inspired by a hug... painting in process

Was watching this documentary "doing time doing vipasana", about how 10 days of silent meditation made a huge difference in the lives of the inmates as well as the officers. At the end of the course they all stood in a line to have a hug from the director (something very unusual due to caste system in India) and it was so moving to see the love flowing between those people divided by their fate and yet connected by it at the same time....

Look At Love

look at love

how it tangles

with the one fallen in love

look at spirit

how it fuses with earth

giving it new life

why are you so busy

with this or that or good or bad

pay attention to how things blend

why talk about all

the known and the unknown

see how the unknown merges into the known

why think separately

of this life and the next

when one is born from the last

look at your heart and tongue

one feels but deaf and dumb

the other speaks in words and signs

look at water and fire

earth and wind

enemies and friends all at once

the wolf and the lamb

the lion and the deer

far away yet together

look at the unity of this

spring and winter

manifested in the equinox

you too must mingle my friends

since the earth and the sky

are mingled just for you and me

be like sugarcane

sweet yet silent

don't get mixed up with bitter words

my beloved grows

right out of my own heart

how much more union can there be

(Rumi/ translation by Nader Khalili)

Untitled 22 in process

Lately it seems I have started more paintings than finished, this is one that I had put aside a while ago and got inspired to take up again...

When He appears our heart is gone...

"Love and Death both are effecting our heart...

One takes the heart, the other the beat." Anonymous

(Shivastotravali, verse 15)
Those devotees who are intoxicated with the this wine of attachment, devotion, in those devotees, you just extract the hearts of people. Just by your mere presence. That is Lord Shiva’s positions. Wherever Lord Shiva is in front of you, your heart is gone. You can’t think, you can’t remember anything, you forget everything before him. So He has extracted your heart. You have no heart, no mind, no thinking, no thought.

And before him, in those people, who are intoxicated with the alcohol of devotion, in the beginning they determine that, "as soon as Lord Shiva will appear to them, they would keep all these demands before him."

First demand is attaining peace, attaining joy and peacefulness.

And next demand is direct me towards the right path of liberation.

So with this determination they sit and think of Lord Shiva. And when Lord Shiva appears, their heart is gone.

So they don’t demand this attaining of that joy for peace, entire peace. And craving for putting feet on the path of moksa, on the path of liberation, that also they don’t remember before him . . . what to speak of other things . . . not in the least do they think or they demand anything from you. They just enjoy your nearness, that is all.

(Swami Lakshmanjoo)

worms and bugs and all...

Garden looks more like a jungle these days, time to do some serious pruning, it's autumn, the chrysanthemums are almost finished with flowering, some repotting, some new seeds for the winter (it's two seasons of gardening here in CA). How gardening is always so nourishing, feeding the soul with being connected to earth, nature and everything being alive, love it, worms and bugs and all :-)
Like painting gardening is a wonderful way to connect with our true nature, stop thinking and just be....

Stop thinking, and end your problems.

What difference between yes and no?

What difference between success and failure?

Must you value what others value,

avoid what others avoid?

How ridiculous!

Other people are excited,

as though they were at a parade.

I alone don't care,

I alone am expressionless,

like an infant before it can smile.

Other people have what they need;

I alone possess nothing.

I alone drift about,

like someone without a home.

I am like an idiot, my mind is so empty.

Other people are bright;

I alone am dark.

Other people are sharper;

I alone am dull.

Other people have a purpose;

I alone don't know.

I drift like a wave on the ocean,

I blow as aimless as the wind.

I am different from ordinary people.

I drink from the Great Mother's breasts.

(Lao Tse Tao)

Grateful!

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

~ Rumi ~

(The Essential Rumi, versions by Coleman Barks)

Not sure where some paintings are coming from

or going to...

but grateful for them nonetheless...

The power of music...

Wonderful concert last night at the Zipper Hall with the Camerata Pacifica. Reminds me again of the power of music. Just watching the amazing cello player Ani Aznavoorian be absorbed in her play taking the whole audience with her. She was playing together with Lera Auerbach on the piano in a composition by Lera Auerbach for the second half of the concert, just pure ecstasy! It is difficult to explain how music just touches every fiber of our bodies in such a way. Stunning!

