El-Branden Brazil

Photographer, Writer & Mystic Traveller

Posts by El-Branden Brazil

Against The Flow

Humans have to get over the mistaken, ego-centric belief that we are invincible. Nature permits us the right to live, but equally, could snuff us out in a wink.

There are processes going on far greater than ourselves, and by not flowing within the parameters of these processes, we have become an irritant. We are dirt in the cogs, and as a result, we have harmed our planet and we are harming ourselves, because of our myopic shortcomings.

Fishing Near Lake Inle, Burma
Fishing Near Lake Inle
Photography by El-Branden Brazil

Changing Our Ways

I just scrolled through all my posts on Facebook the past few days, and I felt sad. There is so much unnecessary cruelty in the world. I try my best to bring awareness, so that people with voices will speak out. We all have to speak out! Enough violence! Enough abuse of the planet! Enough greed! Enough hate! Enough war! Enough prejudice! Enough! Enough! Enough!

Unless you have been anaesthetised, I think we all share in a very palpable fear that we, as humans, have not made the best decisions for our future. There is both an equal amount of frustration, apathy and confusion that is clouding us from making the bold decisions that we need to make, to bring a future suitable for our grandchildren. There is no time to lose, and we need to be firm in our commitment to each other, regardless of creed, to build bridges between those we feel do not understand us. We must be self-aware and see our own mistakes equally to the mistakes we see in others. We must all accept that we are flawed, but there is always another sunrise upon which to build an improved, better world.

Vision, compassion and wisdom are not some folksy terminology: They are paramount expressions of noble human activity. ACTIVATE THEM!

Shifting Sahara Sands
Shifting Sahara Sands
Photography by El-Branden Brazil

Solidarity

It is easy to sigh, throw up our arms and despairingly say, “What a world we live!”

BUT, it is important that we shine light where there is darkness. We must be strong and show courage as individuals to stand up against ideologies of hate. We must demonstrate love and compassion, so that those void of such qualities are made aware of the futility and inferiority of violence and intolerance.

We must all be much, much better than those who choose to destroy!

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Beyond The Threshold

Like a breeze
my mind whispers at my passing,
“That it is neither
here nor there
if you exist or are departed.”

I quake deeply
at the thought of dying.
That I would leave
no legacy
and be bereft from living.

Has my life
been void of value,
except a cog within a system
that neither cares
nor even listens?

And in grasping
on to every pulse,
hoping for life
to continue,
I scream in silence:

“Do not forget me!
For I did have
some worth.
That my life
was not for nothing!”

But no response returns,
except a paradox of thought:
That “I” was never really here,
therefore I’ll
never disappear.

And through this realisation
I see with vision pure,
a sacred revelation,
that I would remain forever
inseparable from the stars.

“I” sighs
one final time,
whilst it dissolves
into the Cosmos,
transcending near and far
away from delusions lost.

– By El-Branden Brazil

On The Banks Of The Nile At Twilight
On The Banks Of The Nile At Twilight
Photography by El-Branden Brazil