Showing posts with label healing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label healing. Show all posts

1.21.2022

Meditating Medicine Buddha in Golden Frame - 4 Haiku variations

 

Haiku 46 - Meditating Medicine Buddha in golden frame #5   (00:10)

Haiku 45 - Meditating Medicine Buddha in golden frame #4  (00:10)

Haiku 44 - Meditating Medicine Buddha in golden frame #3  (00:10)

Haiku 42 - Meditating Medicine Buddha in golden frame #1  (00:10)




Sample Haikus from Buddhaverse Variations ©2020-21

[Please turn on audio to hear 'OM' mantra] 



--- WATCH FULL SET OF HAIKUS AT HOME --- 


Select thumbnails to view on Vimeo Showcase page, or click thumbnail title (ex: v001) to watch & enable autoplay.


1.16.2021

Less Is More

'Less Is More' is the current exhibition at Upstream Gallery. It's described as a Juried National Small Works Exhibition running from January 7th through January 31st. Open Thursday - Sunday, 12:30 - 5:30pm

8 Main Street, Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, 10706

email: UpstreamGallery26@gmail.com

gallery phone: 914-674-8548

I have work in the show - a small 5.5"x3.5"x3" sculptural piece entitled Portable Healing Shrine. This piece is built upon a found object (a small hand made, hand-painted Hindu shrine that I found at the AsiaBarong marketplace in Great Barrington). While the found shrine was rather crudely made and painted, I thought it would be fun to use the wooden framework to create a personal shrine using my own imagery. 

A selection of images follow:

a front view of the shrine with all doors closed

the shrine under its protective glass jar in the gallery

a view with one side door partially opened
showing Medicine Buddha and emerging lotus

the shrine with all outer doors open
showing hands making offerings (multiple panels) and
Protective Dakinis dancing on the doors of the inner-most realm

the doors of the inner sanctum opened to reveal
the meditating Medicine Buddha flanked by flaming lotus flowers


4.19.2016

Hand Trembling Way

So can you tell me how this image was made? It's a little bit analog low-tech for sure, making use of a "rescan" technique I learned from my Experimental TV Center lab days with the wobulator: The original image of hands in an "offering to the Earth" mudra is from a number of years ago,  and I've used this as an element in a number of finished pieces... A few years ago I processed the healing hands image thru the fun and fantastic Percolator iPhone app to create a range of visual processed output frames. These were combined into a GIF recently and then run thru a glitch app or two .(I forgot which ones, sorry!)  Finally, the resulting video was played back in a loop on an iPad and re-captured as a standard video with my phone. (Hence, playing with the angles allow me to get a foreshortened trapezoidal perspective...) I then reduced the HD video footage to a smaller frame size and GIF'd it - results below:



1.16.2016

Healing Hands glitch GIF

Been playing around with some glitch apps on my iPad, using basic glitch techniques including simple frame slams such as this one.

8.14.2015

Pachamama Healing Mandala

This is the piece I am showing in the Blue Door Gallery's "Healing Arts" show. I thought that I would add an offering element to the Pachamama mandala image as a way to energize the space and create an awareness of shamanic healing ritual.



1.16.2015

Offering Mandala for Pachamama

I've been thinking for quite awhile about Navaho healing sand paintings. As part of the ceremonial process, real objects such as stones, herbs, flowers and meaningful "trinkets" are incorporated into the visual symbology of the mandala. These temporary mandalas can often be built-up via layers, reminding me of a Peruvian shaman's medicine bundle offering (despacho).

Cut flowers are as transient as any ceremonial sand mandala when it comes to making "art", so I decided that I'd construct a digital version of a floral offering... using photos of actual blooms from my garden - in this case, Mexican Sage, Rose and Datura.

This is one of the images I came up with based upon what I had been making for the Pachamama series (showing her hidden spirit face emerging through forest leaves.

Pachamama Offering Mandala


9.10.2010

Plant Spirit Healing

This highly recommended book on plant spirit medicine is by Pam Montgomery. I read it last year and it changed my life.


