beautiful last line....

Dear Indira,
Earlier this month, I had stopped at a bookstore, while on the way home from an errand. I didn't plan to stay but a moment, but as I came towards the door, a weather-beaten man looked at me, and said 'hello'. Just 'hello'. I stopped, really looked at him. I said, 'it is so hot, are you o.k'. He said, 'I am thirsty'. I told him, 'I will have some change and water for you, when I am return'.

He was there, when I came out the door. He said 'thank you' to my gift. 'No one has even said hello to me, til you'.

Thank you for sharing your post, and to know, there are many more chances to give, and I have found, to give a smile, or caring acknowlegdement, are as necessary as a goodie bag.

Love,
~Kate

LOL Indira,
Now I know the secret behind your nick, "ichatteralot",.........you are a "Chatter"ji!!

Yeah, you're right, opportunities for giving don't come too often. Rajneesh Osho had an interesting take on giving. He said that contrary to the popular practice of the receiver thanking the giver, it should be the giver who should thank the receiver. Becoz the receiver could have said "No" to you.......but s/he didn't.

Cheers!
Navin

Dear Indira and Kate,
You girls touched my heart.
Love,
Donatella

It is nice meeting you Indira. Your article reminded me of what happened this Friday. I was trying to be in time for a flight, and as I was opening the car door I felt Penny's(my dog) paw on my shin, looked down at a wet dog and said,"no penny" and drove off. I was trying to read the new book I had picked, and two soulful eyes and a look haunted me the entire flight.I am sitting here, in my daughter's apartment in Manhatten, writing this, and my heart aches for my dog, and I wish I had stopped and petted her before I left. Thank you.

humm ...

opportunities we take for granted ...

forgeting ...

they are calling us ...

to be on purpose ...

broken promises ...

scars of the heart ...

and yet ...

so perfect ...

they are ...

a call ...

to break free...

from this indifference ...

of the dead ...

the song of the beggar I once heard ...

a voice so pure ...

it still vibrates ...

right here ...

inside of me ...

and yet ...

captured by illusions ...

coldly ...

I left ...

oh ..

"The pianist "

the story of a musician...

who made his survival ...

a masterpiece ...

knowing ...

there is no return ...

when the miracle ...

is over ...

Hello Indira,

It is good to finally meet you!

I admire your courage to take on a 'Weekly'.

"One of these days", I tell myself,

Me2 will be brave and stick his neck out, as you have.

It is generous of you, a gift of your time for us.

.

Some of the wisdom in the Bible is quite irrational.

What comes to my mind from your essay is this verse,

"Give away all that thou hast, then thou shalt receive."

I wonder even at the possibility of accomplishing

such a feat...to give it all that ya got,

completely and thoroughly, 100% empty.

Do I, or have I ever even tried, really,

holding absolutely nothing back,

giving no thought to a loss or a reward?

Don't we always have in the back of our minds,

have the thought of 'good' Karma to make up for the 'bad'?

Oh, just once, to be able to give out of instant sympathy,

compassion and mercy for another soul,

before we screw it up and 'think' about it.

It is an illogical request to our pocket-books

and our precious time.

Isn't that why we call it Wisdom?

It seems so wrong that it has to be right!

'The name of the rose'

" believing in God but trading with the Devil"

what sustains?

God's whispering ...

come to me ...

with what remains ...

the fragrance ...

this love ...

a earthly pulse ...

we often fail ...

to know ...

its name ...

Sometimes I aim my disgust at myself and sometimes I aim my disgust at the beggar. Either way, the outcome is the same.

I wish I could save the whole world from suffering, but I cannot for I can't even awaken my own soul.

So I think I'll be like everyone else and just keep doing the best that I can.

Love, Kristin

Dear Kristin,
Doing your best is good enough.
Love,
Donatella

It's always a judgement call.

There's a lot of beggars, and it's impossible to minister to them all, or even any one of them regularly (unless your job is to do so and you've been assigned to their case).

For every one hundred beggars, maybe we give to one.

For every one hundred people who pass a beggar maybe one gives something.

They trigger issues in our consciousness. Most of us could lose our livelihoods with a turn of misfortune, and are therefore much closer to the beggar than we think.

