creative juices arts - how this painting process got started

March 30, 2018

This body/ mind has always loved creating - through sculpture, photography, dance, and theater. Painting and drawing seemed more intimidating due to a cascade of thoughts - "I can't draw." "That doesn't look like I wanted it to." "What a mess!" "No one will want to look at this." etc. In 2005 I was brought into the circle of Chris Zydel's "Painting from the Wild Heart" retreat at Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu, New Mexico, and that all changed. An abundance of paper and tempera paints - the same materials we used when we were four - were spread out along with permission to create anything. Anything at all. I tore a piece of paper in half because one sheet seemed too large - I didn't know what to put on it. Through the course of that first week, "I" got out of the way and let whatever wanted to be created end up on the paper. By the end of the week the paintings had grown to cover most of a wall - the dam had broken open and a flood of creative juice poured out. I am forever grateful to Chris for providing the sanctuary and the push to allow this freedom of expression to come forth. Her website is:

https://creativejuicesarts.com/

Center of all centers

March 29, 2018

Buddha in Glory
by Rainer Maria Rilke

Center of all centers, core of cores,
almond self-enclosed, and growing sweet–
all this universe, to the furthest stars
all beyond them, is your flesh, your fruit.

Now you feel how nothing clings to you;
your vast shell reaches into endless space,
and there the rich, thick fluids rise and flow.
Illuminated in your infinite peace,

a billion stars go spinning through the night,
blazing high above your head.
But in you is the presence that
will be, when all the stars are dead.

from Ahead of All Parting: The Selected Poetry and Prose of Rainer Maria Rilke, Translated by Stephen Mitchell

your living is firewood

February 24, 2018

STRANGE BUSINESS

You sit here for days saying,
This is strange business.
You’re the strange business.
You have the energy of the sun in you,
but you keep knotting it up at the base of your spine.
You’re some weird kind of gold that wants to stay melted in the furnace,
so you won’t have to become coins.
Say ONE in your lonesome house.
Loving all the rest is hiding inside a lie.
You’ve gotten drunk on so many kinds of wine.
Taste this.
It won’t make you wild.
It’s fire. Give up, if you don’t understand by this time
that your living is firewood.
This wave of talking builds.
Better we should not speak, but let it grow within.

Rumi translated by Coleman Barks in The Illuminated Rumi

the divine eye will open

February 18, 2018

When mind is quiet, all is Self.
When mind moves the world arises.
So be still, throw away everything,
and be free.

Then, when mind is pure, you will see Self in all beings. Give up seeing with the outer eye and the divine eye will open.

~ Papaji

heart sutra

February 14, 2018

for valentine's day: Thich Nhat Hanh's beautiful translation of the Heart Sutra:

The Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore

Avalokiteshvara
while practicing deeply with
the Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore,
suddenly discovered that
all of the five Skandhas are equally empty,
and with this realisation
he overcame all Ill-being.

“Listen Sariputra,
this Body itself is Emptiness
and Emptiness itself is this Body.
This Body is not other than Emptiness
and Emptiness is not other than this Body.
The same is true of Feelings,
Perceptions, Mental Formations,
and Consciousness.

“Listen Sariputra,
all phenomena bear the mark of Emptiness;
their true nature is the nature of
no Birth no Death,
no Being no Non-being,
no Defilement no Purity,
no Increasing no Decreasing.

“That is why in Emptiness,
Body, Feelings, Perceptions,
Mental Formations and Consciousness
are not separate self entities.

The Eighteen Realms of Phenomena
which are the six Sense Organs,
the six Sense Objects,
and the six Consciousnesses
are also not separate self entities.

The Twelve Links of Interdependent Arising
and their Extinction
are also not separate self entities.
Ill-being, the Causes of Ill-being,
the End of Ill-being, the Path,
insight and attainment,
are also not separate self entities.

Whoever can see this
no longer needs anything to attain.

Bodhisattvas who practice
the Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore
see no more obstacles in their mind,
and because there
are no more obstacles in their mind,
they can overcome all fear,
destroy all wrong perceptions
and realize Perfect Nirvana.

“All Buddhas in the past, present and future
by practicing
the Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore
are all capable of attaining
Authentic and Perfect Enlightenment.

“Therefore Sariputra,
it should be known that
the Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore
is a Great Mantra,
the most illuminating mantra,
the highest mantra,
a mantra beyond compare,
the True Wisdom that has the power
to put an end to all kinds of suffering.
Therefore let us proclaim
a mantra to praise
the Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore.

Gate, Gate, Paragate, Parasamgate, Bodhi Svaha!
Gate, Gate, Paragate, Parasamgate, Bodhi Svaha!
Gate, Gate, Paragate, Parasamgate, Bodhi Svaha!”

https://plumvillage.org/news/thich-nhat-hanh-new-heart-sutra-translation/

endless gratitude

February 13, 2018

Many years ago, at a time of chronic unhappiness, I had the unfathomable luck to be led to Gangaji. While at first,my mind did not always understand the words she spoke, my heart recognized what she was offering as home. This life has not been the same since. Here is a recent interview she did in New Zealand. Always her words are fresh to me, and the Truth that she points to deepens and deepens. My gratitude is endless.

https://www.ourplanet.org/greenplanetfm/gangaji-helping-kiwis-find-the-deeper-layer-the-peace-that-is-always-present-inside-us?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=gangaji

www.gangaji.org