5 ways to end suffering

Today I want to write about the Art of Living Level One course I took from March 19th to 22nd at the North American ashram. It was the second time I took this course and it was very different and quite wonderful because it was intensive (3 days instead of 6) and Guruji Sri Sri Ravi Shankar was present at the ashram. All course participants had the privilege of meeting him personally and attending Satsang on two evenings.

I would like to share with you some of Guruji`s wisdom. He gave us 5 ways to end suffering from problems.
1. Realize that all in life passes and this problem will also pass.
2. Look back on your life and see all the problems you have overcome. Also this problem you will overcome.
3. Look around and see that others have even greater problems to deal with. This puts your own problem in perspective.
4. Have faith. Believe in happy endings.
5. Give your problem to your guru, priest or counsellor and then let it go!

I took some pictures during the Satsang and decided to try out the video option. Being a neophyte, I didn`t realize that holding my camera sideways will also make the video sideways! Just before I began filming, a question had been asked: "What is the role of sincerity in spiritual practice?" It is simply no coincidence that I filmed just as he answered. At the level of universal wisdom, Guruji`s answer was like a huge gong vibrating into my deepest Being.

It was not until the course was over and I was back home to meditate on it all that I made a profound realization. Everything that happened was exactly what I needed to experience. I did not have an exstatic and joyfull meeting with the guru but I also did not approach him with joy or devotion. My mother once said to me: "The way you call into the woods is the way your echo will sound".

Thank you, Guruji, and thank you, Mother!

March ATCs

March 28th was the date of our most recent ATC trading day. There was a huge turnout, so I'm glad I made a lot of cards. Here is a sample page from my first series.

I titled my cards "Batik" because I used the classic color resist method. All of my cards were made with beeswax on card stock, but I used 3 different methods. For my first series, I painted designs with a #6 brush loaded with melted beeswax and I also made some finer lines with Windsor & Newton masking fluid on the ivory card. Then I covered the marks with a layer of "Arylide Yellow" liquid acrylic by Tri-Art. Step two was to make more marks with the beeswax and cover them with a layer of "Alisarin Crimson": these two layers created the brick red color. The third layer of marks was covered with "Indigo" acrylic paint. When I went to iron away the beeswax, some of the paint that had stuck to the wax melted down into the card and created the unusual spots.

My next series was made with an Indonsian Tjintang tool. The beeswax is poured into a little brass cup with a tiny spout that is attached to a wooden handle. I held the Tjintang over a candle to melt the wax and the wax flowed out onto the card stock. Careful! If the wax gets too hot it gushes out and if it's not hot enough, the spout is blocked. For this series I used watercolors: Cadmium Yellow, Cadmium Red and Prussian Blue.

The third series was done with the Tjanting and liquid acrylic paint. I thought it was the least successful but they turned out to be the favorites at the trade.

Wise Women's Circle

Yesterday was the monthly meeting of the Wise Women's Circle at Enrico's in L'Orignal, Ontario. We are a group of women, led by our loving Joni Elborn, who get together regularly to share our interests, find inspiration and support each other.

This time, I offered to lead our group with a creative art workshop. We started with "The Song of the Vowels". This is a healing ritual originating in ancient Egypt. Eight energy centers in the upper body are stimulated by singing a vowel; each center has it's own corresponding sound.

After this pleasant and refreshing meditation, we sat down to paint. Using Lascaux Resonance paints on an 11" x 14" sheet of 90 lb. art paper, I invited the 15 participants to spontaneously choose colors and make marks on the paper. After 1o minutes, the artwork was passed to the person on the left, who spent another 10 minutes adding their own creativity, inspired by what they saw. Then the paper was passed on again after 10 minutes. Finally, of course, the paper came back to the original artist, who could then add or delete any part to make it their own again.




It was a lot of fun and here are some samples of finished paintings. Mine is the one with the orange sun in the top middle!

It`s a Boy!!

A foal was born at Reto`s workplace two weeks ago. here you see him just 8 hours old.The mother, Smartie, is doing well. The little guy was wobbly on his long toothpick legs for a few days but is now growing in leaps and bounds. He has been given the barn name Moon because he has the same coloring as his blonde father.

Just look at how Moon has grown within a few days! He hasn`t been outside yet because the ground is still too slippery. The filly I wrote about on February 25th has been named Toots. You can see how she has grown in ten days. She went out for a few minutes on a sunny day and went wild....jumping and kicking and circling around. When she came inside with her mother, she was panting and trembling. The big wide world made an overwhelming impression on her.

February ATC

The Artist Trading Card group met again today in Dunvegan, Ontario and we had a great turnout. It was a sunny and extremely cold afternoon as we began our trading punctually at 2:15. I made a dive for Brenda Kennedy's multicolor woven yarn (card#1), Evelyn Fortier's felt pen and tinted paper collage (#2), Chuck Stake's "Nakusp Tartan #0617" (#3), Dot Pisarro's "Dollars and Sense" (#4), Bernard Gauthier's digital art (#5), Susan Jephcott's "Hidden Hearts II (#6), Ronna Mogelon's "Your the Cat's Meow" (#7), Barb Glen's thread-and-textile-on-decorative-paper collage (#8) and finally Perry Bedbrook's "potato head" portrait (#9). Perry is 91 years young!




My cards showed a miniature "birth chart" of the dawning of the Age of Aquarius in Greenwich England at 7:25 a.m.( see my post of February 22nd ). Above the chart is a stylized rising sun, colored in with Sakura Gelly Roll pens. Some visitors may remember the 1968 musical "Hair" that included a song called "Aquarius". The intuitive text was:

When the Moon is in the 7th House
and Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then, peace will guide the planets
and Love will steer the stars.

Harmony and understanding,
sympathy and trust abounding.
No more falsehoods or derisions,
golden living dreams of visions,
magic crystal revelation
and the mind's true liberation.
Aquarius! Aquarius!

This sounds like a tall order placed 40 years ago. What can we do to manifest this vision now?

New Born

Guess who just arrived at the farm where my husband Reto works? This little filly, born a bit prematurely, to the mare named Peanut. Mother and daughter doing well. A few hours after the birth, the whole stable full of horses started whinnying...and then the baby chimed in! What a welcome! Going in to see her Saturday. This photos shows the baby one day old with her mom.

Just Fine

Hard to believe I was able to refrain from blogging for 4 whole weeks. Nothing's wrong.....I'm just enjoying my life and it's daily little wonders. One was my birthday just after the official beginning of the AGE of AQUARIUS. My gift was 6 planets in the 5th house! Oh yes, this is "Astro Speak" and means that this year I have a lot of energy available for fun, creative expression, growth and expansion and tons of LOVE. I also had a wonderful warm and sunny day in Ottawa enjoying the ice sculptures of Winterlude and an afternoon at the National Gallery. And friends over for dinner.

Also I've been busy getting my posters ready to announce the Level One courses that will be given here in two months. The first week of April for Anglophones and the third week of April for Francophones. The teacher will be Antoine Tinawi, an exuberant, bilingual official Art of living instructor. If you are interested in participating, please email me.

Today, I spent the morning at the Wise Women's Circle in L'Orignal, Ontario. We are a group of about 15 women who meet once a month to share subjects of common interest. Today's theme was "What do we want to change?" and we welcomed two newcomers to the area. Our next meeting will be in March and I will be hosting a "Paint-In": we will experience a non-verbal communication with paints on one big piece of paper!