In the USA, the average working person is approximately 90 days from homelessness. That is the point at which most creditors pull the plug on services.

I am not joking. I have met homeless ex-microsoft programmers, who lost their job during the dot com bust. Not your typical dropout, but really, how much control do we have against economic downturns?

Ford is about to offer buyouts to 75,000 people. How many of them will end up homeless? We're talking about auto engineers here, not vagrants. Most of them will have to take jobs that pay a fraction of what Ford was paying, and give up their benefits. A lot of them, no doubt, are the primary support for a family. How will that impact their children?

What if a huge hurricane hits NYC like it did New Orleans? Or Bombay? 9-11, not to mention the recent war in Lebanon, instantly destroyed the lives of thousands of people. How secure are you, really?

I met one lady from Austria, she was a homeless opera composer. She had acquired a disability, and that had turned her life upside down. Every music history student is taught about Mozart. He died homeless and broke. Are you more immune to misfortune than Mozart?

Our "security" is largely illusory, but as long as our little bubble isn't popped we think we're "secure."

So putting yourself mentally in the beggar's shoes is something to consider. What if your industry went belly-up? And that was you standing there in dirty clothes, unshowered, hungry and thirsty? How would you approach passersby? How would you want to be treated by passersby?

Some beggars are fairly honest, some are crooks. A chance encounter will not reveal which is which. Some need to feed a family, some just want you to think they do so they can get more out of you for their crack habit or alcohol addiction. Which is which?

Are you helping someone survive, or feeding a habit with which they are killing themselves?

Am I an immoral person for not giving? If so, am I giving just to ease my own guilty conscience?

To come face to face with inequality, and to realize that life has a rough side that we have so far been fortunately spared from, these things trigger issues in our consciousness that we can explore and learn something about ourselves, and the human condition as well.

Liberation theology is more than just a concept! But, like Kristin says, just liberating ourselves can seem nigh unto impossible at times.

Perhaps the first step would be to evaluate our language, b/c our language is a good guide to our true intent. Using the term 'beggar,' instead of fellow human being, is another way to divide us, another way of saying 'she/he is the other.'

I do it too. Most notably when I say, 'the rich woman/man.' Actually, myself, I am still somewhat reeling from the fact that there are hate organizations still out there, and then again, what is a 'hate' group: the KKK, AIPAC, the Christian 'Right,' the Minuteman militia, the LAPD, the U.S. Army/Navy/Marines/Air Force . . .

Yogi-One par usual makes some interesting points. To which I may add, that most of my homeless brethren are even patriotic to a fault. Yet, they know something is not quite right either, they know there is just something not right about the vast economic inequality that is so blatant in this country, and world of course. So, rather then explore these issues with me, they would just rather go and get another beer. Also, many of the homeless now-a-days suffer from severe mental disorders, and not simply just self-inflicted mental disorders either, I mean they are just plain crazy (one will find this is also true with a significant amount of ‘our’ prison population too).

Yet, there is no profit to be made in searching for real answers for these people, or in implementing social works programs that could make these people viable components of our working population; it is just too easy to build another prison and wait for these people to do something stupid. Put them on some stupid drugs to further dull their minds with, to mitigate their angst, to make them hapless sheep who just sit there doing their time b/c in ‘today’s fast paced world we just do not have the time’ for the other . . .

Unless, like Yogi said, it is our ‘job’ to service these ‘consumers,’ b/c after all, I gotta get paid to work with these people . . .

Bleeding heart social workers, along with the parasitic lawyers

up against the wall!

he-he

Peace all

Craig

To save one life, it is as if you had saved the world.

-Talmud

This story prompted me to post this. Actually I wrote it two years ago about this same time and posted it here 1 year ago about this same time, on a very interesting IntentBlog Thread

www.intentblog.com/archives/2005/09/my_guru.html

Divine Purpose of The Outcast and the Homeless

it starts out...

Several months ago I learned something interesting about monkeys. Apparently they will often reject one of the members of the group for whatever reason, perhaps a personality problem, making that member an outcast. The outcast isn’t permitted to join the group. Feeling depressed and unwanted he hangs out a distance from the group.

