Welcome...

Come meander with me on the pathless path of the Heart
in these anecdotal,
sometimes inspiring, sometimes personal meanderings of the Heart's opening in the every-day-ness of life...

Sunday, March 24, 2013

The Infinite Sanctuary of Silence...


Being pulled inward
by the oceanic Sacred Silence within,
the Infinite Sanctuary of Silence,
you feel something deeply stirring,
 awakening
into
 awareness.

You know you must pay attention;
that you must be still and listen.

You sense the space of Essential Quietness
where everything just stops.
all mental agitation,
all emotional reactivism,
all verbalization of thought…
There is only the deepening language
of Silence;
a holy enclave of silent repose.
with no need for outward expression.

You recognize the spacious Stillness of pure Beingness.
You hear Its silent call…

The deep abode of inherent silent Awareness
invites you deeper,
 where Life just IS;
a deeper Reality,
out of which “daily reality” arises.

You experience an all pervasive Silence here,
 absorbing you in its quintessence;
the Sanctuary of the Sacred Rhythm of Life,
 the Primordial Womb

Pure Silence...
Pure Peace...

At rest...

Home



©Mystic Meandering
3-24-2013


Photo: Snow against window pain from the inside
photo flipped upside down…



Friday, March 22, 2013

See Beyond the Facade...



“We are here to awaken
from the illusion of our separateness…”

Thich Nhat Hanh




“Darkness does not become light,
for there is only light…

You are Life ItSelf undivided
from the power that moves the planets.”

Jeff Foster




“Only when the mind is completely free
from yesterday,
and is therefore not using the present
as a means to the future,
is it capable of receiving
the eternal…”

Jiddu Krishnamurti




“…behind this outer façade,
another life is going on in you.”

John O’Donohue



Photos during snow fall Friday night…
Top two photos are of a street light...

And what looks like a building in those photos
is a reflection on the glass of a wall hanging -
an illusion of a building...




Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Spring Buds Mandala...


This is my latest mandala creation, using both compass and free form, expanding into something colorful for the Spring Equinox… I did not make a final circle around this one, but simply left it unconfined, leaving little openings for emergence and expansion – like Spring!   I will admit I am more of a monochromatic type person – liking to use different shades and gradients of the same color.  But hey, one needs to expand their horizons right! :)  I am experimenting with color and light, and some new techniques - feeling a bit stuck in the design process; probably due to a lack of imagination. :)  I feel like I have reached a "dead end" of sorts already, although I’m just beginning, not knowing where to go next, needing a cartographer/teacher to help fill in the gaps of my unknowing.  So I am attempting to learn from the many masters of mandalas by osmosis. :)  

Speaking of which, there is a wonderful website page of *beautifully* designed luminous mandalas by Prema.  Her work is a wonderful inspiration.  Another luminous mandala master is Judith Cornell – now deceased – relating mandalas to our spiritual path of awakening.  Her book, Mandala, arrived Monday – loaded with luminous mandalas.  I need to spend some time reading, and experimenting!   

Through this creative experience so far I am reminded that life, art, and the “spiritual path” are an ever unfolding awareness and expression of our Infinite Being within, only needing our willingness to be open - without preconception of where it “should” lead, or what it “should” look like.  That’s a hard one!  I have all kinds of ideas and images of what life and “the path” – and my art is *supposed*  to look like, and of course it doesn’t always turn out the way I had in mind. :) It’s more like the cycles of nature, we continuously rebirth a new consciousness, a new way of being, seeing, and creating - awakening to the Life *in* everything; allowing that bud of Light within to blossom and express its Aliveness…



”Now is the time
for you to compute the impossibility
that there is anything but Grace.

Now is the season to know
that everything…
is sacred.”

