Weak Tea Weak Mind Mug

Weak Tea Weak Mind Mug
Originally uploaded by mooosh ♥ miso funky

For all those who love their tea strong ! ^ ^

Love + Light!

A whale of a time!

Ever since I can remember I love making things out of paper, my good friend Gaurika will remember, once during our J.J days, we had gone to Sanjay Gandhi National Park to do landcape painting (ah! those were the days, were'nt they? hehe....)and the sun was really beating down on us, as a solution I took a sheet of newspaper and folded it this way and that, made a tear and made a quick hat for her....I hope memory has served me right.... :)

Which brings us now to origami, I was browsing the net once more to learn something new and I made this whale. I love creatures of the sea, must be something to do with my Piscean moon-sign :)

(I pasted the whale on white paper and painted few atmospheric strokes around it, you can learn to make it here)

I found some simple origami designs for children, in fact I wish to share this with Gaurika's little girl, maybe my neighbour's kids (if they haven't learnt it in school yet) and also some of my close friends (just to feel like children again :))

I was so happy to find some origami paper at the local student supplies store while out on my grocery errand yesterday. These are lovely solid colours, but I hope to find subtler shades too :)

If I question myself why I like doing these simple crafts, I don't know... maybe my art-practise is becoming quite research based, and maybe I read so much that I like to balance it with something that takes you to being a child...or perhaps I like the unpretentiousness of it....some years back I would even buy children's books and I have always enjoyed folk tales, myths, legends, creation stories, etc from around the world. I would collect these books for their beautiful illustrations and stories that got you dreaming :)

I will share more creatures of the paper soon as and when I fold them :)

Have a lovely weekend!
Keep cool :)

love + light!!

The Shrine-room

Lately, I’ve been thinking of the symbolism and spiritual significance of a shrine. Often, when I’m reading a book, the word will surface, highlighting a different association or meaning of the word, thereby sparking off new brain-waves! :)

We are all too familiar with shrines, being in a deeply spiritual land. Personally, I think of a shrine as a physical as well as a mental space, where your inner-self retreats to, where you can still the muddy waters of your heart-mind. Physically, this space can be a meditation hall/room or even a cell, similarly a prayer hall/room. I also see the shrines in which we place an image or a sculpture of our personal/family deity as symbolic of the shrine within us. As if the shrine outside has a corresponding or parallel space within - a space where our higher-self resides.

Coming to the title of this post, I knew the shrine-room was the working-title for my current works after I exprienced an "aha!" moment, while reading it in venerable monk Sangharakshita’s book, Living with Kindness. :)

Love + light!
Happy Weekend :D

P.S: To Old Vipassana Meditators- Guruji S.N.Goenka will impart metta and discourse at Global Vipassana Pagoda, Gorai as part of a one-day dhamma seminar on May 27th, call and register in advance, get their number from the Pagoda's website.
Be Happy! :)

Spring, Igatpuri: 2 day self-course.

Last weekend I attended a two day self-course for old vipassana students at Dhammagiri, the Vipassana Meditation centre in Igatpuri. It is hard to believe that two days of turning your attention within can bring about so much peace and change in one's life. I feel better, renewed and I couldn't have gone at a better time, even though temperatures have been hovering around 35 degrees celsisus. There were beautiful flowering trees and the birds twittered and babbled from dawn till dusk :)

Igatpuri was where it all began for me, and it is a pleasure to return each time. As I grow older, I now appreciate more things, for example like being able to meditate in a peaceful environment where the meditation hall is kept ready for you much before you have entered, where the paths are swept of fallen leaves each day, where your meals are lovingly served, and teachers watch and listen patiently to everyone, over 200 women in each course and as many number of men too.

It was delightful to be in the midst of nature, walking past well kept flower-beds from the meditaion hall to one's room. You open your door and you are outside :) Sorely miss that in a flat.

Its funny how as you get older you look forward to hours of meditation and then listening to the discourses at the end of the day. The mind due to its conditioning isn't very helpful but expereience tells you otherwise and you know how much you will learn and enjoy the spoken wisdom after you have put in your practise for the day :) (theory and practise should go hand in hand- Goenkaji's words).

Here are a few photos I took of place before and after the course. Hope you enjoy :)

Walking area for women.

Imposing mountain facing Igatpuri Vipassana Centre

View of the mountains as one walks out of the meditaion centre.

Near the main gate is the recently erected replica of the Ashoka stambha.

As you enter you pass through the elegant Myanmar gate, which reminds one of the story of how the teaching of Vipassana was lost to India but was preserved in Burma, from where it returned to India after 2,500 years and then spread to the world.

love + light!

Have a lovely weekend!