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BODDHI LOVES :: Thich Nath Han [Living Masters]

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdRCcCdg7LJUCCb8cEV21KxirBKKraUExj2816EdghwhD3DcGE5-q_NhNzm8dQatN7IjNHoD5eSAC__OOvgL8VIek6a0zKkBcXubICmt6dVvF2osCghXuRrZjgmnswwVWZ4SYiQaE1aN8/s1600/rev-martin-luther-king-jr-meets-vietnamese-buddhist-monk-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdRCcCdg7LJUCCb8cEV21KxirBKKraUExj2816EdghwhD3DcGE5-q_NhNzm8dQatN7IjNHoD5eSAC__OOvgL8VIek6a0zKkBcXubICmt6dVvF2osCghXuRrZjgmnswwVWZ4SYiQaE1aN8/s320/rev-martin-luther-king-jr-meets-vietnamese-buddhist-monk-1.jpg" width="600" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I had this post half-finished waiting to be published for a few months now. Today, while celebrating Martin Luther King's birthday and legacy, is perhaps the best time to share my (re)discovery of Thich Nhat Hanh, a living boddhisattva. A Vietnamese monk, poet, scholar, and peace activist, Thich Nath Hahn has been known for his life long efforts to generate world peace and reconciliation founded on the Buddhist teachings of interconnectedness of all beings. His approach has been to combine a variety of traditional & <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen" style="-webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;" title="Zen">Zen</a> teachings with methods from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theravada" style="-webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;" title="Theravada">Theravada</a> Buddhism and insights from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahayana" style="-webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;" title="Mahayana">Mahayana</a> Buddhism. In the 60s, he traveled to the U.S. and was giving lectures, urging the U.S. government to withdraw from Vietnam. He had meetings with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr." style="-webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-repeat: initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;" title="Martin Luther King, Jr.">Martin Luther King, Jr.</a>, inspiring him to publicly oppose the Vietnam War; King nominated Hanh for the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Peace_Prize" style="-webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-repeat: initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;" title="Nobel Peace Prize">Nobel Peace Prize</a> in January 1967.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In a recent trip to San Francisco, in the guest room I was staying in, I found a book entitled<i> The Sun My Heart </i>which turned out to be written by Thich Nath Hahn. As a seeker, I believe that when one fully accepts one's life mission, the universe will open up doors to guide one's search (and challenges as well). This book was one of those life's gifts.   </div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq6dWczeC1tECqKyD2dsErHz8b_p_7J2SxEnpo72j88cS_j4bDX7WFbKhu4oqdESpYj-rXR31GSxui8WGMUnbdv9q5chAqRki8Exo5_t7gMWg_r4VUfpBCg5l-MMDvwHtMi54mvtr11QA/s1600/SunMyHeart-ThichNathHanh.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq6dWczeC1tECqKyD2dsErHz8b_p_7J2SxEnpo72j88cS_j4bDX7WFbKhu4oqdESpYj-rXR31GSxui8WGMUnbdv9q5chAqRki8Exo5_t7gMWg_r4VUfpBCg5l-MMDvwHtMi54mvtr11QA/s1600/SunMyHeart-ThichNathHanh.jpg" /></a></div><i><b>THE LETTER OF MARTIN LUTHER KING JR TO NOMINATE THICH NATH HAN FOR THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE</b></i></div><div style="color: #666666;">1967 25, January</div><div style="color: #666666;">The Nobel Institute</div><div style="color: #666666;">Drammesnsveien 19</div><div style="color: #666666;">Oslo, NORWAY </div><div style="color: #666666;"><br /></div><div style="color: #666666;">Gentlemen: </div><div style="color: #666666;">As the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate of 1964, I now have the pleasure of proposing to you the name of Thich Nhat Hanh for that award in 1967. I do not personally know of anyone more worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize than this gentle Buddhist monk from Vietnam.</div><div style="color: #666666;"><br /></div><div style="color: #666666;">This would be a notably auspicious year for you to bestow your Prize on the Venerable Nhat Hanh. Here is an apostle of peace and non-violence, cruelly separated from his own people while they are oppressed by a vicious war which has grown to threaten the sanity and security of the entire world. </div><div style="color: #666666;">Because no honor is more respected than the Nobel Peace Prize, conferring the Prize on Nhat Hanh would itself be a most generous act of peace. It would remind all nations that men of good will stand ready to lead warring elements out of an abyss of hatred and destruction. It would re-awaken men to the teaching of beauty and love found in peace. It would help to revive hopes for a new order of justice and harmony.