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“Asajj Ventress is highly intelligent and doesn’t suffer fools gladly. Skill and competence impress her.” Kenobi hesitated. “Shes also a very striking woman, physically. It might tip her off if you, er, don’t...notice her. And...she likes to trade barbs.” Vos snagged a fried kajaka root from Obi-Wan's plate and popped it into his mouth. “You were fighting her and chatting at the same time?”

“Asami soffriva si una patologia che aumentava la probabilità di aborti spontanei. Una volta saputo di essere incinta, aveva deciso di tenere il bambino comunque, anche se da madre single. Presa questa decisione, la scoperta della sua patologia era stata uno shock ulteriore. Non poteva fare a meno di pensare che fosse stata colpa sua. Dava per scontato che anche Kurata avrebbe trovato qualcosa da dirle, tanto per consolarla. Invece, la sua prima reazione dopo aver ascoltato la sua storia fu chiedere da quanti giorni sapesse di aspettare un bambino. Quando lei gli disse che erano passate dieci settimane, lui le chiese: "Secondo te, perchè al bambino che avevi in pancia è stata concessa la vita in questo mondo per quei settanta giorni?". D'un tratto, non riusciva a smettere di aggredirlo. Si era già rimproverata per non aver dato alla luce il suo bambino, ma sentirsi dire una cosa simile da uno che non ne aveva alcun diritto la turbava ancora di più. Con aria pacata, Kurata attese pacificamente che Asami smettesse di piangere, poi disse: "Quel bambino ha usato i suoi settanta giorni di vita per renderti felice. Se continui a devastarti in questo modo, il tuo bambino avrà sprecato quei settanta giorni". Il suo messaggio non voleva essere consolatorio: le indicava una strada per cambiare il modo di interpretare il dolore che stava provando. "Invece, se adesso provi a essere felice, il tuo bambino avrà messo a frutto i suoi settanta giorni. E in quel caso, la sua vita avrà avuto senso. Solo tu puoi dare senso alla vita che ha ricevuto in dono. Perciò devi fare il possibile per essere felice. E la persona che lo vorrebbe di più è proprio il tuo bambino". Sentendolo parlare così, ad Asami mancò quasi il fiato. La profonda disperazione che le gravava sul cuore cominciò a dissiparsi, e ogni cosa le parve più chiara. "Cercando di essere felice, posso dare senso alla vita del mio bambino". Ecco la risposta.”

“Asana is a very important part of life. It keeps you healthy, strong, and energetic. And it enables you to discover and reclaim the innate wisdom of your body. But it is only after you rediscover the self-luminous nature of your own mind that you will begin to experience the true power of asana. That discovery comes from the meditative aspect of yoga.”

“ASANA Now I shall instruct you regarding the nature of asana or seat. Although by 'asana' is generally meant the erect posture assumed in meditation, this is not its central or essential meaning. When I use the word 'asana' I do not mean the various forms of asana’s such as Padmasana, Vajrasana, Svastikasana, or Bhadrasana. By 'asana' I mean something else, and this is what I want to explain to you. First let me speak to you about breath; about the inhaling breath-apana, and the exhaling breath-prana. Breath is extremely important in meditation; particularly the central breath-madhyama-pranan, which is neither prana nor apana. It is the center of these two, the point existing between the inhaling and exhaling breaths. This center point cannot be held by any physical means, as a material object can be held by the hand. The center between the two breaths can be held only by knowledge-jnana – not discursive knowledge, but by knowledge which is awareness. When this central point is held by continuously refreshed awareness – which is knowledge and which is achieved through devotion to the Lord – that is, in the true sense settling into your asana. On the pathway of your breath maintain continuously refreshed and full awareness on and in the center of breathing in and breathing out. This is internal asana. (Netra Tantra) Asana, therefore, is the gradual dawning in the spiritual aspirant of the awareness which shines in the central point found between inhaling and exhaling. This awareness is not gained by that person who is full of prejudice, avarice, or envy. Such a person, filled with all such negative qualities, cannot concentrate. The prerequisite of this glorious achievement is, therefore, the purification of your internal egoity. It must become pure, clean, and crystal clear. After you have purged your mind of all prejudice and have started settling with full awareness into that point between the two breaths, then you are settling into your asana. When in breathing in and breathing out you continue to maintain your awareness in continuity on and in the center between the incoming and outgoing breath, your breath will spontaneously and progressively become more and more refined. At that point you are driven to another world. This is pranayama." (Netra Tantra) After settling in the asana of meditation arises the refined practice of pranayama. ‘Pranayama’ does not mean inhaling and exhaling vigorously like a bellow. Like asana, pranayama is internal and very subtle. There is a break less continuity in the traveling of your awareness from the point of asana into the practice of pranayama. When through your awareness you have settled in your asana, you automatically enter into the practice of pranayama. Our Masters have indicated that there are two principle forms of this practice of ‘asana-pranayama’, i.e. cakrodaya and ajapa-gayatri. In the practice of ajapa-gayatri you are to maintain continuously refreshed full awareness-(anusandhana) in the center of two breaths, while breathing in and out slowly and silently. Likewise in the practice of cakrodaya you must maintain awareness, which is continually fresh and new, filled with excitement and vigor, in the center of the two breaths – you are to breathe in and out slowly, but in this case with sound. ― Swami Lakshmanjoo”

