It’s always nice to receive fan mail in the morning!! Thank You, Miguel.

Hello Nina,

I had the chance to see yesterday “Phantom Love”.
It hit me hard, … I was absorbed, on a hypnotic voyage from the start. Lulu just took me away. Every sequence and frame is spelled with so much soul and feeling, on this unique visual grammar you use while you shoot and edit. Your images must be the most organic I ever saw.
I will re-watch the film this evening cause I woke up with so many sequences of it still bouncing in my head,.. the sounds, the games of shadows and light… Thank you for making it.
Still one of the sequences that amazes me from so many point of views, the wide shoot of the casino, that stays till Lulu is revealed as working in it has a croupier. Its something so simple but so outstanding. Nina, your work is inspiring and for that again a big Thank you!
I will be waiting patiently for your next one:)

Best Regards,

Miguel Gaudencio

The only journey is the journey within.~~
Rainer Maria Rilke

my teacher maria….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpT13E83q9o&feature=player_embedded

I’ve said it before but feel compelled to repeat:

SO FOUL A SKY CLEARS NOT WITHOUT A STORM……………………………………….

From craving [attachment] springs grief, from craving springs fear; For him
who is wholly free from craving, there is no grief, much less fear. (Dhammapada Sutra.) If you don’t have attachments, naturally you’re liberated … In ancient times, there was an old cultivator who asked for instructions from a monk, “Great Monk, let me ask you, how can I attain liberation?” The Great monk said, “Who tied you up?” This old cultivator answered, “Nobody tied me up.”The monk said, “Then why do you seek liberation?” (Hsuan Hua, tr., Flower Adornment [Avatamsaka] Sutra, “Pure Conduct,” chap. 11).

The term “ashtanga” comes from the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali, where it refers to classical yoga’s eight (ashta)-limb (anga) practice. The eight limbs are restraint, observance, posture, breath control, sense withdrawal, concentration, meditative absorption, and “enstasy.” This last word, which means “standing inside of,” is Mircea Eliade’s translation of samadhi, which literally means to “put together” or “bring into harmony.” In samadhi, we “stand inside of” our true Self in preparation for the ultimate state of classical yoga, the eternal “aloneness” (kaivalya) of that Self in the purity and joy of its being.

The clearer the body, the brighter one’s Buddha Nature shines. In the beginning, we still need the body. It’s like a lamp. The Buddha Nature is this flame. But we may still be conscious of shadows. As we progress we feel that the body is the universe itself and that our Buddha Self shines throughout it like the sun.
~zen master han shan

ashtanga is better than sex, in fact: no contest!!!!