</div><div style="color: #666666;"><br /></div><div style="color: #666666;">I know Thich Nhat Hanh, and am privileged to call him my friend. Let me share with you some things I know about him. You will find in this single human being an awesome range of abilities and interests. </div><div style="color: #666666;">He is a holy man, for he is humble and devout. He is a scholar of immense intellectual capacity. The author of ten published volumes, he is also a poet of superb clarity and human compassion. His academic discipline is the Philosophy of Religion, of which he is Professor at Van Hanh, the Buddhist University he helped found in Saigon. He directs the Institute for Social Studies at this University. This amazing man also is editor of Thien My, an influential Buddhist weekly publication. And he is Director of Youth for Social Service, a Vietnamese institution which trains young people for the peaceable rehabilitation of their country.</div><div style="color: #666666;">  </div><div style="color: #666666;">Thich Nhat Hanh today is virtually homeless and stateless. If he were to return to Vietnam, which he passionately wishes to do, his life would be in great peril. He is the victim of a particularly brutal exile because he proposes to carry his advocacy of peace to his own people. What a tragic commentary this is on the existing situation in Vietnam and those who perpetuate it. <br /><br /></div><div style="color: #666666;">The history of Vietnam is filled with chapters of exploitation by outside powers and corrupted men of wealth, until even now the Vietnamese are harshly ruled, ill-fed, poorly housed, and burdened by all the hardships and terrors of modern warfare. <br /><br /></div><div style="color: #666666;"><b>Thich Nhat Hanh offers a way out of this nightmare, a solution acceptable to rational leaders. He has traveled the world, counseling statesmen, religious leaders, scholars and writers, and enlisting their support. His ideas for peace, if applied, would build a monument to ecumenism, to </b><b>world brotherhood</b><b>, to humanity. </b><br /><br /></div><div style="color: #666666;">I respectfully recommend to you that you invest his cause with the acknowledged grandeur of the Nobel Peace Prize of 1967. Thich Nhat Hanh would bear this honor with grace and humility. </div><div style="color: #666666;">Sincerely, </div><div style="color: #666666;">Martin Luther King, Jr.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><object height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/V6VycjCq6sE?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/V6VycjCq6sE?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRZZJYTrGRdUmlObpfU32M-K5iKo1w6AS8NwCZtonrQgiSIuSkiTJmS-FvSBrJCpDW3x822UZfZ1kVU3F8AksElUFW-BH-1KYpR5WtGxxuc5hQz98vbeDLjanhtPBgguBU9wVri521txE/s1600/ThichnatHan-SunMyHeart-lichiban.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRZZJYTrGRdUmlObpfU32M-K5iKo1w6AS8NwCZtonrQgiSIuSkiTJmS-FvSBrJCpDW3x822UZfZ1kVU3F8AksElUFW-BH-1KYpR5WtGxxuc5hQz98vbeDLjanhtPBgguBU9wVri521txE/s1600/ThichnatHan-SunMyHeart-lichiban.jpg" /> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRN1fm8IHAZe8CZoki5O4wFgw0FlXIwqH-iggRSu7q2iLR4fxF9Bu81jij5hG13AbJSgeWKWKRJMj6j6icv1IcNrmg4wcw-r-vpBSe5Epj12VArEhhJdGUpS7w1-cXNSRtzZuxdk2e81w/s1600/ThichNatHan-SunMyHeart2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRN1fm8IHAZe8CZoki5O4wFgw0FlXIwqH-iggRSu7q2iLR4fxF9Bu81jij5hG13AbJSgeWKWKRJMj6j6icv1IcNrmg4wcw-r-vpBSe5Epj12VArEhhJdGUpS7w1-cXNSRtzZuxdk2e81w/s1600/ThichNatHan-SunMyHeart2.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_XPCGsZJ2IxtJmT34ZkjFm9sr3vKeVuhrutPLivXn8bAqDWsV2UP76J3tHytIDm1NJFjDd1_SARNDUs36OU11DL5OhQQdyLC81-wp6fqNjC_NF0RyxbCsFcD4QdZusWZbSmnT6HGTgnU/s1600/ThichNatHan-SunMyHeart3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_XPCGsZJ2IxtJmT34ZkjFm9sr3vKeVuhrutPLivXn8bAqDWsV2UP76J3tHytIDm1NJFjDd1_SARNDUs36OU11DL5OhQQdyLC81-wp6fqNjC_NF0RyxbCsFcD4QdZusWZbSmnT6HGTgnU/s1600/ThichNatHan-SunMyHeart3.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><object height="437" width="550"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/mG3PEoJpYBs?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/mG3PEoJpYBs?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="550" height="437"></embed></object></span></div> I recommend <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Sun-Heart-Thich-Nhat-Hanh/dp/0938077120">to find a copy of </a><i>The Sun My Heart</i>, or any other works of Thich Nath Hahn. You can also find more essays & retreat schedule on the site of <a href="http://www.plumvillage.org/">Plum Village</a>, the community he'd founded in France.

