Rays of LightA number of my friends have gone to backwater Victoria for Earthcore and being away from them (these are the guys I spend the vast majority of my time with), has given me some time to reflect and watch TV… Laguna Beach mostly… leading me to wonder what brings people together as friends, lovers and companions? Let’s be clear I’m talking about it in the purest form, the almost romantic notion of a relationship, not those ones built around business or subversive needs. Watching a bit of Laguna Beach made this thought pop into my head, you see Laguna Beach sort of obsesses about finding relationships, glorifying their existence, and the dynamic within these relationships creates the drama for the show. These kids’ relationships (while extremely naive and superficial) are truly consuming, at times joyful more often tragic and somewhat defining in terms of whom they are.
One could say that relationships have become a commodity (the vast amounts of money we pay to see celebrity weddings etc.)… do we only want them because we are told we need them? When I first started watching I thought this to be the case, that there was no reason for these kids to be together other than the fact that they believe they need to be with someone because it’s the done thing, and the superficiality of what brings these kids (its largely to do with looks and money)… sort of sickens you to some degree. But there is something more to it than that, once you put this all aside, which is what makes the show interesting. At the heart of it all they are together and feel some sort of bond, which is glorified in the old “we’re all going to college and this will be the last time we see each other” scene. The more I thought about it the more I began to see that this show wasn’t really about the money and the lifestyle these kids live (although it is branded as such), it was really about one of the most basic of human instincts, the fundamental need to be together, the search for friends and ultimately someone special.
I think there is something ethereal about a relationship that lies beyond the sense of the collective (as many philosophers have so bluntly put it), something deep rooted in our soul, uncontrollable, unexplainable. What makes an acquaintance a friend, and a friend into a good friend? Common interest, common experiences…? Is there such a thing as signs of relationships forming… fireworks… a common spark… something to tip us off… a ray of light?? Or are these the only way in which we can rationalize and try to explain something so intangible.
Perhaps it is a waste of time to analyze and question relationships, perhaps there is no such thing as signs, or even a sense of knowing… a relationship just is… it just happens… and its best left at that. Their mystery is what intrigues us and in turn leads to their joyfulness. Good relationships (friendships, family, and love) should be treasured and appreciated; I mean if we could explain their formation in a formulaic approach we could reproduce and sell them, which would inevitably lead to buyer remorse… now where is the fun in that?
Prying open my Third-Eye
Yesterday Justine and I conversed randomly as we do, loosing some hot air on the earth and the idea of chakras became a point of conversation. A quick search on the internet revealed a site where after answering an online questionnaire (truthfully; not the Morgan trick the system way) one can see which of their chakras are open, inactive and overactive. I faired like this:
Root - Inactive
Sacral - Open
Navel - Open
Heart - Open
Throat - Overactive
Third Eye - Overactive
Crown - Open
Not bad I must say. My Root chakra isn’t open, and the site believes that this is the effects of which: If you tend to be fearful or nervous your Root chakra is probably under-active. You'd easily feel unwelcome.
Funnily, the effects of having an overactive Third Eye chakra are: If this chakra is overactive you may tend to live in a world of fantasy too much. In excessive cases halucinations are possible.
To that end I have begun to remedy the situation; and have taken up meditation using the indicated hand position (mudras) and chanting LAM… in my backyard on the lawn. I’m sure my neighbors think I’m thoroughly weird, but who cares, one has to make sacrifices in search of spiritual awareness right?
I must say though that there is a certain sense of power associated with chanting and meditation. Now I’m not a religious man in the traditional sense… I don’t count those years where I was forced to go to Chapel while I was at school (the side effects of going to a private school)… but I must say I feel somewhat better after that little session in my backyard.
