Video – Handel: Water Music — allegro.

With these outflowings, river-like, with deltas

that spread like arms to reach the open sea,

with the recurrent tides that never cease

will I acknowledge you, will I proclaim you

as no one ever has before.

— Rainer Maria Rilke from the poem Dedication translated by Albert Ernest Flemming

The Rainer Maria Rilke Archive – A collection of over 200 excerpts of Rilke’s poems and quotations from as variety of English translations.

Video and Music With Rainer Maria Rilke Quotations

Video – The Beauty of Nature

Winter Feast for the Soul starts today.

January 15 — February 23

The inspiration for the Winter Feast of the Soul came out of a three-line Rumi poem:

What nine months does for the embryo,
Forty early mornings
Will do for your growing awareness.

Based on the success of the first Winter Feast in Idaho (2008), the interest that it generated across the globe, and the need for peace efforts at this time in our history, the founders decided to extend the outreach worldwide.

To learn more, visit the Winter Feast of the Soul website and watch their YouTube video.

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Amid the Falling Snow – Enya  Song (video)

lyrics:

How I remember sleepless nights
When we would read by candlelight,
And on the windowpane outside
A new world made of snow;

A million feathers falling down,
A million stars that touch the ground,
So many secrets to be found
Amid the falling snow.

Maybe I am falling down.
Tell me should I touch the ground?
Maybe I won’t make a sound
In the darkness all around.

The silence of a winter’s night
Brings memories I hold inside;
Remembering a blue moonlight
Upon the fallen snow.

Maybe I am falling down.
Tell me should I touch the ground?
Maybe I won’t make sound
In the darkness all around.

I close my window to the night.
I leave the sky her tears of white.
And all is lit by candlelight
Amid the falling snow.

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A drunken man who falls out of a cart, though he may suffer, does not die. His bones are the same as other people’s; but he meets his accident in a different way. His spirit is in a condition of security. He is not concious of riding in the cart; neither is he concious of falling out of it. Ideas of life, death, fear and the like cannot penetrate his breast; and so he does not suffer from contact with objective existence. If such security is to be got from wine, how much more is to be got from God?

– Chuang Tzu  (Taoist Text)

Daoist Perspectives

Age of the Sage – Taoism and Chuang Tzu

WINTER FEAST FOR THE SOUL STARTS TOMORROW

AKAR SANKRANTI/LOHRI  HARVEST FESTIVAL (Hindu)
Sankranti means to go from one place to another place (to change direction). It also means one meets another. The time when the sun changes direction from one constellation (of the zodiac) to another is known as Sankranti.  It is celebrated in mid-winter and marks the transition of the sun from the Sagittarius to Capricorn during the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere.  People take dips in rivers and worship the Sun God especially in the holy Ganges river. The dip is said to purify the self and bestow “punya”. Special puja is offered as a thanksgiving for good harvest.

PONGAL HARVEST FESTIVAL (Hindu)
Pongal is one of the most popular harvest festival of South India, mainly Tamil Nadu. Pongal falls in the mid-January every year and marks the reaping of crops and a special thanksgiving to God, the sun, the earth and the cattle. Pongal festival lasts for four days. Celebrations include drawing of Kolam, swinging & cooking of delicious Pongal.
Find out more

Who are the Sikhs? – Video (History)

MAGHI FESTIVAL (Sikh)

Introduction

Maghi is the occasion when Sikhs commemorate the sacrifice of forty Sikhs, who fought for Guru Gobindh Singh Ji.

Maghi, Makara Sankranti, the first day of the month of Magh. The eve of Maghi is the common Indian festival of Lohri when bonfires are lit in Hindu homes to greet the birth of sons in the families and alms are distributed. In the morning, people go out for an early-hour dip in nearby tanks. For Sikhs, Maghi means primarily the festival at Muktsar, a district town of the Punjab, in commemoration of the heroic fight of the Chali Mukte, literally, the Forty Liberated Ones, who laid down their lives warding off an attack by an imperial army marching in pursuit of Guru Gobind Singh.

The action took place near a pool of water, Khidrane di Dhab, on 29 December 1705. The bodies were cremated the following day, the first of Magh (hence the name of the festival), which now falls usually on the 13th of January. Following the custom of the Sikhs to observe their anniversaries of happy and tragic events alike, Maghi is celebrated with end-to-end recital of the Guru Granth Sahib and religious divans in almost all gurdwaras.

Sikh Guru Baba Deep Singh

Image source.

Significance
The day of Maghi is observed to honour the heroic fight of the Chali Mukte, or the Forty Liberated Ones, who sacrificed their own lives defending an attack by the imperial army marching in pursuit of Guru Gobind Singh. The action took place near a pool of water, Khidrane di Dhab, on 29 December 1705

Celebration
Sikhs celebrate the Maghi with an end to end recital of the holy Guru Granth Sahib and religious rituals in all the Sikh Gurudwaras. On the eve of Maghi falls the common Indian festival called the Lohri when bonfires are lighted in Hindu homes and alms are also distributed. . however The largest assembly, however, takes place at Muktsar (Punjab) where big fairs are organized and pilgrims take a holy dip in the sacred waters of sarovar and also visit several shrines. A mahala or big march of pilgrims from the main shrine to gurdwara Tibbi Sahib, sacred to Guru Gobind Singh, concludes the three-day celebration.

Source:  http://www.allaboutsikhs.com/sikh-festivals/the-sikh-festivals-maghi.html