This behavior it turns out is beneficial because being a distance from the group and not blinded and distracted by social interaction he is aware and first to see the approaching predator, of which there are many. Sounding the cry of alarm the outcast saves the lives of the group. The outcast becomes the HERO. So what may appear as a flawed individual is actually a perfect part of the system and important for the survival of the group.

Recently being in New York I saw some of the many homeless as I have seen in almost every city, usually prone on the side walk, one in pain with a swollen foot, some one poured hydrogen peroxide on it, but this is not what he needed. They are positioned that you cannot help but notice them; they could find a secluded spot but do not, they are at one’s feet.

I thought to myself what divine reason is there for this role to be played? And what a gift to us that these individuals would play this role, which we all know is not a pleasant one.

Continued here....

http://iamblogging.net/archives/2004/10/the_divine_purp.html

or click my name.

Dear Indira, thanks for sharing with us a very personal story. I am touched by your heart.

I would like to share with you a story by Cydney Chadwick:

Mists

In his room he is a famous poet. Publishers clamor for his manuscripts, he
has the admiration of his peers and is a shoo-in to win all the prizes.

When he ventures down the stairs to his mailbox he is still a famous
poet, but while out on the street amidst others he is not quite as
renowned. The further he gets from his apartment the less well-known he is.
If he leaves town he finds himself an obscure shell of a person,
ambitionless, directionless, wandering the streets of an unfamiliar city.

While in public places she is a young woman--tall, redheaded and
statuesque. Both men and woman admire her luscious sexuality, and those
around her cannot help but be seduced--if she so chooses. It is only when
she returns home after cocktail parties that she can look in the mirror.
She sees a lined face, a turned down mouth and cynical eyes. She knows she
is only a few years away from becoming eligible for senior citizen
discounts, and will continue on this path devoid of sexual attention. The
following morning, she lies in bed, hungover, unable to think of a good
reason to get up. It takes several days before she can shake off her
depression, rise from her bed and go out again.

The woman buys some cloth and nails it to the maple frame of her one
remaining mirror. But one evening after coming home intoxicated, she rips
it off, confronts her image, spends the next several days in bed, re-nails
the fabric to the mirror's frame and goes out for cocktails.

An old age pensioner sitting on a park bench is convinced he is young
and virile, smiles happily to himself. From his bench he ogles women and
girls, convinced they want him--that is why they pass by in colored bras,
or running singlets and shorts. They go around again and again, flaunting
themselves on skates, on bikes, or while jogging. Sometimes thoughts creep
into his mind, dark, ugly thoughts--they are not even aware he is there,
are only in the park to exercise, and he is an old man on a bench, but
these ruminations are too scary and he drives them from his mind.

Two women decide to meet for lunch after not having seen each other
for thirty years. They discuss their families, hobbies, what has happened
to old friends, and after a time recall their youth. REMEMBER, one woman
says, THAT TERRIBLE CAR ACCIDENT I WAS IN? YOU PASSED BY SEVERAL MINUTES
LATER AND STOPPED TO HELP US. The other woman's eyes grow wide and
disbelieving, for it was she and her husband who had been in the car
accident. Her friend had not been present that summer night, had, in fact,
been visiting her aunt in another state. She and her fiancee were towed out
of the field by the farmer who owned the property. I STILL HAVE A SCAR FROM
THE ACCIDENT, the woman who'd been away during the crash says, rubbing away
a bit of makeup to reveal a small but distinct mark on her cheek.

A man is convinced creditors are after him, although he settles all
his monthly bills and has a perfect record of payment. He hurries through
the streets, avoiding eye contact with all, becomes terror-stricken when he
spies men in black shirts who could be loansharks. Someone else might be
after him too, disgruntled postal workers, or the waitress in this coffee
shop, disappointed and angry at men, who is just dying to empty the
contents of her coffee pot into his crotch. The man is convinced he is
enveloped in a dark and swirling cloud of doom--although those who know him
think the facts of his life make it an existence that must be pleasant and
easy.

There are those who believe we go through life enshrouded in mist. For
some this mist is dark, for others light, and we lumber through the world
seeing through its semi-opaque parameters. The perceptions and beliefs we
hold to be true become damaged as we inevitably collide with the mists of
others. This we find hardly bearable. It causes us terror, it makes us
mean.

