My Barn Burned Down

Buddha Statue from Afghanistan

With the tragedies in Haiti, Mongolia, Africa, Afghanistan, Iraq…..well, the list is endless really, one begins to wonder if it really can ever end. The Buddha teaches that it can, but must begin with our own ending of hatred within our own hearts. This was sent to me today and so beautiful I thought to share it with you.
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This poem by Thich Nhat Hanh embodies the essence of what he calls “interbeing,” the innerconnectedness of all things.

Call Me by My True Names
by Thich Nhat Hanh

From: Peace is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life by Thich Nhat Hanh

In Plum Village, where I live in France, we receive many letters from the refugee camps in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines, hundreds each week. It is very painful to read them, but we have to do it, we have to be in contact. We try our best to help, but the suffering is enormous, and sometimes we are discouraged. It is said that half the boat people die in the ocean. Only half arrive at the shores in Southeast Asia, and even then they may not be safe.

There are many young girls, boat people, who are raped by sea pirates. Even though the United Nations and many countries try to help the government of Thailand prevent that kind of piracy, sea pirates continue to inflict much suffering on the refugees. One day we received a letter telling us about a young girl on a small boat who was raped by a Thai pirate. She was only twelve, and she jumped into the ocean and drowned herself.

When you first learn of something like that, you get angry at the pirate. You naturally take the side of the girl. As you look more deeply you will see it differently. If you take the side of the little girl, then it is easy. You only have to take a gun and shoot the pirate. But we cannot do that. In my meditation I saw that if I had been born in the village of the pirate and raised in the same conditions as he was, there is a great likelihood that I would become a pirate. I saw that many babies are born along the Gulf of Siam, hundreds every day, and if we educators, social workers, politicians, and others do not do something about the situation, in twenty-five years a number of them will become sea pirates. That is certain. If you or I were born today in those fishing villages, we may become sea pirates in twenty-five years. If you take a gun and shoot the pirate, all of us are to some extent responsible for this state of affairs.

After a long meditation, I wrote this poem. In it, there are three people: the twelve-year-old girl, the pirate, and me. Can we look at each other and recognize ourselves in each other? The tide of the poem is “Please Call Me by My True Names,” because I have so many names. When I hear one of the of these names, I have to say, “Yes.”

Call Me by My True Names

Do not say that I’ll depart tomorrow
because even today I still arrive.

Look deeply: I arrive in every second
to be a bud on a spring branch,
to be a tiny bird, with wings still fragile,
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,
in order to fear and to hope.
The rhythm of my heart is the birth and
death of all that are alive.

I am the mayfly metamorphosing on the surface of the river,
and I am the bird which, when spring comes, arrives in time
to eat the mayfly.

I am the frog swimming happily in the clear pond,
and I am also the grass-snake who, approaching in silence,
feeds itself on the frog.

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

I am a member of the politburo, with plenty of power in my
hands,
and I am the man who has to pay his “debt of blood” to, my
people,
dying slowly in a forced labor camp.

My joy is like spring, so warm it makes flowers bloom in all
walks of life.
My pain if like a river of tears, so full it fills the four oceans.

Please call me by my true names,
so I can hear all my cries and laughs 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 so the door of my heart can be left open,
the door of compassion.

Thich Nhat Hanh

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Ooh, I’m all inspired! Better stop before I write a book.

Hope that helps in some way – it helped me.

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“I wish to urge students of the dharma who may have forsaken their creative impulse in favor of practice to realize there is no conflict between creativity and meditation. Creativity can be understood, in essence, to be the practice of our own nature and that nature’s expression. You may find your way in to the nature through creativity; or you may come out from the nature to express creativity. Both have to be appreciated as the best of our mind’s potential.” - Kongtrul Rinpoche

The last week of the year and the time everyone is thinking of New Year’s resolutions, new goals, what’s my life about?  I had the great good fortune yesterday to open the new issue of Buddhadharma magazine and read an article about Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche’s paintings! Well, it was really more about his process of painting, or taking his painting as the Path. Of course.