A few years ago I attended a funeral for a good friend who had passed away; his family was Hindu and the mourners were asked to chant OM as part of the ceremony. There was a sense of something other-worldly about it, I don’t know if it was the reverberation or the fact that I was pretty grief stricken by the whole thing (coupled with the hangover I was sporting from the night before when drowning my sorrows)… but my eyes were opened as to the power of other religions and how the fundamental sense of Christianity has become commercialized, commoditized and somewhat lost. I’m sure that is the same with any religion, but there was something very intense about this simple act of a group chanting. Incidentally this may be because my third eye chakra is way too open and I was more receptive to the goings on…
For those of you who wish to find out where your own chakra problems may lie or alternatively, find out how damn good you are the test is located at http://www.eclecticenergies.com/chakras/chakratest.php
Know When To Hold Them, Know When to Fold Them, Know When to Walk Away
It is somewhat poetic that I choose to start my Blog with a quote from the Bhudda; in the context of last nights events it seems to fit perfectly. One of the things they dont tell you when you start Architecture is all the life skills you learn that are subordinate to the prescribed academic syllabus. Spending 6 years at a University means that you spend alot of time consuming intoxicants in various forms and at various locations; which means you soon find the limits of your consumption capacity and thus can actively safeguard against making a complete fool of yourself. ...Increased fun via maximal consumption with minimal embarassment factor...
Friday night I went out to the ANU Bar (a lesser bar at a more prestigious University than the one I attend) with a few mates after work and encountered a kind of drinker that I usually tend to avoid. I'm talking about the second year arts student majoring in pol. sci. Now normally I wouldnt bother with this sort of individual, but I was feeling particularly hospitable and in need of a cheap laugh at someone elses expense so I decided to converse with this young man.
Now the thing about being a second year student is that generally they havent put in the serious bar time to that of the long time student like myself. What erks me about the pol. sci major is that it seems there is a critical level of intoxication with each one (usually two beers) where they decide that the bar is a forum for discussion about the injustices of the world and assume a stance on the nearest soap box in order to preach to "the masses" about how we are nothing but mindless drones in a societal superstructure and that it is his job to make us aware of our slavery to "the system". These two factors combined would lead to a particularly amusing few hours of action.
This particular fellow, true to form, assumed his position on the soap box and began to discuss the finer points of Derrida, Nietzche and the like - involving himself in some sort of verbal gymnastics. "The masses" (Kedar, Tas and myself) decided to engage in this discussion to essentially stir him up, where at the point of frustration he began to swear at us in various different languages (French and Vietnamese I picked out of his drivel). After a couple of hours of that, it became apparent that he had drunk twice the normal second year pol. sci. limit (4 beers) and was slipping off his soap box in a rather grand way; while his sister, who was actually involved in somewhat intelligent conversation with Tas, became quite worried. Now this guy didnt know when to stop, and insisted on buying more drinks - far be it for us to disagree with him buying us more beer - and when it came time for me to leave I offered he and his sister a lift home.
After much convincing and him stumbling and falling over a few times, his sister, Kedar and myself managed to get him into the back the 87 Camira stationwagon, where he promptly passed out. The 20 min drive home was amusing, his sister and I had a polite chat and every so often were interrupted by him saying ..."blub,blub,blub"...
On arrival at their house, I opened the back door for him and he promptly face planted on the concrete driveway. Picking him up, I managed to drag him to the front door of his home. Again he slumped to the ground and began to murmur something, which sounded like jibberish, so I assumed he was swearing at me in some foreign language again. This time however, he looked desperate to communicate with me, I leaned closer and found that he was actually trying to say "I need to vomit here" which he did no sooner than the words passed his lips. At that point his sister decided that it was ok for me to leave and I made a swift departure. Now had this fellow followed the teachings of the Bhudda, he would have known how much he could hold; known when to fold and stop consuming; and known when to walk away instead of stumbling, vomitting and passing out....Bhuddists in their natural habitat...
Pictured above is an example of 4 extremely seedy people on the second day of Stonefest who even though they are looking a little worse for wear, know and actively practice these principles - despite the night before walking away for two and half hours on the assurance that .."its only 15 mins walk from Bruce to Turner"...
