#love all serve all

[surprisebitch]

reblog with ur most listened albums in the last 7 days

generate ur swag here

[sweetheartsaku]

i love making my moots feel loved

[nyanpeki]

I'm living in inescapable whirlpool of muddy water This body has more destructive heat than it can handle

my obsession with fujii kaze

i will make them all stickers so if you are interested lmk

songs: [matsuri] [kirari] [mo-eh-wa] [shinunoga e-wa] [damn] [nan-nan]

[art4lm]

To my favourite J-pop artist

[cherrylucifer99]

花祭り 夏祭り 何でも好きに選びな あなたの心の中咲かせな (えいっ) 秋祭り 冬休み その閉じた心 今こじ開けな あっけーな ラッセーラ

Flower festival summer festival you can pick whatever you want and have em bloom in your heart Autumn festival winter vacation now break open your closed heart

[vulcanette]

gotta do The Dance 👐🏼 every time

[speakeasy8]

[004] Fujii, K. (through the eyes of Zuzzu, his manager)

Kaze’s Autumn Fest  

(TL: This is a 4-part entry covering the LASA Concert @ Panasonic Stadium Suita of which I’m only doing the second one, because it’s the most interesting.) 

- Staff journal entry dating 28 October 2022, by Zuzzu 

The first time I saw Kaze perform live was at a show with an audience of about a hundred. Advance tickets were sold out. Setlist was comprised of well-known covers and the original songs he was already performing live back then were NaN-NaNw and Choshinochatte.  The immensity of his skills needs no introduction, and whether it be witnessed within videos on YouTube or live in front of an audience, his desire to entertain and deliver high quality enjoyment to the audience is an overpowering one. 

.

From that point at the very beginning to the LOVE ALL SERVE ALL Stadium Live four years later, it’s been a long journey of carefully finding ways to introduce the existence known as Fujii Kaze to the world. It’s a process that involved many long discussions, sharing of ideas and working around issues which were all done as a team (Kaze himself included, of course), and it still continues to this day.  I could tell from the get-go through the very first performance I experienced that Kaze already had it all: singing ability, piano skill, audience engagement, you name it. But the more I learn about him as a person, the more apparent it became that he isn’t somebody who can or should be simply thrust to the world, as the chances of it leading to grave misunderstanding is pretty high.  As such, I figured it‘d be wiser to first show people what he is able to offer as a musician, instead of simply suddenly unveiling to the world who he essentially is as a person. It was just a gut feeling I had. 

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Another aspect I had to consider was the fact that he’s been uploading videos of himself performing piano covers on YouTube since little, so anyone who knew him from those would only know him as a cover artist there, as he hadn’t shared any of his own original works. As someone who got to hear his original songs pretty early on, I had to tackle the issue of how and when best to present them, as I felt the initial performances that would introduce him to the world should be centered on them and not the covers that he does.  If a number of people got to hear his music first, then perhaps the time for us to introduce him to a wider audience would come. But would people really understand simply from listening to his music? 

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See, even for me, it took a while before his nature finally sunk in. In the earliest stages, I didn’t know anything apart from what I was able to see on the surface. Even now, I cannot confidently claim that I know everything there is to know about him.   The way he thinks and lives and the fact the he is a vegetarian, I couldn’t help but to stop and ask myself how old this kid really is. Based on physical appearance alone, he doesn’t look particularly out of the norm age-wise, but the moment I got a better glimpse of his mentality, the number my mental calculation came up with was 109. And the more I got to know him, the more certain of it I became. What’s scary is, this was the impression that I got right from the time I first met him and, even until now, it hasn’t changed. I know I sound absurd but even as the depth of his soul seems bottomless, there are also very simple things that he’s somehow managed to remain completely ignorant about. This yawning gap that he has, it‘s pretty astounding.   This is veering off topic a little but here’s a recent example:  Kaze: Would ye mind stoppin by a convenience store? Ah wanna withdraw me some monies.  --At the parking area of a convenience store-- Me: Aite, imma wait here for ya.  --5 minutes later-- Me: (What’s taking him so long? He said he was only gonna make a withdrawal.)     --A wild Kaze then hesitantly appears at the entrance. Looking lost, he shuffles his way back.-- Kaze: Ah couldnae wit’draw nothin. None o’ these cards seem ta work. :((   Me: Wha? Why? It clearly says ATM there on the entrance.  --And so I ended up going in with him-- Kaze: So ah wuz tryna insert mah card in ‘ere... Me: ...this is a Loppi. It’s a ticket machine, not an ATM.  Kaze: Ooooh! No wonder it wuz spittin out tix instead~~!  And this isn’t the only example. Things like this happen a few times on an almost daily basis. Anything that doesn’t bear a significant interest to him, he is completely ignorant about.  

