THE PRACTICE


write the mantra

then create the mandala

end with a haiku


every week for several years i've done the following practice: write out one page of the manta (single spaced, one word, written mindfully, over and over until it fills the page), then whatever thoughts have come to mind while writing the mantra become part of the semi-conscious background for creating a mandala or similar art form (like the one below), finally, inspired by the art, i create a haiku to language the practice, and make it more memorable.


practice: create your own weekly practice that allows things from the unconscious to bubble up and find expression in some art form (e.g., art, music, dance, tai chi, yoga, cooking, gardening, flower arranging...), share your experience with at least one other person.



 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
10 SHADES 10 shades of color bluish greenish zigzagging a door...a portal one color covers the canvas, followed by another, and another, until there are 10 shades of color in all, overlapping, blending, integrating...unknown to me until the end of the sketching appeared a door...eventually we will step through the portal into another world. as we live each decade of our lives, we can think of them as colors, marking the places, peoples, ideas, and things with our energy, our particular shade of color...these shades overlap with each decade, combining to eventually form (unknown to us in the living of each decade) a doorway, a portal that at death, we transition through to another world/dimension/state of being. i did not start out intentionally trying to create a doorway, yet it came to be in time through the shading of different overlapping colors, in the living of a life...what colors are you drawn to, what kind of life are you creating, is there a doorway/portal to "something e...
Read more
Image
1 DOT starting with 1 dot coalesing they unite swirling in the 1 two senses of "1" are represented in the image...the 1 dot at the far left (the beginning, the one that starts it all...one idea, one person, one big bang) and the 1 at the far right (the end, the culmination, the combination of many 1's, the unification of the many into 1)...how is it that from the 1 comes the many...as a Taoist saying (paraphrased) expresses it...from the 1 come the 10,000 things. practice...take care what starting point (thought, belief, motivation) you begin with in any undertaking f or in it contains the seeds of everything else that follows...reflect on where your thoughts originate...work backwards, for fun, from the action to the seed thought that led to the action...try this backward investigation for several actions and several thoughts, and see if they lead back to the 1...this 1 has a powerful influence in your life.
Read more
Image
2 CIRCLES from the 2 circles touching and overlapping reality births from the 2 comes the many, from male and female comes new life, from thesis and antithesis comes synthesis...the touching and overlap seems to facilitate new birth(s) at the intersection of the circles, the vortex, the vesica piscis, the mandorla (almond), the portal of new life... consider 2  vital ideas/parts of yourself...meditate on how the parts/ideas overlap, interrelate, connect...open...look/sense the portal of new life emerging...what implications does this have for being and doing?   
Read more