Sunday, November 18, 2012

Winter Lotus Leaf

After an early morning rain shower the sun was just coming out from behind the clouds. I went to the backyard to breath the newly cleansed fresh air. I noticed in my small pond the rain had formed beautiful beads on top of the aging lotus leaves. The morning sun was reflected and refracted from the almost perfect globes of water. The surface of the miraculous lotus leaf still is capable of repelling water even in a state of decay.
 
I took out my camera with a macro lens and photographed the following close-up scenes. Editing the photos revealed highly textured and contrasting miniature landscapes. The glistening and polished rain droplets almost seem to hover above the rough surface of the lotus leaf. The macro lens with high resolution images further reveals a magnfied scene within each tiny rain drop.
 
Enjoy!
 
 













 

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Wearing the Sun Mask: Giving and Receiving Meditation

A friend recently shared with me difficulties with working in the family business. It felt futile to try to make improvements in order to achieve prosperity. The chaotic family dynamics present  a seemingly insurmountable challenge. How is it possible to attain the focus required to rise above the situation? The tendency to fall into negative patterns constantly inhibits the ability to move forward and achieve the dream of prosperity.

The quest for prosperity is fickle even under the best circumstances. Sometimes it appears very possible, other times it seems impossible. Accepting the chaos is not easy. Even after achieving acceptance, learning how to effectively live within the chaos is more difficult still.

This story reminded me of the "Theater of the Absurd", the existentialist plays and poetry. Have you read some of the plays by Eugene Ionesco, Samuel Beckett and Jean-Paul Sartre? The genre embraces tragic (but somehow comical) studies of characters stuck in chaotic life situations; stuck in samsara. The play "No Exit" epitomizes the condition of suffering. 

The satirists do not provide the instruction on how to exit chaos. It is Buddhism that teaches us that the only escape from samsara is enlightenment.

When we are stuck in chaotic circumstances we feel weighed down by the gravity of our situation. Gravity is all embracing. It is a type of nostalgia for becoming spherical; returning to the womb. But we do not see it as spherical, we perceive it as horizontal. Life is two-dimensional. We are flatlanders and cannot see beyond the horizon.

Succumbing to gravity is a condition of cycling, orbiting and localization. We can think of it as being stuck in a pattern of cyclic existence. The Buddhists call this samsara. We feel as if there is movement, and there is, but there is a lot of going around in circles. We cannot escape from the surface.

Escaping gravity is to be radiant and expand beyond the surface of our situation. It is not easy to rise above and escape the pull of flatland thinking. We must look to the heavens. Our intention must be to focus upward and outward from the surface.

Bucky Fuller said, "Horizontal is to die, vertical is to live."

Rising above the horizontal gravitation-ally challenged existence requires building up a great deal of potential energy. Like a rocket that requires a tremendous fuel supply to reach escape velocity, we must find a source of energy and fuel ourselves for this great vertical journey. 

So we meditate and gather our strength and store up the fuel in our tanks. We do nothing other than sit and breathe; watching our breath go in and out.

Meditation is a subversive method of planning our escape. I say "subversive" in a good way. We subvert our tendency to move sideways, scuttling around the surface like a nervous crab. Instead, we connect with the emptiness of our efforts to find prosperity in this flatland, within samsara. Once we realize the truth of this emptiness we can sit perfectly still and put our mind at rest, abandoning our quest for prosperity.

What, did I say? Abandon our quest for prosperity? This is indeed a subversive thought. However, there is great joy in abandoning prosperity. Through meditation we embrace the simple, profound truth of finding ultimate meaning in the simple act of sitting up straight, breathing in and out. The joy and boundless energy of the cosmos washes over us. We are free of gravity and become a source of radiant energy ourselves. Focused on the single task of breathing in and out we discover an infinite store of radiant energy.

This is the essence of the meditation practice of "Tonglen", the Tibetan Buddhist practice of "Giving and Receiving". We breath in and receive the suffering of all beings trapped in samsara. We breath out and transmit radiant joy and happiness to all beings with the intent to alleviate their suffering. 