.

HELP EVER HURT NEVER was released in 2020.  And in 2022, it was followed by LOVE ALL SERVE ALL.  Both albums carry his core message. It is delivered musically-- embedded within the words, melodies and music videos. According to him, everything he feels he wants to sing about up to this point, has already been sung.   The LOVE ALL SERVE ALL Stadium Live in October is where we wanted to showcase everything Kaze had to offer musically. But just as we were thinking that, in came the docomo future project “KAZE FILMS,” through which the song “grace” was born. What’s even more amazing is that the director, after listening to the song, proposed that the music video be shot in India, a place that bears significant meaning to Kaze, being a big part of his roots. (I’ll be talking more about the music video itself in another entry.)  The origin of Kaze’s mindset, I feel, lies in India, where his family visited while he was still just a foetus sleeping within his mother, and where they went again to give thanks not too long after he finally came into the world.  

When the idea to hold this stadium concert was greenlit, Kaze and I first spoke about making it something that introduces both albums, with an emphasis on LOVE ALL SERVE ALL, and we’d base the infrastructural setup on Kaze’s mindset, turning it into a visual representation of sorts.  All the things that make Kaze who he is: his vegetarianism, his love for animals, and his Indian-based mindset, how do we apply these concepts to this stadium concert?  All other aspects other than the musical one were still only WIP right up until the beginning of September, and while whatever we could move forward with we did, the design aspect was still cloudy so it was absolutely serendipitous that we somehow ended up actually being able to visit the country mid-September.  

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I intend to journalize this trip here someday but for now, I’ll just say that the people who went with us were the film crew who shot NaN-NaNw in NYC, Universal’s Higashi-san, the graphic designer behind all of Kaze’s professional releases and merch so far, Motty Marui-san, the cameraman Ono-san, and the hairstylist-cum-makeup artist Matsuno-san, who was joining a Team Kaze project for the first time. With the creative team in tow, and through the sights that we all took in together with Kaze in India, we were finally able to determine the direction of the overall thematical design to take for the show.  The LASA flag, the staircase leading up, the décor in the SERVE ALL Area, the fresco decorating the stadium itself, the décor in the LOVE ALL Area, the smaller flags and banners, the sounds and the smells.   

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With this, the time where we can finally show to the world Kaze's inherent nature in the most visual form possible is finally upon us.  

Photos by: Yosuke UEYAMA 

[finest--hours]

fujii kaze songs are the only thing keeping me going

[invincible-selfxmade-punk]

Today is what would have been my mom's 84th birthday. When I think in terms of people who have died and have been dead for a long time and it comes time for their birthdays, I always think of them as being incredibly old or would have been incredibly old if they had lived.

The thing is my mom diesd so damn young. She would not have been that old---- at least not to me. But she died at 45, when I was barely 12, and 40 years have come and gone.

I saw a post about Ramadan. And I don't know much about it I don't know if it is still going on. But I did want to put up a little tribute to the second parents that God gave me.

They were an Iraqi couple that I met when I was managing a little kiosk at the mall. I managed there for 10 years and met some of the most wonderful people who became my found family.

The man was named Zeki Al Jabir and his wife was Hayat.s

They only had sons so I became their unofficial adopted daughter.

They immigrated here from Iraq when Saddam Hussein took power and they had to leave behind a fairly privileged life including friends and family.

They both found good jobs here in the United States as professors at a university up north----though probably not as good are as fancy and glamorous as the government jobs that they held before Saddam took everything away.

They came back to Corpus Christi in their '80s to retire and that is how I found them because they walked the mall everyday.

There was a Jordanian couple who ran a kiosk next to mine and I'm guessing that's how we started talking because I heard them speaking Arabic to each other.

I told him how my father was Lebanese and that he had died when I was 20 but he never spoke Lebanese to me. He spoke fluid Lebanese and Spanish to his parents and his parents never really learned english. But he only spoke English to me and didn't seem particularly interested in teaching me any other language. Which I felt a total loss about especially as I got older and after he passed.

Zeki and Hayat were towering influences in my life. Hayat especially was a force to be reckoned with and I truly believe it is because of her that I am now a teacher and it is definitely because of her that I stepped out and published 5 books on my own.

When my first book came out I presented them with a copy and they were so proud of me. They paraded me through the mall with them and introduced me to everyone as their daughter.

Zaki especially always wanted me to become muslim. But that was just not in the cars for me at all. Although I do love and respect it. And in the end I don't think that there are that many differences between our beliefs.