A quote from her website:

The cover photo by Linda E. Law is of Lady’s Mantle. I sat with this image for the longest time wondering about the alien being that is so prominent. This being has a masculine quality to it and I was surprised to not see a more feminine being. Then in a flash I saw it wasn’t an alien after all but, instead, a wise old alchemist. I’ve started to call him Arturo and, of course, Alchemilla (Lady’s Mantle’s latin name) would reveal such a being. You will find that each plant reveals different beings, some are sweet and others are almost disturbing, just like life. These most amazing photos give you a rare opportunity to delve into the essence of the plant.

- Pam Montgomery

7.19.2010

Tara Mantra - Om Tara Tuttare Ture Soha





Skip to 1:40 to bypass intro... directly to start of chanting.

Here are two of my own Tara emanation images for your contemplation while listening to the chant.


1000 Taras



21 Taras

6.21.2010

The Waters of the Gulf

Here are three images of healing and protecting deities: White Tara, Medicine Buddha and Mahakala. Each of these figures float above the Gulf. The cyclone clouds below represent multi-dimensional cleansing energies (not destructive energies as in a hurricane). Along with each figure appears a healing mantra to be recited while meditating on the desired purification of the waters. Please share and circulate these images and mantras.

Medicine Buddha

Om Bekandze Bekandze
Maha Bekandze
Radza Samudgate Soha



White Tara

Om Tara Tutara Ture Soha



Mahakala

Om Shri Ma Hakala Hung Phat

6.18.2009

The emanations of Bodhissatva Tara





This chant is called ''Calling the Lama from Afar'' it was composed by HH Pabongkha Dechen Nyingpo.

5.24.2009

Empowerment of Prajnaparamita
Great Mother of Wisdom



Visualization #1: Medicine Buddha Pure Land Offering

Visualization #2: Emanation of Great Mother Prajnaparamita

Visualization #3: Prajnaparamita's Infinite Presence

Visualization #4: 3-Fold Empowerment Blessing of Prajnaparamita

Visualization #5: Prajnaparamita as Wisdom Heart Flame

Full visualization / meditation step-by-step details are available here at ShamanDreaming.org.

4.24.2009

Upcoming Wesak Full Moon

This morning as I was driving past the local reservoir, I could see the almost mirror-still water through the pine trees. Breaking the calm with just a hint of a breeze, I saw a pattern of interfering ripples creating a sort of expanding checker board effect across the surface. Immediately my inner eye filled with Shri Yantra - the visualization of the sound of creation, the sound of universal breathing in and out: A-U-M (OM).


I continued along the winding road under the tall trees with their reaching branches just beginning to leaf out. Spring. I could palpably feel surging life energy, reaching up from the earth to the sky, tree sap rising from roots to limb, sunlight blessing newly unfurling leaves. Another breath in the cycle. OM.


Today is the Taurus new moon. In two weeks will be the full Buddha Moon of the Wesak festival (in the U.S. held at Mt. Shasta, the sacred heart of the western world; in TIbet held in the Wesak Valley at the foot of Mt. Kailash, the sacred heart of the eastern world.) Wesak is the time of gathering for masters and initiates, teachers and students, a time for celebration and for sharing of creative, compassionate energy. It is said that the Buddha appears to all, dispensing energetic blessings of renewal and well-being. To honor this lunar cycle, I created the following piece:

Healing Emanation

12.01.2008

Sign of the Times


Tonight, December 1st, look to the southwest sky right after sunset. Beaming brightly through the twilight you will see a tight three-way conjunction of Venus, Jupiter and the crescent Moon forming an equilateral triangle. This conjunction will continue to be visible for several days after the first of the month, but the planets and moon will move further and further apart, forming a highly skewed triangle.

The Maya believe that the planets and stars provide gateways to alternate dimensions. A conjunction of heavenly bodies is thus a major focus of energies affecting our consciousness. In the case of the current conjunction appearing low in the southwestern skies, the energies are of opening and transformation, returning to the original roots of creation. Perhaps signaling that the opening of the dark path or "Royal Road of the Ancestors" - xibalba be - to the 2012 transformation has in fact begun!

Who are the players in this conjunction?