Once another  Rinpoche said to us at KPC that the gardens we were building were great, but that the world had lots of gardens and didn’t need one more; that we had to build them with pure motivation and intention to benefit and liberate beings and then the gardens carry a blessing. Well, I think the same is true of making one more painting. He mentions that he thinks the great artists, whose works continues to touch us over time, probably “got out of the way” during the process of making the art, even if later they got caught up in the fame, approval or rejection. It is that “egolessness” that comes through the art that is timeless and touches us where we live, in the natural vitality of awareness. When he came to the west, interestingly, he was struck by the art of Kandinsky and Picasso among others; those who gave over to the process without regard for public approval. And their art endures.

What this article pointed out, and clarified for me, was how to use the process of painting, the natural process of creativity (so it could be music, writing, any creative pursuit) to watch the mind, overcome grasping attachment, come to resolution, and experience what he calls the natural vitality by getting out of the way. He encourages all artists to use this method and produce paintings that carry the blessing of that natural vitality to the world, and benefits self and others.

I went right to his site to view his paintings, and voila! there is the mp3 of the talk he gave from which this article was written. The Q & A at the end has even more interesting teachings that were not all in the article,  and will benefit all who wish to use the activities in their life in harmony with their spiritual path whether one is a meditator or not.

So it made me think about my New Year’s resolutions more deeply, and how I might align my daily activities with my spiritual path, using each moment as a way to benefit self and others. How about you? What can you do in 2010 to make the world a little bit better for others?

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Wishing everyone a happy, peaceful day and hope the New Year brings you every blessing!

Nice, quiet Christmas Day as we had our family get together last night. The kids were high energy, the food was great and all had a grand time.

Shipped off the last two pet portraits on Wednesday, finished in the nick of….

Bailey Jane, Bichon Frise puppy:

Bichon Frise Bailey Jane Pet Portrait

This was painted in oils (Genesis Heat Set Oils, praise Buddha, or it would never have gotten done in time!) on a 6 x 12 gallery wrapped canvas. The BEST part was the email from the puppy’s Mom when she received it:

Dear Elizabeth,

You captured the sweet spirit of Bailey Jane on canvas!  The painting is magnificent!  It looks just like her!  Thank you so much for painting her and for sending the painting to me on Christmas Eve morning!  There never was a more perfect Christmas Eve gift!  I love it!  I wish you the very best this coming year!  I hope that we can get together this summer when I bring Bailey Jane for a visit.

Then she emailed everyone a picture, then a second picture, with another note:

This photo shows the colors better.  I cropped it for a close up view.  I love it, love it, love it!  I was feeling tired before the package came!  Now I am back in the Christmas mood and can get busy cleaning!

THANK YOU!

It’s not that I am bragging, I’m sharing because (you other artists will understand), when it leaves my easel, the voice in my head is chanting, “It’s not very good, she’ll hate it.” So this really made my day, too!

German Shepherd Pet Portrait

A last minute portrait I rushed through but was pretty happy with, Kuro. I think he’s a German Shepherd mix. His facial bone structure was a challenge and I see why artists study anatomy. To ‘get it’ I had to visualize the underlying bones and eye sockets.  This one is a 9×12 in oils on gallery wrapped canvas.

My grandchildren all were over the moon with the paintings I did for them, which I posted previously. Funny, the one I thought would not care about it, Garrett, being only 3 years old, was AGOG. He opened his “Bear” painting (and he had his REAL “Bear” with him of course) and exclaimed, “OH, it looks just like BEAR!” Then he carried the painting around in a hug along with the real bear saying “Now I have two Bears!”. Adorable. Somebody said later, after mountains of gifts had been opened, that they thought the paintings were the big hit of the night. It made me realize that hand-made things from the heart really do touch the heart and gave me deep happiness that I could make them all happy for a moment.

Again, Merry Christmas!