“Ascend beyond the sickly atmosphere to a higher plane, and purify yourself by drinking as if it were ambrosia the fire that fills and fuels Emptiness. Free from the futile strivings and the cares which dim existence to a realm of mist, happy is he who wings an upward way on mighty pinions to the fields of light; whose thoughts like larks spontaneously rise into the morning sky; whose flight, unchecked, outreaches life and readily comprehends the language of flowers and of all mute things.”

“Ascend, may you find so resistance Just know that you made such a difference All you leave behind will live to the end The cycle of suffering goes on But memories of you stay strong Some day I too will fly and find you again”

“Ascend, my brothers, ascend eagerly. Let your hearts' resolve be to climb. Listen to the voice of the one who says: 'Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of our God' (Isa. 2:3), Who makes our feet to be like the feet of the deer, 'Who sets us on the high places, that we may be triumphant on His road' (Hab. 3:19).”

“Ascending higher, we say… not definable, not nameable, not knowable, not dark, not light, not untrue, not true, not affirmable, not deniable, for while we affirm or deny of those orders of beings that are akin to Him we neither affirm nor deny Him that is beyond all affirmation as unique universal Cause and all negation as simple preeminent Cause, free of all and to all transcendent. (from The Mystical Theology)”

“Ascension Island Along the western coast of the Sahara desert, about half way between the Canary Islands and the Cape Verde Islands, lies a sand spit called Cape Barbas. In 1441, ships attached to Estêvão da Gama’s fleet were sent by Prince Henry to explore the coastline south of Cape Barbas, which, five years earlier, was the farthest point reached by any of Prince Henry’s captains. Although there are some conflicting stories regarding the discoveries of the mid-Atlantic islands, it is safe to assume that in 1501 João da Nova discovered Ascension Island. The desolate island remained deserted until it was rediscovered two years later on Ascension Day by Alfonso de Albuquerque. He was also the first European to discover the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. Having been to most of these exotic locations I know that Ascension Island is the very top of a mostly submerged mid-Atlantic mountain. It is part of the mid-ocean ridge which is by far the longest mountain range on earth. As an active fault line it starts north of Iceland becoming the Reykjanes Ridge as it crosses the northern Island Nation and finishes in the Indian Ocean south of the Cape of Good Hope in Africa. Because of this active ridge, South America and Africa are 1,600 miles apart and dovetail each other, spreading apart at an annual rate of about 1 1/8 inches.”

“Ascension seemed at such times a natural law. If one added to it a law of completion - that everything must finally be made comprehensible - then some general rescue of the sort I imagined my aunt to have undertaken would be inevitable. For why do our thoughts turn to some gesture of a hand, the fall of a sleeve, some corner of a room on a particular anonymous afternoon, even when we are asleep, and even when we are so old that our thoughts have abandoned other business? What are all these fragments for , if not to be knit up finally?”

“Asceticism. "(from Greek askeō: “to exercise,” or “to train”), the practice of the denial of physical or psychological desires in order to attain a spiritual ideal or goal. Hardly any religion has been without at least traces or some delphic features of asceticism. Enlightenment, meditation, yoga, natural, free, sanctuary, homelessness, technology, spirituality, depth, mindfulness, function, society, benefit.”

“Asceticism, it is evident, has a double motivation. If men and women torment their bodies, it is not only because they hope in this way to atone for past sins and avoid future punishments; it is also because they long to visit the mind's antipodes and do some visionary sightseeing.”