Breath in and feel the gravity of all beings' situation. Use the gravity to pull in all the suffering of all beings into a critical mass in the center of your heart. Like our Sun pulls in all surrounding matter and fuses the very atoms together releasing profound life-giving radiant energy, we convert this mass of suffering into boundless joy and radiate positive energy throughout the surrounding universe.

Sun mask sculpture, "Tamanuitera" by James Webster,
a Maori multimedia artist working with wood sculpture,
stone, bone, painting and mural creations.
He comments that his work is
"Art as a passion in life and a journey of discovery."
Pasted from <http://www.carving.co.nz/webster.php>
 

We become a living-breathing Sun God. We put on the Sun Mask and shine our light throughout the world. The Sun is the ultimate victor over gravity, using gravity to fuse cold, dark, life-less matter into radiant life-giving energy, the source of fuel for all life in the cosmos. 

Would you like to know how the Sun performs this miracle of giving and receiving? Breath in and breath out, give and receive.

Wednesday, October 03, 2012

Spheriphor = Tetrahelix + Triskele + Trimurti + Jewel in the Lotus

I created the geometry for the Spheriphor digital art work as an investigation into spherical spirals, but this figure has also led me down deep into multiple levels of insight meditation. If you have been following my blog, you may know that I believe that the root essence of existence is the spiral. I talked about this with my Maori artist collaborator Kura Puke (for I. She also believes spirals to be at the heart of all things.
 
Just recently, during a Vipassana meditation session, I had an insight that emerged from contemplation of the tetrahelix (spiral based on the tetrahedron). I visualized the tetrahelix emerging from a set of 3 vectors that propagate through space. These 3 vectors are the primary (active) system of all phenomena. There is a set of 3 complementary vectors that are secondary (reactive), and together with the primary set of 3 vectors, the tetrahedron (minimum system of Universe) is formed (as per Bucky's Synergetics).
 
Then, I arrived at an internal visualization of the relationships between the 3 primary vectors. This visualization involved a spiraling propagation through space based on 3 parameters: length, angle and twist. I could see that these 3 parameters were the true 3 dimensions of Universe (as opposed to width, height and depth). I made a mental note to create an mathematical computer generated visualization based on this concept.
 
Then all of a sudden the visualization shifted to the Hindu Trimurti. My mental energy shifted from left hemisphere to right hemisphere; the wonders of the corpus callosum.
 
From Wikipedia:
The Trimurti (English: 'three forms') is a concept in Hinduism in which the cosmic functions of  creation   maintenance  , and  transformation  are personified by the forms of Brahmāthe maintainer or preserver Vishnu the creator and Śhiva the destroyer or transformer. These three deities have been called "the Hindu triad" or the "Great Trinity", often addressed as "Brahma-Vishnu-Maheshwara."

Next came the realization of the equivalence of Hindu and Tibetan Buddhist trinities:
  1. Vishnu = Sunyata
  2. Brahma = Amitabha
  3. Shiva = Chenrezig
 
The visualization then shifted again. This time the triad transformed into the Mani; the most beneficial mantra, "Om Mani Padme Hum". I saw the following: 
  1. the clear light of creation (Om) radiating from within 
  2. the jewel maintaining (Mani) all phenomena
  3. sitting on a lotus transforming (Padme) all dualistic views
  4. within my human heart (Hum) the most fortunate of all incarnations
In this meditation I attained the most in-depth understanding of the Mani that I have ever realized.
The visualization which emerged from my contemplation of the tetrahelix now circled back to my 4 colored, Triskele version of the Spheriphor. The Spheriphor contains both the 3-way symmetry of the Trimurti and the 4-colored aspects of the Mani. The Spheriphor is truly an all-encompassing spherical-metaphor that represents the complete Hindu-Buddhist psycho-cosmology. 

 
Spheriphor by Tom Greenbaum
 
You can view my Spheriphor study at http://karmatetra.com/ISDE5/spheriphor_study03.htm
Also on the Spheriphor Study 03 page are alternative views of the figure based on a spherical octahedron. The 3 views are based on vertex, face-centered and edge centered perspectives:
 
I would love to make this figure out of glass. I have thought of possible ways to make it out of glass, but it would be a major challenge.

