larengreyumphlett.blogspot.com



To purchase the books "The Power of Perception" and "The Poetic Realities, The Poetic Fantasies" please visit Laren Grey Umphlett's Amazon author page:

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Vedic Evolution

It's hard to understand how ancient vedic wisdom understood advanced concepts such as quantum physics principles, astronomy, and evolution long before our modern times. Perhaps higher minds of the times could comprehend higher ideas.

HERE is a short article about the agreement between Hinduism and evolution.

It's interesting that eastern mindsets have very little problem with conceptualizing and aligning with science, but the western Aristotelian religious mindsets have a hard time allowing these understandings into their rigid view of reality. Times are changing though, and minds are expanding!

It does seem that the west has been lost for a long time, in psychology, medicine, philosophy, nature, and religion. Luckily science, eastern philosophies, and new ways of thought are finding their way into the western religious mindset and loosening up some of that limiting rigidity. We need a more open world. We need deeper understandings that stretch into the mystical and embrace the scientific at the same time.

It seems that many ancient philosophies such as Native American naturalism, Vedic sciences, Paganism, Shintoism, Buddhism, and others did not stray so far from the path as the western world did. But like the cycle of everything that builds up or breaks down, it also cyclically strays away and reconvenes. What's old is new and what's new is old.







Tuesday, October 29, 2013

My Cause

I'm sort of a lobbyist for the artistic process. I want to convince everyone that, next to air, water, food, shelter, and mental and physical fitness, art is the most important aspect of our experience of the world.

Acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, photography, film making, culinary arts, music, dance, performance art, storytelling, personality, expression, design, comedy, magic, oratory, and imagination are always more important and effective on an individual and societal level than your crosses, bombs, and dollar signs. In a void of art, with the structure of crosses, bombs, and dollar signs all that would be left of society would be a laboring ant colony.

Each of us and all of us are more relevant than drones and workers.


My Facebook and Twitter Pages


Please "like" them. Thank you.

My Facebook page: www.facebook.com/LGreyUmphlett

The Power of Perception Facebook page: www.facebook.com/ThePowerOfPerception

My Twitter page: www.twitter.com/LarenUmphlett


Monday, October 28, 2013

Aspects of Yoga Training

Beneficial practices from Yoga that are helpful to body and mind:

Asana (postures)
Vinyasa (flowing postures)
Vyayam (physical repetitive exercise)
Pranayama (breath control)
Dhyana (meditation)
Dharana (concentration)
Mantra (mind vibration/sound)


Expanded Consciousness: Research Shows that Meditation Improves Your Cogni...

Expanded Consciousness: Research Shows that Meditation Improves Your Cogni...:  by Dr. Tali Shenfield , Clinical Psychologist via Your Brain At Work It is a common belief in our society that everything of value mus...

The Autumn Air

Autumn is a great time to take in crisp air. Nature is busy settling in and our awareness of these changes brings an awareness of the environment we interact with. Most immediately, we interact with  air.
 The breath will strengthen any activity of any degree. Calmness will be supported, sports or athletics supported, creativity supported, work supported, happiness supported, and tough and stressful times will be supported. The breath is the tool for any endeavor in life. Even putting on your socks. Wherever you go today, on your way there or at the destination, whatever it is -the bank, surgery, school, work, gym, store, outside, inside, inward, or into a creative reality- you will enrich this experience with breath. There is nothing more important than breathing, and the only times you shouldn't breathe is when underwater or in a toxic gas cloud, which should lead to breath anyway by getting to breathable air! We are organisms tied to Nature, biologically, psychologically, and deeper. We are organisms that are Nature. Being a part of the process instead of detracted (as is shallow unaware breath) is a key to experiences. After all, life is not people, places, or things. Life is experiences. Life is breath.

"It is better to have your head in the clouds, and know where you are... than to breathe the clearer atmosphere below them, and think that you are in paradise."
-Henry David Thoreau

There are many ways to practice breathing. You will only find them by searching.


