Dith Pran ” killing fields ” photographer is no more..
Photo copyright Dith Pran /New york Times
My friend and favorite Photographer Dith Pran is no more. This week I remember him for his bravery, triumph of Human spirit over war crime.
Please visit http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/31/nyregion/31dith.html?hp
Dith Pran (born September 27, 1942 – March 30, 200 
was a photojournalist best known as a refugee and Cambodian Genocide survivor and was the subject of the Academy Award-winning film The Killing Fields. (He was portrayed in the movie by first-time actor Haing S. Ngor, who won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance.)
In 1975, Pran and New York Times reporter Sydney Schanberg stayed behind in Cambodia to cover the fall of the capital Phnom Penh to the communist Khmer Rouge forces. Schanberg and other foreign reporters were allowed to leave, but Pran was not permitted to leave the country. When Cambodians were forced to work in forced labor camps, Pran had to endure four years of starvation and torture before finally escaping to Thailand in 1979. He coined the phrase “killing fields” to refer to the clusters of corpses and skeletal remains of victims he encountered during his 40-mile escape. His three brothers were killed back in Cambodia.
From 1980, Pran worked as a photojournalist with The New York Times in the United States. He also campaigned for recognition of the Cambodian Genocide victims, especially as founder and president of The Dith Pran Holocaust Awareness Project. He was a recipient of an Ellis Island Medal of Honor in 1998 and of The International Center in New York’s Award of Excellence.
Pran died on 30 March 2008, having been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer just three months earlier.
Cheers
suresh
it’s natural to get attracted to musicians,creative personalities
Photo copyright Suresh Gundappa 2008
It’s not difficult to explain the secret behind attractions towards creative artists. Creativity comes out of positive energy. Any work which you are immersed is like meditation.
Singers, musicians, painters, photographers tend to immerse in their activity while creating their respective work. Meditation is nothing but action and activity is merged into form awareness.
It is a union of painter and painting, & it is a union of Dance and Dancer and Dancing.
These creative sessions tend to create a silence inside any artist. For that matter any creativity creates tremendous joy and silence inside you.
It is natural for anyone to get attracted to relaxation. When you are stuck in day to day tension, you tend to get attracted to people who are more relaxed
Attraction of tension is always towards relaxation.
Sexual attraction at it’s deepest core in nothing but your longing for relaxation. Regularly Musicians feature as sexiest people on earth in survey’s. Recently I was reading a survey in a leading US magazine about single most common reason for affairs!. Most of the respondents indicated they tend to relax in the presence of the person with whom they had affair with! Interesting isn’t it!
It is nothing to do with the artist that he or she is attractive. It is just that you are so tense that any energy peaceful looks tremendously attractive. It is important that you have some space in your life dedicated to activity you love.
A hobby or something you are passionate about or something you enjoy will help you to see different side of life. It also helps you to take more responsible position towards life.
The reason why you are not able to make headway in your life with respect to relationships is because you are NOT ready to look at issues in a relaxed manner. You cannot because you do not know how to relax.
It is difficult to teach relaxation by meditation from the start. But it is easy to teach you relaxation if you can find some work you love. Slowly your work will become your meditation. That’s why most of the teachers say “find a work/job you love”; once you find something you enjoy everything else falls in place.
I say, start with a hobby you love and slowly you will see transformation inside you.
Meditation is art of relaxation. Meditation is nothing but rediscovering you calm inner nature.
Love
Suresh
Where are you? Life is calling you!
Photo copyright Suresh Gundappa 2008
Green represents freshness , life, Aliveness. Green reminds you of the language you have forgotten. Green represents that part of your life you ache for, Green is your calling.
For years in the name of concrete structures we have forgotten the art of working with nature. Just look at some of those buildings, you feel just nauseated by their presence.
Millions of people run to mountains, jungles, diving and other adventure sports because they feel expanded in the presence of nature. They carry so much energy from such trips it keeps them going for months. The moment such energy starts dissipating and burning out , they want to run again.
In nature, noise inside your head is reduced, in a day to day living you are constantly living in a reactive model. Wife, car, office, Money, relations all continuously keep stimulating one or the other thoughts inside your head. Something is constantly going in your head which sucks your energy.
The moment you land near mountains then your external stimulus comes to halt. With NO familiar sight to create thoughts in your head, first time you feel peaceful. Unimaginable serenity surrounds you.
This is what meditation is all about. Meditation is nothing but bringing you close to nature. Bringing you close to silence. Once you get the taste of silence you feel the same way as if in the midst of mountains. Going close to nature is a good way to start Inner journey. But that is not enough, the moment you comeback to day to day action you lose that serenity
Practice silence, Give yourself sometime to explore nature. Exploring nature your best chance to know life and yourself.
Taste of silence, just once is all you need, then Nature keeps calling you and Don’t die without answering the call of the valley!
Love
Suresh
Your resentment and misery is a source of entertainment for you!
Photo and post copyright Suresh Gundappa 2008
Just take a honest look at yourself, How many times in a day you think about your past and things which went wrong, injustice done to you by life, Bad luck you suffered, relationships which didn’t work out etc etc.
Your mind is constantly occupied with the same resentment and misery you have been carrying it for ages. You have gone over it thousand times but you still think about it all the time.
What can you do about it? actually nothing, other than thinking about it. Your growth towards happiness is chained by resentment and regrets. You are carrying large boulder of past.
You got to stop this.
You love entertaining yourself because mind thrives on such a misery. Your only opium of life is thinking about your past and your bad luck in life.
Forgive, Forget and Accept life in its deepest present moment. that’s the only way to remove your chains.
if you ask me why laughing is such a joyous phenomena that’s because when you laugh you don’t think. You just laugh, you just stay at the present moment. Love, orgasm, compassion, prayer all are ways towards present moment experience.
Unless you drop past, there is a very little possibility your future may be drastically different. Once you become light on heart then you will see different possibilities for yourself. There is a good chance that you will have lot of energy available to you to create better future.
Whenever you notice entertaining yourself, STOP IT, just STOP it.
This is a disease. Just move on, be grateful to thousand other things you have today and Love yourself for whatever you are and whatever you are not!
The act of creativity with artists, painters, photographers is fulfilling because for any such activity you need a fresh womb. fresh moment, Fresh present moment awareness. that’s why hobbies are so much close to your heart.
This existence is neither made of past nor future. It’s available in this present moment and that’s why it is called “present” moment or you can call it “gift”.
Love
Suresh
Infinite patience yields immediate results..
Photo copyright Suresh Gundappa 2008
This is an ancient proverb and probably biggest open secret of centuries.
People talk about positivity and thinking positive. but to me biggest positivity comes from knowing you can trust life. Trusting life to take care of you.
Infinite patience means Infinite trust in life. Trusting life is nothing but deep trust in yourself. Knowing that all your intentions will bear fruit at the right time. If you have infinite patience you tend to relax, you tend to be at peace with yourself. When you are at peace with yourself it is easy to see where you are going.
Very rarely man at peace indulges in dirty politics, ego fights, greedy motives. For him everything what he needs will eventually come to him, that’s his belief. That’s his trust.
Enjoy this moment and know that there is miraculous way of getting all your intentions come true. don’t be lazy , work towards your goals but without any tension about results. Put more energy into work because you trust.
Meditation is an art of trusting life completely. Meditation is prayer of deep trust. Being meditative means being in trust.
Love and lots of it
Suresh