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Cuy and Friend Pet Portrait

Peace on Earth? If dogs and cats can…..you’d think we could, too.

This is painted in Genesis Heat Set Oils (I LOVE these paints!) on 11 x 14 gallery wrapped canvas. Shipping off to customer this AM; only 3 more to finish before Monday! Already sent off my donations to Tara’s Babies and Garuda Aviary, so thank you to all my customers on behalf of the dogs and parrots! Happy Holidays, and Peace on Earth. Please.

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By Artist Don Gray: Fallen Limb

I am reading a wonderful book called Meeting the Buddhas by Vessantara, and although I’ve read it before, it feels like I’m reading it for the first time.  When I was a wannabe artist I read it from the standpoint of wanting to understand the archetypal imagery used in Tibetan Buddhism and in particular, thangka paintings. Funny thing, that now that I’m actually learning to paint, I’m reading it and it is clarifying the spiritual path I’ve been on for almost (oh, gawd) 30 years.  The author takes you through the meaning of the use of mandalas and visualization in the Vajrayana method of practice and so you go with him on a poetic tour of the mandalas of the Five Buddha Families (which, it turns out, is a map of our own mind).

Much I could share here, but in keeping with the art theme of this blog, I was struck by Ratnasambhava’s mandala, and how it incorporates the arts and beauty as a method for refining the mind; the author speaks of being able to enjoy beauty – in nature, art, music – as a step towards being able to eventually make the leap into the very refined energy of the nature of reality.

I know that I have a busy mind and it is true that when something of beauty registers on my mind, my mind STOPS, at least for a nano second, and relaxes. All meditation teachers tell you that that is quite a feat actually, to relax the mind.  (More about that tomorrow, when I tell you about the other book I’m reading My Stroke of Insight – a brain scientist experiencing her own stroke and how when the mind chatter stopped she had no frame of reference for her-self.)

By Don Gray: Streak of Sun

But back to beauty and simply stopping in the moment and experiencing it. There are different things that will grab each one’s mind as ‘beauty’, and these are two paintings I have seen this week that did it for me.  I don’t want to analyze why these did it for me (although my busy mind certainly WANTS to get right on that); I’d rather just sit and experience the beauty of what the artist has conveyed. I hope they give you a nano second of beauty and relaxation as well.

And then, so as not grasp onto it a “mine”, I offer this beauty to all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the past, present and future as my teachers have taught us to do. May all beings be well, happy, peaceful and prosperous.

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Boston Terrier Pet Portrait

As the holiday deadline bears down on us, I’m trying not to freak out. I’ve got a couple of pet portraits I MUST finish this week in order to varnish and ship on time and I keep reworking things to ‘get it perfect’. Of course, for a Virgo, “perfect” never comes so I end up (in my mind) with “good enough I guess”. But this guy, even though he’s just a 6×6 painting, seemed to take FOR-EV-ER. Paintings with many different colors are easier for me. Being able to show the form with shades of black and white are difficult. I had to go back to my pencil drawing training to even see it with my eyes. But I love Boston Terriers and hope I captured that WILD EYE look they get before they go out to destroy something.  As always, 30% of the proceeds from the sale of this painting will be donated to animal rescue work. You can bid now on this painting!

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WATCH THIS AND WEEP:

Inside Puppy Mill

Sorry to dampen the the sound of jingle bells, but when you see this, you’ll understand why educating America to what is going on is so important. Now, I think there are too many dogs already, as so many get put down daily in shelters due to overcrowding, and I think dog adoption and dog rescue is the heroic thing to do. However, people will continue to breed dogs for money, but why do they have to be cruel to dogs  in the process? A place can be clean, the dogs can be given room to move around, fed well (that would help the “product” don’t you think?).  Where is basic kindness in these people?

Anyway, please share this and get the word out. The US Humane Society is doing a campaign to stop puppy mills: please support them! There is a link to the Pledge on YouTube on the right, as well as a donation link.

Thank you and Merry Christmas to all – joy comes from helping others, so spread the joy!

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