Zeki would regale me with stories of living in Morocco and all the crazy things he had seen and done there. He also thought it quite a novelty that I liked girls. And unbeknownst to his wife would email me. Pictures of scantily clad he thought we both found attractive. He was a wild one! He taught me some Arabic but sadly I cannot remember almost anything now.

Zeki did not tell me when he got answered. I was actually on a trip to Washington DC to visit some of my other Lebanese relatives who are extremely hardcore Republicans and extremely stuck up. But I had gone out on a limb and had gone to visit them and we had eaten at the celebrities restaurant and tried all this wonderful wonderful evidence food and I was so proud to come back and sure it was sexy and it was the last thing we would ever share because after I said he emailed to tell him all this. Hayat assured me he read it and he died a few days later.

I ended up getting a teaching job and moving from South Texas back to West Texas and I never saw Hayat again .

I'm sure that she is in whatever Realm Of Heaven they believe in. Probably harassing Zeki about all those virgins. That's one thing I kind of never figured out. You die you went to heaven you got all those virgins but what happened to your wife?

I'm guessing she would have to be okay with it although if it was me I think I'd be demanding those virgins for myself as well. Big bisexual at all.

People are never God as long as they live on in your memory. And now I'm hoping that Zeki and Hayat will live on in yours as well.

[mindfullofyoga]

The story of Hanuman is the story of ourselves

The word Bhakti means devotion. It is the path of the heart. Svaha Yoga is actually a really ‘Bhaktified’ yoga community I would say. Practises that are part of the Bhakti path are; chanting kirtan and puja (offering) but we can also express Bhakti in dynamic practical ways such as showing kindness to others, caring for the environment and its inhabitants. By caring and trying to see all as sacred we empty ourselves of judgement and meet all as no different, no less, no more than ourselves. 

The monkey-god Hanuman is known as “the Greatest Bhakta’’.  Hanuman teaches us about the transformative power of love. When we love others, we step outside of our isolated selves and into a deeper relationship with those around us. As we love – we discover a part in ourselves that is connected, courageous, and capable of far more than we ever thought possible. So therefore Hanuman is also associated of power and courage. 

Hanuman is not a monkey for nothing. The monkey is a symbol for the ‘monkey mind’: The mind that is restless and uncontrollable. But through training, the mind can be tamed. Through spiritual practise and effort - We align thoughts, words and actions with a higher purpose. We become more attracted to the idea of contributing to the welfare of others and living a life of  kindness and service on our own path to freedom.  

The mind that worries, stresses and thinks in loops takes up a lot of our energy. It’s just constantly distracted, going here and there. Our collective addiction to our mobile phones can be seen as an extension of that distracted mind. Have you ever felt depleted after a day off physically not doing anything? It’s that mental depletion lots of us are familiar with. There is a saying: ‘’Where  attention goes energy flows’’. So when all attention goes to those worries and thoughts, it takes up so much energy. By quieting and steadying the mind through the practise of Yoga, we can start to actually feel and sense the body. Energy can start to move through the whole system, to nourish and heal the body. That is the first shift that can be felt through the practise of Yoga: a sense of quietness in the mind and health in the body. When this energy is freed up and the body returns back to its natural state of health and balance, this movement of energy can even take us back to its’ original source and we can rest in deeper states of stillness.

Hanuman is one of the greatest heroes in yogic mythology and you can read about him in the Ramayana. The Ramayana can be red through many lenses. You might read it as a beautiful story or as an inspiration in terms of virtue and good conduct. But, same with the Bible or the Koran or other holy scriptures, we can also read it through a different lens. We can read it as a mirror of our psychological and spiritual development. For me, then all a sudden it becomes a living truth that I can sense in my own system, my own body, happening right now at this very moment. So here it comes:

‘Ra’ means light, ‘Ma’ means within me, in my heart. So, Rama means the light within me. Rama was born to Dasharath & Kousalya. Dasharath means the ‘Ten Chariots’. The ‘Ten Chariots’ symbolize the five senses (seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, smelling) & five organs of action (hands, feet, speech, excretory and reproductive organs). Kousalya means ‘Skill’. So, the skillfull rider of the ten chariots can give birth to Ram. Or, when my senses are controlled and my actions purified, radiance is born within me. Rama was born in Ayodhya. Ayodhya means ‘a place where no war can happen’. When there is no conflict in my mind, then radiance can down. 