Wish paintings could convey that feeling when being seen. Here is a small painting that I finished recently that doesn't even come close.

acrylic on canvas,

12 x 16 inch

(31,5 x 40,6 cm)

CCAG art show

I felt honored to be hanging my paintings with to so many talented artist from the CCAG at the show on Saturday. There was such a variety of mediums and styles that I was glad I wasn't in the shoes of the judge who had to make decisions of first and last.

Here is a link to some photos.

Please call me by my true names...

My last painting got me thinking and wondering about what that angel is doing, looking a bit burned. And who is that (Satan?) who seems to pull it down into the dark?

"Coincidentally" I was reading that according to Mansur Al-Hallaj, a Sufi saint, Satan used to be an angel who "fell from grace" because he wouldn't obey Gods wishes to bow down to Adam. "The fall of Iblis (Satan) occurred when God demanded him to prostrate before Adam and Iblis retorted "Not before another (but Thou)! My rebellion means to declare Thee Holy! What is Adam! He is nothing without Thou."

Rumi repeatedly asserted that Iblis "is a representation of one-eyed intellectualism" unable to see that Man was created after Gods' likeness and the Divine spirit breathed into him.

(source: Sufi wisdom, Marietta T. Stepaniants)

I was wondering how close that is to the concept of Shaivism of seeing the manifested world (including Adam/us) as an expansion of God. And perhaps Satan by not bowing down to Adam rejecting God in him.

Oh well, that is just another opinion I guess; I am still a bit bewildered :-)

But I was really moved about how Thich Nhat Hanh put in words the perfect completeness of this world including good and bad...

PLEASE CALL ME BY MY TRUE NAMES

Don't say that I will depart tomorrow-
even today I am still arriving.

Look deeply: every second I am arriving
to be a bud on a Spring branch,
to be a tiny bird, with still-fragile wings,
learning to sing in my new nest,
to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower,
to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone.

I still arrive, in order to laugh and to cry,
to fear and to hope.
The rhythm of my heart is the birth and death
of all that is alive.

I am a mayfly metamorphosing
on the surface of the river.

And I am the bird
that swoops down to swallow the mayfly.

I am a frog swimming happily
in the clear water of a pond.

And I am the grass-snake
that silently feeds itself on the frog.

I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones,
my legs as thin a bamboo sticks.

And I am the arms merchant,
selling deadly weapons to Uganda.

I am the twelve-year-old girl,
refugee on a small boat,
who throws herself into the ocean
after being raped by a sea pirate.

And I am the pirate,
my heart not yet capable
of seeing and loving.

My joy is like Spring, so warm
it makes flowers bloom all over the Earth.

My pain is like a river of tears,
so vast it fills the four oceans.

Please call me by my true names,
so I can hear all my cries and laughter at once,
so I can see that my joy and pain are one.

Please call me by my true names,
so I can wake up
and the door of my heart
could be left open,
the door of compassion.

Thich Nhat Hanh,
Call Me by My True Names: The Collected Poems of Thich Nhat Hanh

New painting (Untitled 21)

acrylic on canvas,

24 x 24 inch (61 x 61 cm)

Culver City Art Group exhibit

I will be participating in the annual exhibit of the Culver City Art Group with some of my paintings. There is going to be a broad variety of art from local artist including oils, water colors, acrylics, ceramics, photography, collages and more! The show is judged with awards and prizes.

If you are in the area have a look, come at 3:30 pm to meet the artists and enjoy our snack buffet...

A body of original artwork by members of the

Culver City Art Group

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Noon to 6:00 pm

Rotunda Room, Veteran’s Memorial Building

4117 Overland Ave, Culver City, CA, 90230

(Culver Boulevard at Overland Avenue)

Meet the artists!

Artists’ Reception

Refreshments and awards

3:30 pm - 6:00 pm

(View printable Invitation)