Celebrity Sadhana: Or How to Meditate With a Hammer

By Vijay R. Nathan

Celebrity Sadhana, Or How to Meditate with a Hammer is a series of poems aimed to imagine meditative moments from the 'sadhana', spiritual practice, of Hollywood's elite. Building on the wisdom traditions of the East to bring the hammer down on complacent notions about what it means to be spiritual in today's world. The author's previous work includes: Escape from Samsara, a collection of free-verse poems, that Kirkus Review found " genuine and compelling, blending spiritual questioning with an engaging humor and using language that is by turns down-to-earth and lushly suggestive" .

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Oct 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9781543944396

Book preview

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Please note although the author has drawn from celebrity news stories, internet chatter and online searches about celebrities, and references actual movies and celebrity biographies, all these are used fictitiously and with the intention of satirizing and meditating on our collective cultural fascination with fame.

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© Vijay Ramanathan 2018

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

ISBN (Print Edition): 978-1-54394-438-9

ISBN (eBook Edition): 978-1-54394-439-6

Contents

I

PATHWAYS TO THE BREEZE

The celebrity sadhana you can’t miss

That special kind of crazy

Natalie Portman recites ‘he will not divide us’

They walk the line

Joaquin Phoenix receives an amber alert

A cool breeze over the mountains

The supernova seduction plan

A Shia Labeouf dream

Jodie Foster & Sacha Baron Cohen consume incredible edibles

Buddha Tara emanates to Joaquin Phoenix

II

THE VEIL BETWEEN

The celebrity renunciation you won’t believe

Sacha Baron Cohen on the rocks

A Joaquin Phoenix dream

The many faces of Winona Ryder

Sacha Baron Cohen Performs as Divine Madman Drukpa Kunley

Joaquin Phoenix searches for ‘Satori’

A Winona Ryder Dream

The divine madman returns

Natalie Portman listens to Tori Amos

Somewhere in the Mojave

Shia Labeouf listens to Radiohead

III

HOW TO MEDITATE WITH A HAMMER

The Celebrity Confrontation That Will Shock You

Somewhere in the Mojave

The Natalie Portman body poem

Somewhere in the Mojave

Flowers on the wall

Glimpses of Winona Ryder’s ass

The hammer speaks

Jodie Foster in the rye

Shia Labeouf feeds stray dogs

I

PATHWAYS TO THE BREEZE

"In many of the [Buddhist] scriptures it says that all phenomena are like