*

CYDNEY CHADWICK is the author of eight books and chapbooks of fictions and prose poems, which include a novella, Benched, which was selected as a Critics Choice from The Northern California Bohemian, & Flesh and Bone . In 1997 she received a creative writing fellowship from the California Arts Council. A third generation Californian, she grew up north of the Golden Gate Bridge--in Marin and Sonoma counties. She continues to live in Sonoma county.

Dear Indira, it was very touchy experience and well written as well, especially the last line was marvellous.
It was good to see the experiences of others too.I had also an experience of that sort few months back which i had shared on my blog-page. Its a little lenghty so I wont share it here, but I m giving the address of the page. I think that its worth reading.
MY Date with Chameli- http://deepism.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-date-with-chameli-before-i-start.html

thanx

@Sundar: Thanks...

@Kate: Giving heals our consumerist soul - I think all of us are so caught up in chasing our material desires and wants that we forget that sometimes simple things like a 'Hello', a smile and some water could mean the world to someone...keep spreading joy

@Navin: Right - it’s a nice surname to have isn't it? Fits my online image :) That’s an interesting though, come to think of it when I give away my son's old clothes I always hesitatingly ask the lady who collects the garbage if she wants them

@Geeta: There have been so many things I have regretted doing, being rude to my grandmother, not visiting sick dying relatives, being insensitive to my son's needs – the list is endless, I hope I can learn from them and not repeat them but its hard as we continue in that vicious circle that’s so hard to break...

@Baba: Beautiful words which mirror my thoughts completely

@Keith: I am honored to be on 'Weekly', though I maybe a bit slow on responding to the comments! All religions and philosophers talk about giving and how liberating that is. I have met some people at ISKON who were once wealthy but now have given away all that they had and lead a very simple life at the village ashram - they said they found peace at last so perhaps it is true.

I can really empathize with the feeling of acting on impulse rather than thinking about it - then the moment is lost forever. Guess there is lots more left in human evolution?

@Kristin: Little drops of water make an ocean and hopefully all our efforts will eventually result in an ocean. Recently another incident made me feel so inadequate. I brought some food and had them packed in two packets, I wanted to give them to the little children who beg at traffic signals, I gave one girl a packet and she said she had a sister. I asked her to call her sister and she ran irrespective of buses and cars moving in all directions and a few moments later I saw a troop of children coming towards me and I had just one more packet to give. I could have taken the entire bunch of children (about 5 or 6 of them) to the snack shop and brought them some food but I didn't - why I did not, I have no explanation but I know that it’s something I want to do next time...so I remain disgusted with myself

@Yogi One: You have opened one big can of worms, yes perhaps when we give to the under privileged, we may do so out of our guilt conscience of having more or to nullify our bad karma as you mentioned. In India most of us know that begging is a multi million dollars (even if we convert currencies) industry, so now people who want to give in kind or donate to charities or sponsor a child in an orphanage. Many people give their time and attention by visiting homes for the aged or volunteering in schools for special children. Even at home, we can give our attention and love to our children and family, but perhaps that is unconscious giving - we may do it instinctively. Conscious giving probably have (wrong??) reasons behind them...

@Craig: I agree, the true test of equality and liberation is when we can think beyond our mental blocks and divisions based on what society has ingrained

@Ambasteve: This was probably best demonstrated by volunteers trying to save victims in the recent blasts in Mumbai

@Richard: Thanks for sharing your story.

@fresportra: It’s a beautiful story, thanks for sharing this, but as we blunder on maybe some of us are able to clear the mist around us but I guess such people are rare. Perhaps the mist (fog?) enveloping each person explains why it’s so difficult to truly know a person as we so rarely allow the light to enter...

@Dumka: Thanks for the link; it’s my next stop on my daily blogroll :)

In an act of kindness, not only do we make another feel good, it makes us feel good.

There will be more beggars for you to feed if that is what you choose.

Personally, here in the US, I have a problem with the homeless who sit on street corners with signs that I read. I guess I figure if they can write a legible sign, they are literate to find a small job...anything to help themselves.

I once talked to a panhandler that was pulling in $400 a week and when confronted about using that money to buy clothes so he could interview for a job....he wanted no part of it! He was very well spoken too!