Hafiz

~

Other luminous masters of mandalas :)





Friday, March 15, 2013

Love is... A Sack of Rocks


This is what my husband brought home for me yesterday – a sack of rocks!  Not wine and flowers as expressions of his love – no special occasion anyway.  He was out shooting a small video job in Boulder and stopped at the side of the road on the way home to collect rocks, so that I could do more stone balancing J   Now that’s love for you!  Someone who knows what you really need J lol   I was so tickled, I just laughed and laughed…  A man who knows my Heart…  I love that he is this way – romantically practical, and yet sensitive and aware – which does not mean that our relationship has been easy – quite the contrary - but he has always facilitated my “inner process.”  That is the most meaningful gift indeed…

I created a circle around the pedestal balance in the back yard with some of the rocks he brought me.
 It creates a mandala-looking affect – a stone mandala!  I need to add more to fill it in.


And I also created these two small stone balances in the circle as well.
I love this one – a little Hobbit balance. J


 The back side



And a double stack…
(the bottom rock says Remember)

So therapeutic working with stones, with earth, with balance…


Am also working on the next painted mandala…
I’m trying different techniques.
It may be ready by Spring! lol 
Stay tuned!



Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Nature's Balance...


Monday I was startled out of meditation by a loud BANG against the house or window.  I wasn’t sure which.  So I came out of meditation and hollered up to my husband to see if it had been him.  He replied: No, I thought it was you!  In my head I responded - and you didn’t come running!? lol J

Upon investigation I spotted the Hawk outside, just under a window, standing on its dead prey – a Morning Dove.  It sat there and sat there looking around for several minutes with its intense eyes, as if vigilantly watching for a way of escape.  And then it took off with its prey, landing only a few feet away on the patio, and then hopped its way under some big juniper bushes with its catch in its talons.  It was there nearly an hour before it took off again, leaving behind a pile of feathers. 

 Our initial response was one of shock and sadness.  Nature’s way seems cruel at times, from our limited human perspective.  It was a startling sight to see for sure, as well as sobering.  We romanticize about nature and animals being so innocent, so pure, giving them human-like qualities.  But they are only being true to their nature, their inherent survival nature.  We were reminded that what we witnessed *is* the balance of Nature – life and death – the natural cycle of life.  Of course.  It is the way of things…  DH and I had been reflecting on the need for acceptance of the way of things over the weekend.  That through acceptance of what is, we can come into an inner space of peace and balance with life.   It is so easy to come out of this balance with life, to resist the way of things, and consequently suffer – emotionally and otherwise.  The Hawk and Dove incident was just a small reminder of the precarious balance between life and death, as well as the relationship between acceptance and suffering.  I found the symbolism quite interesting as well – a Hawk and a Dove – a bird of peace and a bird of prey...   The balance of Nature.
 It’s the paradox of fragility and stability,
vulnerability and power,
form and formless,
and learning to live
the fragile nature of the balance…


~

Photo of Hawk and Dove taken through the window
by DH


~

The stone balance on the pedestal is the
same one I did on Feb. 8th.
Amazingly it's still standing,
after a couple of good snowfalls
and wind -
except for the "bird's" topknot...




Sunday, March 10, 2013

Snow Melt...


I am maybe one of the only ones I know that is sad to see winter leave. I am a winter lover.  In a mere 10 days it will be Spring *on the calendar.* J  Fortunately here in Colorado we continue to get snow through the month of March, and if we’re lucky into April; this year to make up for the severe drought we have been in.  We got a snow fall Saturday that was magical. I wish I had gotten pictures.  The pictures below are of the snow melt today.  Sigh…  Reminders that all things pass away; all things transition, transform into their essential nature, and the never ending cycles of life continue. J


 “I would like to live like the river flows,
carried by the surprise of my own unfolding.”

John O’Donohue



 “The same stream of life that runs through the world
runs through my veins night and day
in rhythmic measure.

It is the same life that shoots in joy
through the dust of the earth
into numberless waves…”

Rabindranath Tagore




There is a sacredness in tears.
They are not the mark of weakness,
but of power.

They speak more eloquently than
ten thousand tongues.

They are messengers….
inseparable from love…”

Washington Irving



Thursday, March 7, 2013

Bliss Lotus Mandala...


“The divine manifestation is ubiquitous,
only our eyes are not open to it.
Awe is what moves us forward…

Live from your own center.
The divine lives within you.
The separateness apparent
in the world is secondary.