And let’s go on a little bit more: The soul is Rama, The mind is Sita, The breath or life-force (Prana) is Hanuman, the awareness is Laxman (the brother of Ram) and the ego is Ravana (the demon king that abducts Sita). Now here it comes: When my mind (Sita),is stolen by my ego (Ravana), then the soul (Rama) gets restless and longs for union with my mind and my mind longs for union with the soul. Now the soul (Rama) cannot reach my mind (Sita) on its own. It has to take the help of the breath — Prana (Hanuman). With the help of the breath (Hanuman) & awareness (Laxman), my mind (Sita) gets reunited with the soul (Rama) and my ego (Ravana) surrenders.

Still following? We can view the Ramayana as an eternal phenomenon happening all the time, in our own system! Now if we do so, how can we practically apply that in our day to day life? 

I was watching a very intimate talk on the meaning of hanuman to our western society by Ram Dass. When he was already very ill, not long before he died. And he mentioned something so beautiful: 

‘’If the world is full of blackness and you feel the strong urge to do something about it. ‘Stop there for a moment’. Delve into your being, make contact with the breath and with your heart. First be and then do. Being is ‘Ram’ inside of us. When we connect with being we can radiate love, compassion, peace and joy. Just radiate. Rub off your connection with that inner being. That ís helping society. Lighten up the space around you. That light is spiritual light. Become a mirror to others to let them recognise being within them. First be, then do.’’

We encounter so many people and situations every day. And every time life asks of us that shift of perception that Ram Dass describes. That slowing down, that meeting situations in our life with openness, instead of through the lens of our own narrowed view. It’s seems to me that life is not so much about what comes to us, but about how we are with what comes to us. So next time you are in an argument with your lover or your boss or your child or whomever. Are you able to widen your perspective? Can you step into the others shoes and shift back to your own, even be in all the shoes at the same time? Can you take a breath, quiet the mind, open the heart and let action happen from that place of openness.

When Rama asks Hanuman, “How do you look upon me?” hanuman replies: “When I believe I am the body, then I am your faithful servant. When I know I am the soul, I know myself to be a spark of your eternal Light. And when I have the vision of truth, you and I, my Lord, are one and the same.”

So much is said in this one sentence. This one sentence, I would argue, describes our whole development through the practise of yoga. It reminds me of the eightfold path of Patanjali. First there is the effort towards good conduct. It’s an effort, an active practise to prepare the system (Yama, Niyama; Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana). Then there is the getting familiar with the tasting of stillness, absorption states, tastings of the divine within ourselves (Dyana) and lastly there is the full merging, the resting in the ocean of divinity, there is no more separation (Samadhi).

Hanuman, the great monkey God of the Ramayana is a symbol of the mind that has become disciplined and filled with devotion. Hanuman is the evolved state of our unruly mind that constantly jumps from thought to thought. This mind is fully focused on the presence of the divine within all and acts from that knowing. Hanuman ís the embodiment of the expression ‘Love all, serve all’’. 

And the story of Hanuman is the story of ourselves.

Ida Stuij, teacher at SvahaYoga, psycholigist 

[andyminmin]

♫ 死ぬのがいいわ — ▶︎ •၊၊||၊|။||||။‌‌‌‌‌၊|• 0:48

◤ . . . . . S͟h͟i͟n͟u͟n͟o͟g͟a͟ ͟E͟-͟W͟a͟ ͟-͟ ͟F͟u͟j͟i͟i͟ ͟K͟a͟z͟e͟ . . . . . ◢

[pangurlban]

Fujii Kaze

Yaba

Love All Serve All

2022

[ryllen]

do u know that even the size of the different size of vegetables at another country amazed me because from where i came from they are all smaller and scrawnier

[suntails]

⚔️🐉

[pmmdj]

"I often hear people saying they struggle with finding a good balance when it comes to being an ally and I can empathize with that. It's a tough line to navigate and one that can very easily be crossed however unintentional. Here's what I do: "1. Follow people you are trying to uplift and listen to their stories. It's amazing how much you can learn just from listening "2. Google is your friend. There are numerous opinion and thinkpieces already out there and available to you "3. YouTube can be a great educational tool "4. Don't ever make demands or go around expecting anyone to spend their time and emotional labor to teach you anything for free, not even your friends "5. Signal boost by liking and retweeting but don't ever speak over the people you're trying to help, that's counterproductive "6. Understand that while you may have your own thoughts and feelings about certain issues, it isn't always necessary to share. ESPECIALLY in safe spaces meant for that specific minority group. You are there to listen, absorb and learn not hijack the conversations taking place "7. One last thing and this is probably one of the most important things: you will inevitably get it wrong at some point. Stay open and receptive to criticism and correction when that happens. Sincerely apologize when you fuck up. Learn from it and be better going forward" -Tanesha, BSN RN (original here)

[kroosluvr]

Life's beauty is like a myriad of flowers, and I want to pluck the one that never wilts.