I wish you all a good week. Do something kind for yourselves and then do something kind for someone else and tell them to "Pay If Forward". Maybe we can chronicle what the kindnesses are that people do for eachother..maybe it will be catchy...YOUR IT!

Joanie

Four hundred dollars a week!?!? My God. Who was that panhandling? Jessica Simpson? George Clooney? Joan Baez strumming a guitar?

Most people 'do have a problem with the homeless,' that is why like here in Spokane, the city government makes it illegal to be homeless, and don't worry, the state has almost completed another humdred million dollar prison, so we will just keep 'whittling away' at those homeless buggers . . .

At least there are not mass public executions:

yet!

But I am sure as you people become more frightened of those evil Arabs holding you hostage with all of that oil anything is possible.

I suppose we could arm all of the homeless with AK-47s and send them to Singapore . . .

That would be a nice 'small' job. Possible recruiting mantras could be, 'If you can write, you can shoot;' 'Be all you can be, the many, the unproud, the ex-Marines.' Or, 'If you can kill for oil, you can kill for money' . . .

Hey, now that is an idea, killing for money! Nothing better than employing time tested solutions; albeit sounding rather like the final solution--American ingenuity at it's finest!

Why send a boy to do a poor mans' job

Yeah . . .

Peace

One day years back when I was in my twenties I was cleaning the office where I worked. When I took the garbage out to the dumpster behind the building, I opened the gate and was startled to see a man standing there. It was a very small area with just one dumpster and the man had been digging through the garbage. When this homeless man looked at me I knew that he could tell that I was afraid. Right away he smiled and held up a bag with the cans that he had dug out of the garbage and said something about collecting cans. What really touched me was that it was obvious to me that he was concerned that he had frightened me. I found a few cans in the bag I had brought to the dumpster and handed them to him. It was a really awkward moment, but something I have never forgotten. My humanity including my fears and insecurities and his including his compassion were so out in the open.

Love, Kristin

Dear Indira,
why are you so hard on yourself? We can always look back - in retrospect - and see ways in which we could have done better. If I knew what I know now in some moment in the past I might have made a different choice. But that time has past. There isn't any need to feel disgust because we didn't do things differently or did not live up to some ideal image we hold for ourselves. We cannot become more compassionate towards others if we cannot be compassionate and forgiving of ourselves.

Love, Kristin

Dear Indira,

I do totally agree with Kristin here :)

It was already Osho who said in some other words but meaning the same: "if you are able to truly love yourself you can help yourself and in doing so you help the whole world". That also means that you cannot do anything wrong. Things are as they are, there is no good and there is no wrong. It is just as it is :)

Much love,

Indira,

That's a great story, and so human. I don't think there is one person who has not experienced this type of a situation. I think the really gift here is opportunity to make a different choice next time around. The choice may be to give the food to another, OR it may be to give regularly to a local food shelf, or whatever we're called to do.

Thanks for being so open and allowing us to learn something from your experience.

Peace,
Scott.

Friends, some of you have wondered why we are hard on ourselves. I wonder if that(being hard on ourselves) will make us more cautious in future. It helped me. I paid more attention to Penny, after I came back from my trip.Sometimes we get a second chance, and sometimes we don't. Thank you Indira for interacting with us. God bless you.

You are Looking very Sexy there Indira,

The Gym must be working for you sweetheart!

Love Simon xx xx

@Joanie: I agree

@WW: If I were to write satiric poetry about myself, I could not have written it better. Your brilliant poem here exposes our selfish, fickle souls and the meaningless guilt and dilemma that goes on within us but I guess thats what being 'human' is all about... a mixture of good and bad

@Kristin: Some incidents do remain ingrained in our memories - thanks for sharing this. Its not about being hard on ones self , just that I feel that most of us have lost connection with the better side of ourselves because we are so pre occupied with amassing wealth for ourselves and at times like these when our concience pricks us we are confused and do not know how to react. But we keep learning and keep evolving - hopefully for the better!

@Mieke: He does seem to have a point - have to explore it further! Thanks...

@Scott & Geeta: I agree - these little incidents help us to know more about ourselves and take us a step further and of course there is always a next time...