Venus is both the Morning Star and the Evening Star. Venus serves as a gateway to the Underworld, its rising and setting are times of dangerous, intensely powerful energies. (For the Maya, Venus is not feminine love but rather masculine action, such as required for warfare or the hunt.)

Jupiter is the Old God, the ruler of solar planets and of royal lineages. He is sometimes referred to as Lord One Death and associated with jaguar spirit. Jupiter is thus the fundamental masculine energy of creation. Related closely to Old God are the figures of Hurakan, "Heart of Heaven" - another creator deity (whose aspects include wind, storm, fire) and Itzamna - the Lord of the Fire, Lord of the Underworld (whose aspect includes the Milky Way).

The Moon is often referred to as Lady White Quetzal or First Mother (with aspects of water, the Underworld, feminine energy). Related closely to the Moon is the goddess of fertility, health and the healing arts, Ix Chel, seen to be a young maiden. However, just as the Moon has a light and a dark side, Ix Chel, the maiden, has another side: Chac Chel, the old crone, whose aspects include death, darkness and the Milky Way (home of the ancestors), as well as being a root Earth Goddess.

What this brings into play, then, is the re-mixing of the root energies of masculine and feminine into a new moment of conception. Blessed by the Ancestors, this conjunction announces a new cycle of creation and transformation.

8.05.2008

Ecstatic Body Postures

I had this book on my shelf for years, one that looked interesting, but which I had long since forgotten, gathering dust unread. Then one day a few months ago, while cleaning up the bookcase, I uncovered this book once again: entitled "Ecstatic Body Postures" by Belinda Gore (Bear & Co, Publishing.) It purports to be "an alternate reality workbook."

As I leafed through it, I recalled that the premise of the book is that art and artifacts of cultures around the world include figures (figurines) which show a man or woman or totem animal in specific body positions, arms held this way or that, seated, standing, lying down - and so forth. These body postures are gateways to alternate realities, i.e.;  shamanic tools. Anthropologist Felicitas Goodman discovered quite unexpectedly that people who assume these postures while in a light trance (induced by rattle) report strikingly similar experiences. The results of her research show that certain body gestures, positions and movements, with proper intention and context, trigger altered states of consciousness.

Belinda Gore wrote "Ecstatic Body Postures" to cover a diverse set of re-discovered postures as evaluated and tested by Goodman, Gore and others at the Cuyamungue Institute in Sante Fe, N.M. (http://www.cuyamungueinstitute.com.)
 
A second book on the topic covering still further postures recognized and evaluated since the original text is also available: "Ecstatic Trance; New Ritual Body Postures" by Felicitas D. Goodman and Nana Nauwald (Binkey Kok Publications) - available in the U.S. through the Institute.

That same week after uncovering the book in a pile of neglected tomes and feeling a great interest in the topic, I received an email notice that an Ecstatic Body Posture workgroup had been formed in my area, meeting each new moon to partake in a selected posture. The facilitator of this group is Marianne Carroll, who is being certified at the Institute after extensive training and hands-on group jouneying experience.

Maya Empowerment Posture


This is the first posture that I undertook at the monthly workshop, a posture which has been found in artifacts from as diverse places as Mayan, Minoan and Persian cultural areas. It is considered to be a "healing" posture. Afterwards, I decided to transforming the basic posture/pose diagram based upon trance experiences of the assembled participants. The result is this image (above) informed with the energy of Hunab Ku - the one giver of measure and motion - Lord of our Milky Way galaxy and destination of xibalba be (The Royal Road of the Ancestors.)

(In the following postings based upon a New Moon workshop, I have freely quoted background information from the two trance posture books mentioned above.)

Ritual Posture: Poppy Woman


Poppy Woman


9.22.08 - Equinox - The figure of Poppy Woman was found in Crete, created by the Minoan civilization circa 1350b.c. She wears a headdress of poppy seedpods, known as "the plant of happiness". Poppy is a source for intoxicants (opium) as well as healing medicine. It is a symbol of fertility, slumber and reincarnation. For the Greeks, poppy is the flower of Demeter, Goddess of agriculture and fertility. This posture, with arms upraised like antennae tuning into the spirit realm, has been found carved on ancient temples throughout the Mediterranean region.