Beyond the world of opposites
is an unseen,
but experienced,
unity and identity
in us all…

I say follow your bliss
and don’t be afraid,
and doors will open where
you didn’t know
they were going to be.”

Joseph Campbell


~

It’s amazing to me how such a little thing
like creating mandalas could evoke
such bliss and happiness;
could bring peace of mind
and the joy of Being…

That’s why I call this one
Bliss Lotus…

What triggers your Bliss!? J


I inverted the top photo color
with Adobe Fireworks,
and voila!
More Bliss! J



Friday, March 1, 2013

Sacred Circles - Mandala Art


This is my new creative endeavor – creating and painting mandalas - also known as “sacred circles,” or Yantras, using sacred geometry, as taught by Guada in a Free Class at Guada’s Circle.

In a recent previous post – Focus As A Gateway – I was explaining how I felt a need for focus and balance as a way to bring the mind to a place of stillness.  Creating and painting this mandala gave me that focus and balance, and an inner meditative Stillness of Being.  I’m hooked! :)

Geometric mandalas are a sacred anciet art based on the language of patterns, like an underlying cosmic blueprint, an art form of the cosmos, revealing that our existence is inseparably and inherently one with the matrix of the Infinite – an inseparable, *inherent* union;  the circle being the symbol of this wholeness, or Oneness.  My limited understanding is that this oneness with the Divine, the interconnectedness of matter and spirit, is symbolized in the space where two circles cross each other forming what is called a Vesica Piscis – symbolically where Divine Consciousness and Human Consciousness are One; reminding me as I make the mandala that the Sacred is intimately present within – is both Here and Everywhere in the Universe simultaneously - meaning everything is sacred.

The seed of life at the center of many mandalas represents the heart of Existence itself, expanding into form; a symbol of sacred propagation of Life ItSelf; the Vesica Piscis symbolizing the Womb of the Universe from which all life arises.  Of course not all mandalas start with the seed of life pattern; but are obviously just as sacred, using other sacred symbols, such as the sanskrit OM(AUM) symbol at the center.   Buddhists and Hindus have used sacred geometric mandalas as symbols of the interconnectedness of the workings of the cosmos and meditative aids – or Yantras.  The Buddhists are also well known for their incredible sand mandalas that are “destroyed” after being meticulously created by monks over days and days as a symbol of the impermanence of life, and non-attachment.

I love creating mandalas as an art form; the creative design using the precision of sacred geometric patterns, and the detail of painting them in; the focus in the creating of it, and the balance that emerges in the design.  Just like the “spiritual path” – a combination of focus/practice, balance/equanimity, and the meditative Silence of just Being.  In most of my art experience I seem to work in circular fashion naturally, either circles, spirals or vortexes, as if it is primordial. See Something About Circles for an explanation and a look at my early Vortex art.


This is the basic seed of life pattern made with a compass:

See the Vesica Piscis in each intersection of a circle

From this template you can create a different design by erasing lines and adding other lines to make different shapes and designs.  The possiblilities are infinite. :)  In the mandala that I created, I added straight lines and a star pattern emerged, so I just went with it, making it a focal point; erasing parts of the outer circular lines around it, except the ones surrounding each point of the star.  I also created a wave line through each petal of the seed of life at the center, giving it a more fluid look.



I darkened this so you could see the design better

I then outlined each petal, and started filling in on one side with a water color pencil, which turns into water color paint when water is applied with a brush!  Quite amazing actually.  I like the effect in the purple star points.  They look like amethyst crystals with varieties of shading and light…


Not quite complete?

I contemplated filling the rest of the circle in with more color, but intuitively it felt complete.  Part of the process is listening intuitively to how the “painting” expresses itself, how it speaks to you, as in any artistic process….

Be sure to check out Stacy Wills’ mandala creations at A Magic Mom and Her Mandalas.  Some of them look like stanined glass windows!    Be sure to scroll down to see a variety of her mandalas using geometric design patterns.  She has recently begun using a different creative style and technology to create a more fluid affect.  


~*~

“In reality only the Ultimate (Infinite) is…
the rest is a matter of name and form.

Nisargardatta