Wow At last! Someone could appreciate in WW's satiric poetry. For sure, sometimes he writes super stuff. Good on you Indira, that you've the sincerity and courage to see the F$#$%$ up nature of human minds, I mean the Selfish, totally absorbed in the needs of Self, my family, my brother...my my my. I hope you're sincere though, not just someone who is immersed in words like our other friend Arsenio.

@SI: On a lighter note, WW makes me sound like Marie Antionette's twin - if she said 'Let them eat cake'! The self absorbs all of us nad as for sincerity - I can only say I am what I am!

Yes, Indira, I understand what you are saying. It's very easy to become distracted and lose touch with what it truly important. All that we collect, none of it can we take with us. It's only what we have given from the heart that is our true wealth.

Sometimes though, I judge myself too harshly and then use my imagined unworthiness as an excuse for inaction or not fostering the truth, courage and strength within myself. This is self defeating, for we can only begin from where we are.

Love, Kristin

These types of feelings are nothing but Obsessive compulsions, Obsessive conditioning. The blame you feel for eating all of this food and seeing the beggar are a classic example of how our minds torture us and how we allow the mind to turtore us.

If you truely decide that you want to do something for the homeless or care for homeless people then you should do this not because you feel ashamed because you had a big bag of food one day and you saw a tramp with nothing and you yourself felt guilty or ashamed....

That is an extremely vain reason for wanting to help others..... because ultimatley it is about you...you see?.... it is all about you and your guilt for having bought all this food...it really has nothing to do with the homeless man it is entirely your bagage we are talking about here.

as far as gorging yourself on food is concerned....why not try telling yourself or even understanding that it is not a sin for you to eat what ever you want to eat....you are a human being are you not?...you have free will and choice...you have desires like other people...if you decide that you want to eat some chocolate or some meat or drink some alchohol or smoke a ciggarette....then that is completely ok..really it is..... you can do anything you want to do at any time you want to do it...you have that power.

Once you understand this..... the forbidden fruits as it were become no longer forbidden fruits and the lust and desire for them are decreased.....you dont get a kick out of feeling naughty any more by having them because you realise that you have the choice to have them or not have them....

Understand that you can eat, drink, do or say anything you want NOW.... nothing is forbidden...nothing is out of your reach...you can have it if you want it.... but you have the choice to not have it also.

if you forbid yourself something..then you will always desire it because you are suppresing the greatest thing a human being posses and that is the freedom of choice.

Each person is different in this world, there is no two people exactly alike in form or nature, The same thing applies to peoples circumstance.. My circumstances are not the same as your circumstances.

I might be a beggar and you a princess....

These are just possibilities you see...endless possibilities that make up our circumstance.

You have nothing to feel ashamed about because you saw a man starving and you had a lot of food and you did not give any to him.

really you don't

You can choose to feel guilty, you may choose to feel ashamed but it is you who chooses this...the same as it is you who chooses to say that the food tastes like cardboard.

each of us here in this world including the beggar are having a divine experience, the divine experience is the experience of life, no 2 lives are the same some lives may be very pleasent and filled with happy things other lives are not so pleasent and may be filled with horrible things, everything is possible you see?...in the moment all possibilities exist of what circumstances can arrise in the now thus causing our lives to happen and unfold.

Superstition....will drive you insaine....I mean that.... reading into signs and beliving in them as truths is absoloute cobblers.

God is not a seperate entity that is some how in control of space and time and is watching you endlessly and judging your life...

God is the very essence of your being, god is the attention in the moment.

God is also endless possibilities...so endless infact that you can make yourself feel horribly guilty at the sight of an event.

If I chose to help people who were homeless or in discomfort in any way then it would be becuase of the specialness of life, it would be because I love myself as I love all things that are also divine, it would be because maybe I could encourage others to also help and make life better for each other.

But it would not be because "I" felt guilty.

Never give for self gratification, Never give simply because you need to give......

giving is actually a false word..especially from a spiritual sense.

from a spiritual point of view there is no giving and recieving there is only sharing.

Love Simon xx

Dear Simon

Your last line is brilliant, and I'll always remember it.