Research indicates that the posture often results in experiences of healing and transformation, as well as death and rebirth (such as by sowing and reaping). In our own group, some common themes included lightning, walking a path between darkness & light, spinning, connection to Mother Earth. Several participants reported sinking into the earth's core (or into the underworld), thence emerging again re-invigorated and full of radiant, healthy energy.

Here is an excerpt from my journey: I am face-to-face with the bear spirit who wraps his arms around me and proceeds to use his claws along my backbone to cut open and totally flay my skin - which he gently hangs up to dry on the cave wall like a coat. I am then instructed to roll around on the cave floor, coating myself with mud. Next I am wrapped in corn leaves like a Tamale. After some time has past, I feel as if I am sprouting and growing into the sunlight. I am a stalk of corn ripe for harvest...

Ritual Posture: Singing Shaman


Singing Shaman Pose

8.02.08 Leo New Moon - Figures carved in the Singing Shaman posture have been found in places as varied as Melanesia and New Guinea to Alaska and Central America. The oldest known figure is from Cyclades Island, in Greece, about 5000 years old. This is a posture in which a sound is intentionally made during trance, affecting people both emotionally and physically, and it is often felt to be intensely healing and heart opening. (The sound vocalization is an short "a" as in "father", repeated on the extended out-breath for the duration of the trance session.) The sound produces a dynamic vortex or channel connecting dimensions.

In my trance, I first noticed vibrant phosphene snakes inter-twining in the sky across the horizon, forming a woven diamond matrix, the fabric of spacetime. Above, high at the apex of the sky, a burning log wheel complete with 4 Navaho Sky Gods riding on each of its four spokes slowly rotated. Under the bright moonlight I found myself transformed into a tall cactus with white fragrant flowers. All around me, animal and ancestor spirits moved about, many joining in the ritual song.

Other workshop participants reported seeing spiraling DNA and similar all-over woven patterns. Many participants spoke of being "at one" and feeling as if there were a multitude of animal spirits and ancestors joining in the trance sounding. Some heard the sounds to become like animal cries, angel's voices or chants and spoken words. Most reported a clearing or opening of their heart chakras.

Ritual Postures: Sekhmet

5.05.08 New Moon - Sekhmet is the Lion Goddess, sister or wife of Ptah. She holds the key to sexual energy, especially Kundalini. She is a master of initiation: birth, death, re-birth. Cycles of materializing and de-materializing the world of forms. She is the Dark Goddess of Destruction and the Light Goddess of Creation.

In my journey I see myself as a lily growing in a field. Seasons go by, I sprout, grow, bloom, drop seed and die. Over and over... I become aware that I am looking into a bowl of water - ripples - reflecting the garden outside my window. Around me in the room are dried herbs, flowers and so forth. It is my workshop. Blue Tara is on my altar - The Jewel Tree of Healing.

Ritual Posture: Ecuadorian Spirit Journey


South American Lower World Posture

4.04.08 New Moon - This posture's spirit journey can be visualized as beginning with a descent through a hole, cold damp cave or a stairway to the Lower World of animal spirits. It may be used to locate one's power animal, totem animal, or spirit helper. Reports of healing such as soul retrieval may also spontaneously occur during this posture.

In my journey, a white Snow Leopard leads me through an "A" shaped Inca stone gateway along a winding path to a hidden valley with steep slopes and terraces planted with flowers. In this valley there is a spacious workshop, my herbarium, which I explore in detail. Elsewhere, in the distance, a large crowd is gathering under a prayer flag pole to celebrate Solstice.

Many other participants in this body posture workshop relate stories of animal guides, meeting power animals and removal of energy blocks.

8.04.2008

Shaman's Journey Series

Its all here, folks - vision quests, sacred medicines (ayahuasca, mushroom, peyote, soma), spiritual guides, power animals, flower allies, "xibalba be" (The Royal Road, The Dark Road to the Underworld and the Ancestors), star gates and star ancestors...

Guardian of the Gate


Spirit Circle


Spirit Fire


Spirit Path


Royal Road / Dark Road


Shaman's Gate


Tutiwarai


Spirit Mountain


Spirit Tree