Ten Thousand Films weblog

Tomb of Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani

10k films — Fri, 11 May 2012 23:13:47 +0000

Talking with a hermit in the Zhongnan mountains, China.

10k films — Tue, 08 May 2012 14:00:52 +0000

“The Lizard” (2004) Directed by Kamal Tabrizi

10k films — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 13:46:27 +0000

“The Lizard” (Persian: مارمولک ‎, Marmoulak) a 2004 Iranian comedy directed by Kamal Tabrizi. Watch full film above.

“Reza is a petty thief who escapes jail by posing as a mullah. When he has to stay in disguise longer than he expected, he accidentally becomes the revered leader of a small-town mosque, bringing people flooding in with his on the hoof sermons. There are as many paths to reach God as there are people in the world.” – The film was shown for 1 month in Iran with a massive demand for tickets, then it was banned. Its apparently very well known and widely bootlegged.

Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium, Japan

10k films — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 16:43:07 +0000

This was shot at the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium in Japan.

The main tank called the ‘Kuroshio Sea’ holds 7,500-cubic meters (1,981,290 gallons) of water and features the world’s second largest acrylic glass panel, measuring 8.2 meters by 22.5 meters with a thickness of 60 centimeters. Whale sharks and manta rays are kept amongst many other fish species in the main tank.

Thanks: http://alchemiya.tumblr.com/archive

a fresh green plant

10k films — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 13:41:19 +0000

God’s Apostle (Peace and Blessings be upon Him) said, “The example of a believer is that of a fresh green plant the leaves of which move in whatever direction the wind forces them to move, and when the wind becomes still, it stands straight. Such is the similitude of the believer: He is disturbed by calamities (but like the fresh plant he regains his normal state soon). And the example of a disbeliever is that of a pine tree (which remains) hard and straight till God cuts it down when He wills.”

Bukhari Vol. 9 : No. 558

news from our own far off country

10k films — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 14:44:31 +0000

In speaking of this desire for our own far off country, which we find in ourselves even now, I feel a certain shyness. I am almost committing an indecency. I am trying to rip open the inconsolable secret in each one of you – the secret which hurts so much that you take your revenge on it by calling it names like Nostalgia and Romanticism and Adolescence; the secret also which pierces with such sweetness that when, in very intimate conversation, the mention of it becomes imminent, we grow awkward and affect to laugh at ourselves; the secret we cannot hide and cannot tell, though we desire to do both. We cannot tell it because it is a desire for something that has never actually appeared in our experience. We cannot hide it because our experience is constantly suggesting it, and we betray ourselves like lovers at the mention of a name. Our commonest expedient is to call it beauty and behave as if that had settled the matter. Wordsworth’s expedient was to identify it with certain moments in his own past. But all this is a cheat. If Wordsworth had gone back to those moments in the past, he would not have found the thing itself, but only the reminder of it; what he remembered would turn out to be itself a remembering. The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing. These things – the beauty, the memory of our own past – are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshipers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited.

CS Lewis, ‘The Weight of Glory.’

Ready

10k films — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 23:47:17 +0000

Ten-thousand teachings
Settle to the bottom of my cup
The tea is ready
- Gu Shen Yu

The Song of the Strange Ascetic – Gilbert Keith Chesterton

10k films — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 23:18:57 +0000

If I had been a Heathen,
I’d have praised the purple vine,
My slaves should dig the vineyards,
And I would drink the wine.
But Higgins is a Heathen,
And his slaves grow lean and grey,
That he may drink some tepid milk
Exactly twice a day.

If I had been a Heathen,
I’d have crowned Neaera’s curls,
And filled my life with love affairs,
My house with dancing girls;
But Higgins is a Heathen,
And to lecture rooms is forced,
Where his aunts, who are not married,
Demand to be divorced.

If I had been a Heathen,
I’d have sent my armies forth,
And dragged behind my chariots
The Chieftains of the North.
But Higgins is a Heathen,
And he drives the dreary quill,
To lend the poor that funny cash
That makes them poorer still.

If I had been a Heathen,
I’d have piled my pyre on high,
And in a great red whirlwind
Gone roaring to the sky;
But Higgins is a Heathen,
And a richer man than I:
And they put him in an oven,
Just as if he were a pie.

Now who that runs can read it,
The riddle that I write,
Of why this poor old sinner,
Should sin without delight-
But I, I cannot read it
(Although I run and run),
Of them that do not have the faith,
And will not have the fun.

Anandamayi Ma

10k films — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 18:33:39 +0000

“Whatever comes to pass is all right” (ja hoya jay) — Anandamayi Ma

Music: Lata S. Patel- Jaya Jaya Ma (Thanks A.M.)

“Who is it that loves and who that suffers? He alone stages a play with Himself; who exists save Him? The individual suffers because he perceives duality. It is duality which causes all sorrow and grief. Find the One everywhere and in everything and there will be an end to pain and suffering.” – Anandamayi Ma

Birth of a Star

10k films — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 12:09:35 +0000

Thanks M.K.