Friday, October 25, 2013

FREE copy of "The Power of Perception"!

A free PDF ebook copy of "The Power of Perception is downloadable at www.larengreyumphlett.com
(top right corner of the site)

Please share it everywhere and spread it around the world! Thank you.

please leave reviews and ratings on Amazon and Goodreads.

If you like it, you can buy the kindle version or print paperback version.

For now, please help me spread this intense book everywhere!

Enjoy.


Encourage


Student says...
I am very discouraged. What should I do?

Master says...
Encourage others.
Encourage others.
Encourage others.
Encourage others.
Encourage others.
Encourage others.
Encourage others.
Encourage others.


Wednesday, October 23, 2013

O w n e r l e s s - M i n d: Einstein on liberation from ego

O w n e r l e s s - M i n d: Einstein on liberation from ego: The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and the sense in which they have obtained liberation from the self...

The Power of Meditation



Meditation isn't just some lofty spacey new age hippy thing. Meditation is a natural power of the mind, a journey into its natural state, a calm void power that transcends that which controls you externally. It is a heightened awareness beyond the attached self.  Anyone and everyone can and should practice meditation for a wide array of purposes.
Here is a great article about the subject of meditation as rebellion from Meditation Masters, an excellent website.

Practice will lead to improvement and the abandonment of that which your life no longer needs. That is rebellion.

"The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion."  -Albert Camus



Axons and dendrites...














www.larengreyumphlett.com


The Adventure Blog: Video: Bodhi - Silent Meditation With Nature

The Adventure Blog: Video: Bodhi - Silent Meditation With Nature: Looking to commune with nature but don't have time to escape your desk today? Then you'll want to checkout the video below which cap...

Taoist Meditation: Internal martial art, chi kung and mediation

Taoist Meditation: Internal martial art, chi kung and mediation: What is the difference between internal martial art, chi kung and meditation? This is the question that I am going to tackle in this post. ...

Expanded Consciousness: Brain Map Locates Landmarks for Memory, Vision, La...

Expanded Consciousness: Brain Map Locates Landmarks for Memory, Vision, La...: Diffusion tensor imaging showing fibrous connections in the brain. Image courtesy UGA News Service By: EarthSky A map of the human br...

A good article on money for art...

http://www.stevenpressfield.com/2013/10/is-money-necessary/

Lessons in Awareness

Not all lessons in life are tough. Some just take a little awareness.
This Autumn morning I was walking to the coffee house (Caffe Medici, the best coffee in Austin). As I was walking I found myself rushing, as if the destination was more important than the journey. I thought to myself  "Are you nuts?! What's the hurry?"
Once I slowed down to enjoy my walk my breathing became more full and steady. I became hyper-aware of my surroundings -the birds, trees, interesting houses and landscapes, my sensations, and thoughts. Not even a leaf blower that I passed disturbed my peace (and I despise leaf bowers!) and the coffee destination became more pleasurable, and a blog idea popped into my mind! That's far more productive to me psychologically, biologically, and creatively than if I were to hastily trek to my destination.
"But what if I don't have time?" you ask. Well, you do. The Universe has made it more than clear that time is the only valuable thing we have, and time is what we waste most on lower endeavors and perceived necessities.
The journey is always a part of the destination, and it should be equally enjoyable, whether it's a physical destination or a project or an artistic endeavor. Patience.
Yesterday I spent a great amount of time attempting to unclog a stopped up sink. At first, when it had become a harder task than it should have been, I found myself cursing at the damn drain. Then, as the task grew to being more monumental than is reasonable, I let go of such frustration and the task became a bit comical and amazing. After all, the drain won't be clogged forever. It will be fixed. It's not a permanent situation. Being frustrated is easy, but enjoying the journey is easier.
We live in a frantic society (especially in cities) where things need to be done quickly. It may be a good tactic to be a tortoise in a world full of hares.
It comes down to letting go. Nothing really needs to be done, it only needs to be experienced.

It's an easy two step process:
1. Stop.
2. Smell roses.


"The more they overthink the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain." -Capt. Montgomery Scott 





Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Drowning man....


The Words

Working with words, as we humans do, is like working with very primitive limited materials. It takes extra effort and creativity to express anything that even resembles something worthwhile. The limitations of language is what keeps the human species firmly stationed in an inferior position, for certainly if birds could speak our words they would be too burdened to fly.

“We're trapped in linguistic constructs... all that is, is metaphor.” -Robert Anton Wilson


Science expands...


The Power of Perception trailer video


Imitations of Life

"The Imitations of Life"
by Laren Grey Umphlett

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but imitation is a limitation. We lost upright primates tend to be drawn to certain interests and we often replicate that which is appealing to our senses. Repetition is a human quality, like a dog chasing its own tail. Our thick skulls bang walls over and over and the echoes can be heard through the eons. Art, in its truest sense and various forms, transcends this repetition. The influences of that which we admire become art when transcended rather than traditionalized. An imitation is not an innovation. Uniqueness is built upon the influences of the world and act as new steps in the continuing ascension of human expression. We can create these towering heights from the broken pieces of tradition.

If we look at a few of the great artists of different fields- Mozart, Bruce Lee, Picasso, Jimmy Hendrix, Stanley Kubrick, Leonardo di Vinci, Django Reinhardt, Salvador Dali, Meryl Streep, Peter Gabriel, Charlie Chaplin, Muhammed Ali, Daniel Day-Lewis, Edgar Allen Poe, Ernest Hemingway, Jackson Pollack, Henry David Thoreau, Richard Pryor, Mark Rothko, and many other amazing souls that have notched their mark into the tree of life- we will see the common denominator of uniqueness among them. Each took some endeavor, such as music, writing, visual art, film, storytelling, comedy, or expressive personality, and transformed these fields through the filter of their being. Could you imagine a world in which innovators chose only to imitate rather than innovate?

The primary purpose of artistic expression is to transform art and break the mold. There is no act more non-conformist and revolutionary than the expression of an artistic mind. There is no greater love for the world, and no greater cause, than the creation of art that mystifies the senses of the hearts and minds of people. Art, with all of its beauty, pain, purpose, struggle, reflection, and joy is what makes us human. Art is the mechanics of mechanism, the flavors of taste, the spirit of ghosts, the brush strokes of pigments, the meaning of the vibrations of sound, the imagination that drives exploration, the beauty of existence, and the creation of transcendence.

It can be understood that every person on Earth is meant, at a biological, psychological, and spiritual level, to be an artist. This is to say that we each have a deep need for expression. Those with no mechanism or outlet for such expression will find a sense of worthlessness in existence. Yet, if each of us can shed the limitations of imitations, we would each find a spark of expression deep within. When we add the fuel of influence we create a new fire. These heavy jackets we wear are soaked with the foul water of the expectations of our minds and society. If we step beyond those realms, we step into art.

Today, in each of our artistic expressions, we are the Picassos and the Mozarts of our present culture. In a world of more and more imitation it is important to add the spices of unique expression to the bland and bulky fodder of society. We should each strive for the greatness of uniqueness. We are the filters of Universal expression and being. Everything we do is either confined to subtle parameters or explodes into Universal function. Let us splatter this world with amazements that our collective senses can not ignore. Art awakens souls, and the world needs a cure for soullessness.

"This world is but a canvas to our imagination."
-Henry David Thoreau

Laren Grey Umphlett
The Author of "The Power of Perception"
www.larengreyumphlett.com
www.facebook.com/ThePowerOfPerception
Laren Grey Umphlett is an Austin based fitness trainer, wrestling coach, writer, and sometimes pseudo-philosopher.