Saturday, June 30, 2012

Kumba Kimba the Conga Playing Spirit Guides from Puerto Rico

This story starts off weird and then gets more and more strange. I think you will find it an example of how all things are inter-connected.

The story starts out when I was a little boy and I had two imaginary friends. I used to play with them a lot and I had names for them. I called them Kumba and Kimba. Ask my Mom she will tell you all about it.

Jump forward to the present day. I just got back from Sedona, AZ. I had a great time there. It is a very beautiful town nestled in the middle of an incredible array of natural red sandstone formations. Sedona is also famous for being at the center of spiritual energy vortexes. There are many New Age spiritual centers, with psychics, healers, aura readers and spiritualists on almost every corner. Of course, while in Sedona, I had to have a Kirlian photo taken of my aura. 

The psychic, Jamie Jones-Hoaglund, who took the aura photo is well known. She has appeared on the TV shows, the Bachelorette and Good Morning America. The aura photo and Jamie's reading was amazing. Jamie totally blew my mind with what she said about me. I won't go into all of the details, but one thing in particular she said has stuck with me. There are two bright orbs just above and on either side of my head. Jamie said these are spirit guides or angels. It is very special to have one, but to have two is exceptional.

I had not thought about my imaginary friends Kumba and Kimba in a long time, but it suddenly occurred to me that they might be my two spirit guides! Then I wondered if any one else has a connection to Kumba and Kimba. They might be historical names, or place names, etc.

I just did a Google search for "Kumba Kimba". The search turned up a singular item in which Kumba Kimba is mentioned; it is a song called Kumba Kimba by Sergio "Chino" Ramos, from the Album Kumba Kimba. (Original release date, July 4, 2011 just about one year ago). No where else in all of the internet is Kumba Kimba mentioned together as a phrase.

Some interesting facts about Chino Ramos:
  • Chino Ramos was born in New York City, his parents are from Puerto Rico. I too was born in New York City, my parents live in Puerto Rico for 5 months of the year.
  • Chino is a percussionist who fell in love with the conga drums at a very young age. I too love the conga drums and have a pair of LP Aspire Sunburst drums (see photo below).
  • Chino took percussion lessons in New York City. I never have taken lessons, but I would love to one day.
  • The song "Kumba Kimba" is about a drummer without fame or fortune. I need to find out more about the exact meaning and how Chino uses the phrase in context.
  • The song is quite successful in Puerto Rico and is a favorite for dancers competing in salsa. I have taken a couple of salsa dance lessons just for fun, I am not any good, but I love to dance.
  • Chino loves to "talk with his hands, ringing his drums." When I play the drums, it is an emotional release, I try to be in the moment and allow the spirit talk through my hands.
Some links:

Inline image 1
Picture of the Kumba Kimba album cover. You can see his influences on the cover (the New York City skyline and the flag of Puerto Rico)
Photo of my LP Aspire Sunburst conga drums




Wednesday, April 18, 2012

A Flake Of Mica and the Golden Rhombus

When we open ourselves to the ways of Nature and meditate on the structure of natural systems, we are sometimes surprised with gifts of beauty and tokens of our mental journey. Here is a photo of un-cut mica crystal I found on the ground during a recent hike in northern New Mexico.

Natural, un-cut mica in the perfect proportions of a golden rhombus.
Notice in this photo how lines of symmetry within the mica align perfectly with the major and minor axis of the golden rhombus. Readers of this blog may appreciate that my meditations on the proportions of the golden rhombus are extensive. In particular, I have expressed my admiration for this geometric jewel through several kilnformed glass art pieces. You may witness the golden rhombus arrayed in spherical formation as the thirty faces of the rhombic triacontahedron in the photo of my glass art below.

Thirty golden rhombus form the faces of the rhombic triacontahedron.

In northern New Mexico there are many wonderful natural places to explore. Ancient volcanic activity is evident in soothing, mineral rich hot springs. Whenever, I get a chance I love to take advantage of the healing waters, soak away my stress and dissolve my toxic attachments. During a recent trip to the Ojo Caliente hot springs, before immersing myself in the baths, I took a hike in the surrounding hills and was rewarded with the discovery of a perfect golden rhombus mica crystal. How lucky is that?