandalas online and for purchase in my Zazzle Store which could be used for meditation. If you have not already visited my Video page, please do as you will find a number of moving mandala images for use in meditation. You can also download these videos to your computer by visiting my Freebies page.
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I look forward to your thoughts and comments!
Be sure to Subscribe to this blog either by RSS or Email via the forms on the top right column of the page.
For those of you not familiar with TED Talks here is a brief summery of them from www.ted.com:
“TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with two annual conferences — the TED Conference in Long Beach and Palm Springs each spring, and the TEDGlobal conference in Oxford UK each summer — TED includes the award-winning TEDTalks video site, the Open Translation Project and Open TV Project, the inspiring TED Fellows and TEDx programs, and the annual TED Prize.”
Today I have picked a talk from TEDxAustin by Robyn O’Brien. According to TEDxTalks:
Robyn shares her personal story and how it inspired her current path as a “Real Food” evangelist. Grounded in a successful Wall Street career that was more interested in food as good business than good-for-you, this mother of four was shaken awake by the dangerous allergic reaction of one of her children to a “typical” breakfast. Her mission to unearth the cause revealed more about the food industry than she could stomach, and impelled her to share her findings with others. Informative and inspiring.
Robyn authored “The Unhealthy Truth: How Our Food Is Making Us Sick and What We Can Do About It.” A former Wall Street food industry analyst, Robyn brings insight, compassion and detailed analysis to her research into the impact that the global food system is having on the health of our children. She founded allergykidsfoundation.org and was named by Forbes as one of “20 Inspiring Women to Follow on Twitter.” The New York Times has passionately described her as “Food’s Erin Brockovich.”
For those of you not familiar with TED Talks here is a brief summery of them from www.ted.com: