It’s raining today in Belgrade, and sky is somehow grey. But yesterday, it was unexpectedly beautiful weather for this time of year. And I got one unexpected phone call. It was my friend Marijana calling me to go out to athletic track to run. I was so happy – there has been a while since I ran last time, inertia and laziness overwhelmed me, but now I wear on my running shoes, and go in front of the building. There is she arriving with a car in few minutes, and then we go towards athletic track. I don’t like to walk there (later in that case I am not inspired to run) I prefer to go with a car, and of course I like to run with my friends much more than when I am alone – though when I run alone it is also very inspiring, because I just tend to make friendship with beautiful trees and flowers around me – and at the same time I am focused inside, so I am bathing in the sea of peace and joy inwardly. What joy can be compared to running? I wouldn’t be so sincerely joyful even if I bought Intel Quadcore processor (which would certainly make me very satisfied). What can bring you more peace than running? Even the skies above seem more blue while you run.

We did not run more than 800 m, for it is always better to start spontaneously after longer pause (in June we used to run much more). Rest of time we spent in walking and exercising (lawn beside track got richer for some training equipment in the meantime – one can do now all kinds of pull ups and crunches and dips etc). That is also good because if you add some more activity to running it gives you even more joy if you can see progress there too during weeks and months.

Today is raining in Belgrade, as I already mentioned. And the sky is somehow grey. But that will not stop me to run few hundred meters when I go out – for I’ve already discovered the secret. When you run the sky is blue – whatever it be in the objective world. Joy to all!

Today is very special day for my family. This day, 21st November, is our Slava. It means that we are celebrating our patron saint – St. Archangel Michael.

Slava is something characteristic for the Serbs, and each family celebrate their own patron saint (celebration day they inherit – son from father, and daughter usually celebrates her husband’s patron saint). Custom is very detailed, there is specially made bread for the occassion, and wine and then there is whole custom about what should be done and said. This day is happy day of family gathering.

During the communism time in Yugoslavia after WWII, many Serbs simply forgot to celebrate slava, because atheism was predominant type of religious belief so to say. But my family always celebrated on this day – but we did not speak openly about that during communism, those were the times when I went to the primary school.

Now majority of people again is celebrating slava, which is very good – even cities celebrate their own slava, etc. So, people are buying books to learn how precisely to celebrate this occassion.

But let me tell you – I do not follow books at all in this particular case, because I feel that this is oral tradition that is inherited from my forefathers, and we celebrate exactly the way my grandfather taught my father etc. I do not have idea if it is according to books or not – it is important that hearts are full in this day, and that we celebrate in love and family peace. And that we offer gratitude to the Lord.

St. Archangel Michael is very much respected in both Orthodox and Catholic Christianity, as well as in Islam, so far I heard. I believe that he is the Chief Commander of the Heavenly hosts.

If you want to give me greetings on this special day, you can say “Srećnа Slava!” which means Happy Slava! My dear friends were calling whole day long on the phone to greet us and give us good will, for which I am very grateful.

I want to analyse, dissect, understand, describe, classify, weigh, feel, touch and explain our need and process of wishing well to our friends and other brothers and sisters of the world, to myself. What is well wishing actually?

I would really like to learn to make other people happy. But for that one needs “know-how”, it seems we are learning whole life how to make other people happy – and it is not so easy. And then sometimes I feel that when people wish well to other people – that well wishing is actually “I don’t wish anything that is not well to you” and you’d agree, that is something completely different. Now some people wish well to other people in their own way – and that again is something from the world of limitation.

And I don’t want to limit people and their abilities. I cannot wish them things that I wish for myself too – presuming they would be good for them too. For example, for the time being, I do not have any wish whatsoever to climb the Himalayas. But there were people who fulfilled that wish in their life even before I was born. Of course, I do have a wish to run a marathon (I reckon it would not be so difficult thing to do, with adequate preparation) but I will not wish that to people who did not find their inspiration in running (yet).

Another thing that happens are expectations. We do something for someone – and then somehow subconsciously (or even consciously) we expect something in return. I remember that someone said once that only rich people can give. That is true. People are not rich and poor according to amount of wealth they amassed, but rather according to their capacity to give. If we cherish expectations it is the same thing as if we wrote the equation “I have expectations = I am poor” on T-shirts that we are wearing. Perhaps we are trying to hide our expectations cleverly – but our face will reveal it.

When we play chess, we do not get greatest joy when we correctly anticipated the oponent’s move – but provided that we observe the knightly beauty of fair-play, we will value more when our friend from the opposite side of table makes move that is unexpected, and better than all other moves we foresaw. We feel joy because new idea was revealed in front of our eyes, although it is evident that because of that idea we are losing our chess game.

Why to have expectations then in life? Even if our expectations are met – what is new? Let unpredicted beautiful things happen; and for that we must free space for newness by silencing our demanding part of mind.

Perhaps we selflessly do something and we say – even if that person do not know to value that properly, Nature or God will repay us back through some other person in some other time. This is nothing else but more refined expectation. But there is some joy in not expecting at all, in detaching from results of our works.

It is not just imagination, such joy. We can actually feel it. And our face will shine with selflessness, when nobody is watching or everybody is watching.

I have just seen The Pianist movie. It is Roman Polanski’s masterpiece, if you haven’t seen it yet it is a must see! Especially because it is based on a true story.

Francesca, I don’t know why, but I cannot post the comment on your blog. I write and press the button but nothing happens. So I will post comment here.

How beautiful and precise is the metaphor of Bologna stone (phosporescent barium sulphate) to explain interstices between science and literature (art in general?)! We clearly see it in works of Carl Sagan, Isaac Asimov, Richard Feynmann and many others. But still the metaphor is limited to objective domain, and reality is more than oscillation of energy, more than things that can be expressed outwardly. If science and literature are in the warm embrace with each other on the green fields of objective reality, then we must not forget there is blue sky above them.

“No, this trick won’t work…How on earth are you ever going to explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love?”

Albert Einstein

I am using online translator (Altavista Babelfish) to read your blog in Italian. Online translation ITA->ENG is more precise, English to Italian is not precise at all because of more difficult grammar, so I asked Barbara to help.

Here is her translation of the comment to Italian, so that you can understand it. (My gratitude, B)

Com’è bella e precisa la metafora della pietra di Bologna (solfato di bario fosforescente), per spiegare gli interstizi tra la scienza e la letteratura (l’arte in generale?) Lo vediamo chiaramente nei lavori di Carl Sagan, Isaac Asimov , Richard Feynmann e di molti altri. Ma là ancora la metafora è limitata ad un campo obiettivo, e la realtà è molto più che oscillazione di energia, molto più che cose che possono essere espresse esteriormente. Se la scienza e la letteratura si sposano in un caldo abbraccio sul prato verde della realtà obiettiva, allora non dobbiamo dimenticare che c’è un cielo blu sopra di loro.

“No, questo trucco non funzionerà.. Come potrete mai spiegare in termini di mera chimica e fisica, un fenomeno cosi’ importante come il primo amore?”

Albert Einstein

And yes, I am big Carl Sagan’s fan – since my early childhood! :-)

Thank you Marija Šerifović!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE ALL LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Serbia is the winner of 52th Eurovision Song Contest in Helsinki, Finland.

Welcome to Belgrade 2008!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tomorrow I shall write more, now I gotta go to celebrate!!!!!!

http://www.eurovision.tv/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6650599.stm

http://www.eurovision.tv/content/view/427/281/

I remember last year on Belgrade Marathon while I was waiting for my friends at the finish line, one jazz band was playing, among all other stuff, opening theme from Muppet Show. You know the song; It’s time to put on makeup..It’s time to dress up right..It’s time to raise the curtain on the Muppet Show tonight :) Oh well, at the middle of the song, one man from that band said to the microphone -People, Animal couldn’t stand it anymore- and then all instruments went silent, so the drummer was drumming like crazy I am sure not less than 10 minutes! Then they continued with the song. I was laughing and laughing, that really brightened my day :)

Rita Moreno won Emmy award for appearance in this episode of Muppet Show. The above clip was filmed in 1977. I loved Muppets so much, and this is my appeal to all TV people in charge – please give us Muppets back! They were the most sensational inspirational celebrational Muppetational – this is what we call the Muppet Show!

Coco knows when Barbara will go to vacation, so he hides in her bag (thinking that she will not see and carry him too) :)

It is easy. If you wish to do it, here is how it can be done.

First you need text widget. WordPress allows you to have 9 text widgets. Kindly go to Presentation -> Sidebar Widgets. Take text widget with your mouse, left click and hold, and drag and drop it into the sidebar – on place you wish. If you do not have enough text widgets you can increase their availability from drop down menu beside question How many text widgets would you like?

Click on the right side of text widget and text box will open with title and body for HTML. I thought it would be nice if this sticker hyperlinks to the homepage of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). Now in title you can write your message about not using fur. In the main text window write this code

Then close window by clicking anywhere outside it, and Save Changes.

I have already done that in my blog so you can see how it looks like. This is easy and everyone can do it. If you do not want to put this sticker on your blog, you can print it on printer and make interesting badge. All in all, be creative, there are many ways to say to other people that you do not feel like that animals should be killed because of someone’s notions of fashion. Let us join to appeal of people who make new fashion – fashion that says fur is out. There is no aesthetics in killing animals for fashion – let us all say what we think and really prove that we are civilised. No fur!

And one more thing – you may find it difficult to become vegetarian at this moment. I hope you will reconsider that option in the future someday, but when it comes to wearing fur – it is very, very easy to renounce wearing it. Just say no, and help higher and more humane taste in fashion to evolve. It is easy. We can do it!

Address of NO FUR sticker, if you want to print it out on paper is
http://www.petacatalog.org/images/200-BU171.jpg
Note, it is address that you have to put in img src tag in text widget, see code example above.

Do you often call your relative or good friend in distant country, on another continent? That can be quite consuming hobby for your money, having in mind the prices of international calls. But there are some good news for you and some bad news for telephony providers – by using VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) you can make distant calls at no price. Of course, the best known software for internet telephony is Skype.

It is easy. You can download Skype, install it, and open your Skype account for free. You write an email to your friend to do the same. Both of you get a microphone (best on a headset, but ordinary microphone and speakers can serve the purpose), and you can talk for free, as long as you wish! You will be pleasantly surprised with the quality of sound sometimes. If you prefer chatting to talking, you can also use Skype for chatting. Interface, at least in my opinion, is nice, and emoticons are very cute.

If you want to contact me via Skype, you are welcome to do so – but please send a message via chat to introduce yourself before you call. I managed to embed my skype button here on blog, and whenever you visit this blog you can see the availability of me for the chat. And if I am available, go to your Skype software and search for user dreams.corner then when you find me – click on chat, and – say, uhh type, hello! :)

If you want to enable your friends to see your skype status on your blog, you have to use text widget. Click on the right of it to open the text window. Then go to your browser, and find this address http://www.skype.com/share/buttons/ create your button by typing in your skype name and choosing the button, choose Show Web HTML, and when you get the code copy&paste it in text widget window. Then click it twice on text widget to close, and update the whole thing. And then it should be visible for others.

Note that because javascript is not enabled here on WordPress, others cannot call you by clicking button on your blog. For now blog can only be an indicator of your momentary skype status – availability.

As you see, no need for bags of money for international calls anymore. Now your dear friends are just one skype step away from you.

For free download go to main Skype download page here.

Who says that I object shopping? In fact I like shopping, I only don’t like it in periods when I don’t have money. In fact even then I like it, but I like it infinitely more when I can buy something too. Well, when I see Britney with her friends on MTV going to shopping, I just close my eyes and think that I went also to buy new running shoes (actually I bought silver-black Reebok leather ones few weeks ago, the wisest thing to do is to get running shoes when it is winter discount!)

It is just that shops in Belgrade don’t have always what I want…

So I can only dream how beautiful would it be that I enter in shop one day and say

-Good day, my beloved friends!-
-Good day, mister Dejan, what do you wish to buy today?-
-I just want to greet you with a smile, and to buy few things by the way-
-You are always very welcome, just say!-
-Oh well, I need 300 gr of happiness, half a kilo of pure joy, hmmm, what is that there on discount? aha, inner peace, well, that’s good – give me 2 kilos of that…How about selfless love, hmm, okay, give one litre of that. Do I need to mix it with water, or I can drink it like that?
-No, you can drink it like that. But if you want to mix it with water we have concentrated one too!-
-Okay, give me that concentrated one, and what is that over there…forgiveness, give me that too, and two bars of bliss and delight. What, box of pleasures, no, I don’t need it, I have already bought pure joy, and if it won’t be enough I will drop by this evening to buy half a kilo more. And please wrap it all up well, I don’t want to lose anything of it-
-No problem, here I will wrap it in special paper of humility that can contain it all-
-Thank you, how much money do I owe you for that?-
-Come on, why do you ask, we know that you are close friend of the shop owner. So everything is free for you!-
-Ok, thanks very much. I just thought it would be polite to ask :) Good-bye dear friends!
-Good-bye mr. Dejan, and please come again!-

But perhaps this is not mere dream. Perhaps the name of this shop is created Universe. And what is the way to become very good friend with the Owner? Nice topic to think about…

Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.

Albert Einstein

One thing is sure, if such shop exists you do not say ‘Give me’ no, it is not proper. Proper word is ‘Take me’ (make me Your friend, never to part)

Enjoy your shopping!

Today beautiful snowflakes clothed Belgrade in white clothes, giving him outwardly the inward beauty of his name (Beli grad, or Beograd – means the white city). Celebration clothes are not there without reason – today all schools and universities celebrate St. Sava’s Slava. Slava is serbian custom of celebrating patron saint, and St. Sava is patron saint of all educational institutions in Serbia.

Let us see who is that man whom we celebrate today. He is the source of unceasing inspiration to me. Why is that? Because he is my hero of renunciation in order to reach one’s own higher Ideal. He was born in royal family as a serbian Prince, in place called Ras then in medieval Serbia, in 1169 AD. His name was Rastko Nemanjić, and his father was a powerful King, Stefan Nemanja (actually he was Grand Župan but I am using the title King not to confuse the readers here, it is the same thing). Now you can easily imagine the difference between prince and ordinary people – he had wealth, and one day he was supposed to inherit power from his father and to rule the country (from his 15th year he was ruling actually over one bigger area in order to learn art of ruling state afterwards).

But when he was 16, three monks from Mount Athos (Holy Mountain on the Chalkidiki peninsula) visited serbian court. He talked with them and decided to flee away from the court to Athos and to become monk. To renounce all that awaited him and accept the life of obedience, celibacy and poverty. Why on the earth he did that? Why would anyone renounce such wealth, such wordly pleasures at the court – and there are wise men who say that in terms of passion money and beautiful women are next to nothing compared to political power. And our Rastko renounced future ruling of the country. He was very bright, he was not stupid (read his biography to see how diplomatically he was skilled later in life). My personal opinion is that he must have felt something that is far more fulfilling than all that what awaited him. Imagine for a moment that you are a prince and that someone tells you – renounce all that and I shall show you greater treasures? Would you renounce? I would not. Only someone who FEELS that ideal in heart can do such a thing. It is divine nostalgia.

What happened when King found out that his youngest son fled to Greece. When he found out that his beloved son went to monastery he was so desperate sent an ultimatum to Greece that he will occupy the country unless they bring him his son back. Serbia then was very powerful and this threat made statesmen tremble with fear, but Rastko told soldiers that they take rest that night and tomorrow he will go with them back to Serbia. However, during the night while soldiers were sleeping, Rastko became monk, and took the name Sava. He wrote letter to father to console him, and to persuade him not to send the army. It is interesting that later in life both King and Queen renounced world and became monks. Sava, and his father Stefan Nemanja (later St. Simeon) renewed Chilandar. Sava also became first serbian Archibishop 1219, and so he established the Independence of Archbishopic of the Serbian Church.

Can you remember anyone else who was prince and renounced all to search for higher Ideal. Of course, I am speaking of great prince Siddhartha Gautama, who in his 29th year left everything, his wife and little son too, in order to find way to cessation of suffering. After 6 years he became the Buddha and came back to his wife and son (whom he accepted as his disciples) but he never became wordly King, as St. Sava also never became wordly King. It is unknown to me that anyone else in history was in royal family and renounced all in order to become ascetic or monk (if you know someone however, please leave the comment). Therefore St. Sava and the Buddha will always be my heroes, to remind me that inner seeking in heart knows no outer compromise. We are speaking so much in our day-to-day life about sincerity, but when we read about lives of St. Sava and the Buddha we can see and feel what sincerity to one’s own heart ideals really is. Although compromise can be good in outer life, in the inner life it can never, never, never be good.

Ottoman Turks burned holy relics of St. Sava in Belgrade, Vračar Plateau, 1595, but they couldn’t destroy heaven glory of the saint. On that very place now is situated enormous St. Sava Cathedral (just golden-plated cross on top of it is 12 meters high, so I heard), which has 49 bells of all sizes (and music tones) that can play melody when ringing. Tone D1 is dedicated to great serbian Prime Minister Dr. Zoran Djindjić who was assassinated in 2003.

Few years ago I went to listen to one classical concert that happened to be on this day. So, before they started the concert, musicians sang and played the Hymn of Saint Sava. During the years of communist rule in Yugoslavia St. Sava was not praised, at least not publicly. But now spontanously all people in concert hall stood up when they heard beautiful notes of this hymn. And I am not ashamed to admit here that in that moment it was impossible to hold back tears in my eyes.

Da se srpska sva srca
S tobom ujedine,
Sunce mira, ljubavi
Da nam svima sine;

That serbian all hearts
Unite with you
Sun of peace, love
To shine on all of us;

I was thinking. What would happen if I won right now 1 million $ on lottery. Would it make me better or worse man in the long run? (I am almost ready to believe that it would not be good for me) People always say -We just need a little more money, if we just had a little more, everything would be just fine- But let us think it the other way, what if someone gave us much more money – would it be for our own good, or would it make all worse? Perhaps this is silly thinking. But anyways this is ethical thinking. Money is not something that helps our nature to evolve – sincere cry in the heart is needed for that.

Ryokan, a Zen master, lived the simplest kind of life in a little hut at the foot of a mountain. One evening a thief visited the hut only to discover there was nothing in it to steal.

Ryokan returned and caught him. “You may have come a long way to visit me,” he told the prowler, “and you shoud not return emptyhanded. Please take my clothes as a gift.”

The thief was bewildered. He took the clothes and slunk away.

Ryokan sat naked, watching the moon. “Poor fellow, ” he mused, “I wish I could give him this beautiful moon.”

story taken from 101 Zen stories

And so it is time to introduce myself. My name is Dejan, and I am from Serbia. Sometimes I wish that I have more money just that I can buy new running shoes. Or that I have more money so that I can travel, and visit interesting places (note: I am not speaking about well known tourist attractions). Or to buy nice presents for my dear friends. Other than that I need no some extraXXL money, I mean, I don’t have any illusion that money would make me happy. Except for perhaps I should be able to buy more books, that is true. I don’t know what robbers think when they rob the bank – will that make them happy? Let me tell you – no, I mean, it is their own being that could make them truly happy, so I can recommend to any robber to go and watch the river instead of robbing a bank. Why? River is flowing, and when you watch it you are flowing in peace too, and it is the same as you are flying when you see the bird is flying to joys too. And something like that can make you happy. It is not much, but it can give joy. But I guess that bank robbers do not have time to read my blog. They are always busy.

So this is the last day of 2006. year, and the first day of my blogging here. I can feel somehow that 2007. will be great year, and you may say that I am an optimist, but I just feel it – so I want to wish Happy New Year to everybody, both those people who are on eastern hemisphere and who are in New Year right now, and for those who like me are still waiting for midnight. OK, I have to vamoose now – to celebrate :)  

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