(Did Indira need to share? Did she suffer because she didn't listen to her own inner nature?)

love, Heather

Sharing?, Simon.., experience.. I would call it,
Karma, listen,
no, it's for the magic, pure and simple!, just because you can, quantum leap, you are the magician!, I'm Polish, it's a solidarity thing,
in my case, sometimes it's attention, a compliment, sometimes, it's a telephone number, sometimes it's a zloty, rubi, euro, dollar, whatever,
infinite possiblities,

It's for the memory you leave behind,

Love, Passion!

And sometimes, it's just God who knows, intention, outcome, cause and..;)

Love, Passion,

I am surprised that nobody has blogged on "Lage raho Munnabhai" which is the latest successful film. It shows how Mahatma Gandhi's principles can be applied in day to day life situations. That is shown very humorously. The film has been made tax free in India. It is strange that nobody has blogged on it at intentblog because it is a movie everyone is raving about.

Heather: The causes of suffering are many. One of them is Resistance in the mind, not having an open humble mind to see what is what. Defensive ego is the worst cause of suffering. It will keep hurting you inside till the resistance goes away. Once it is humbly accepted, no resistance then there will be no pain and suffering. Peace inside and everything will look beautiful.

Take care!

Dear SI

I thank you for your gentle words, which are hopeful and kind.

love, Heather

Indira: Your energy reminds me of another favorite contributor here; Pallavi Guptaa, who is a fiction writer; although my sense is her writing is shifting to "faction," or based on a true story.

Your responses, in #18, #28, and #30 reflect such a genuine and sincere development of graciousness and elegance!

....and, gotta love that last name as it pertains to your posted Web ID--very fun girl, you are; very very fun!

Hope to see you contribute more, as a contributor and a respondant--Dave

@Kristin: Profound words and and it is also a central part of hindu philosophy. Recently I met a lady who said something interesting, she said it has been her desire to spread her existence across several people and in order to achieve her goal she responds to every distress call she gets, she babysits her neighbors daughter, she attends to a sick relative, she takes a person to a hospital and so on. She said that when she is gone - she will continue to live in the people who she spread herself. Guess that is the wealth you mention

@Simon: I dont know if the gym helped but responding to this 'weekly' has been a great mental gym so far! I accept your viewpoint and yes, its probably social conditioning. Every individual is conditioned to feel guilt wen one sees a fellow human less privleged, I would say that all you have mentioned is an evolution of thinking patterns, while responding to some comments yesterday I thought about the word 'Kindness'. The word and all that it signifies seems to be artificial - in being kind we are doing what we have been instructed to do by religions, spirituality etc. What you and some others have said that our love for fellow humans should be instinctive and not be dictated by guilt, religions and philosophies. Thanks for sharing your views - specially the last 3 lines which has probably already canged my view on giving...

@Heather: I wrote about it because one usually does not share these internal dilemmas with friends and relatives, while writing is a form of exploration of one's own mind. I have just described the moment and the thoughts thereafter but not necessarily because I was burdened by guilt and needed to vent

@Marek: I like the word magic - there is so much of it around us and yes you are correct - the magic wand is waved around by God!

@Hiren: Now why didn't I think of that before? All blogs all over India have a mention of it somewhere though I have not written about it yet, I was in splits and my sides ached, specially after yawning through K.A.N.K (Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna) this was a refreshing change. The movie is brilliant and gave the new age kids an entertaining refresher course on Gandhi's philosophy which we groan over while reading text books. If I do contribute again - I will take up something fun ...

@Dave: I desperately want to shift to fiction but I continue to remain embedded in faction, I hope I can write a book sometime soon! Thanks Dave, if you want to read more - I write a bit on my blog and have fun while reading. I hope I'll get an invite to contribute again too...

To ALL who have commented on this Weekly Intent
All the comments have been a revelation and a learning for me, responding to the comments made me think - about myself, about situations and about viewpoints and all have helped in evolving as a person and I hope others will benefit from this discussion as well. My favorite take away from this is the poem by WW which I will frame and hang on my wall!

Indira: That is a beautiful blogsite--impressive, and I will indeed continue familiarizing myself with more of your writing--Thank You for the invitation to join in there; it is quite a refreshing new breeze compared to the heaviness of the mainstream media I've been increasingly diligent about subjecting myself to! Dave

@Dave: Thanks! Always a pleasure to have people visit my blog, wish I could offer you some tea and biscuits as well!

dearindira,
it was nice to read your post.