BODDHI LOVES :: Thich Nath Han [Living Masters]

I had this post half-finished waiting to be published for a few months now. Today, while celebrating Martin Luther King's birthday and l...

5:34 PM

NEW WORK: "WE ARE LUMINOUS BEINGS" hitting the streets next month :: Prints are coming in November!

<div style="text-align: center;">"WE Are Luminous Beings"-<i>YODA Blessings</i> prints coming next month!</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicI0xLpZ6Tlg07LkokyLqzJz1z-NgqAfWCGiZsawqG7ZwG76q71B1nwmywxmmNLV9OIC2KUAPePxHsQC6QiG0ArYm9c2x5TzO79C6rF06nnAh2itSwatuhtSMQs4fXCDR0rFNZgOUGRuQ/s1600/YODAblessing-lichiban.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicI0xLpZ6Tlg07LkokyLqzJz1z-NgqAfWCGiZsawqG7ZwG76q71B1nwmywxmmNLV9OIC2KUAPePxHsQC6QiG0ArYm9c2x5TzO79C6rF06nnAh2itSwatuhtSMQs4fXCDR0rFNZgOUGRuQ/s1600/YODAblessing-lichiban.jpg" style="cursor: move;" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY_kjYnckVaSN89fcJ4GwRvCOmmACc32tsP5JKbzWVlm8RwJgR37315E4VnnbGzWsNq7uxkIVx91CkTP8LyfR4aPHCSwuQed9FYjeACqwX5zaQiEGHuifLupvJW0aT12s3P-JC7XPoMLo/s1600/LICHIBAN-yodaprint2010-mural2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY_kjYnckVaSN89fcJ4GwRvCOmmACc32tsP5JKbzWVlm8RwJgR37315E4VnnbGzWsNq7uxkIVx91CkTP8LyfR4aPHCSwuQed9FYjeACqwX5zaQiEGHuifLupvJW0aT12s3P-JC7XPoMLo/s1600/LICHIBAN-yodaprint2010-mural2.jpg" style="cursor: move;" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPZtjbTN7GUHaY6ujWlz4SxiJ-QM5nvarv9iXHy3gxjRRrXXc33u1p13yxDQ6wyva7oawVxV8_ssAkgszOFjjjgA9tPFs609kXujRbTlcuQcKMJqW_-H7qeM9OYnabTc6Loiak1IYzaTI/s1600/STREETARTS-Albuquerque2010MURALYodaARMZwheatpaste+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPZtjbTN7GUHaY6ujWlz4SxiJ-QM5nvarv9iXHy3gxjRRrXXc33u1p13yxDQ6wyva7oawVxV8_ssAkgszOFjjjgA9tPFs609kXujRbTlcuQcKMJqW_-H7qeM9OYnabTc6Loiak1IYzaTI/s1600/STREETARTS-Albuquerque2010MURALYodaARMZwheatpaste+copy.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><object height="340" width="560"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/PcjnbIF1yAA?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/PcjnbIF1yAA?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">My Jaguar Goddess is also from the YODA clan. She is the Mother Matrix that manifest the LOTUS catships through mental projection</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx2xGanUIhDdiQQwLBczvuiiloqMVThWwL-0rLZFak6oSr2UWiUp95rcoG_4fVnkU6WRQRheNw-DSrRj9a7qfNXa8DkLE3sP0QToSThe7sOTqCYyNF6EmRQRsT2Zj9USURbsdNStR9krw/s1600/Shakti-Jaguar-Lichiban600l.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx2xGanUIhDdiQQwLBczvuiiloqMVThWwL-0rLZFak6oSr2UWiUp95rcoG_4fVnkU6WRQRheNw-DSrRj9a7qfNXa8DkLE3sP0QToSThe7sOTqCYyNF6EmRQRsT2Zj9USURbsdNStR9krw/s1600/Shakti-Jaguar-Lichiban600l.jpg" /></a></div>

NEW WORK: "WE ARE LUMINOUS BEINGS" hitting the streets next month :: Prints are coming in November!

"WE Are Luminous Beings"- YODA Blessings prints coming next month! My Jaguar Goddess is also from the YODA clan. She is the Mothe...

9:23 AM

i love YODA

i love YODA

3:50 PM

Ramana Maharshi -- Abide as the Self (C)

Ramana Maharshi -- Abide as the Self (C)

an awakened master, Ramana Maharshi one of the beacons of the 21st century "Happiness is your true nature." RM

10:02 AM

GET OPEN :: it all starts to make sense....

<div style="text-align: center;">I've been often asked how does my art connect now to what I was up back in my teens. For a long time, I wasn't really ready to show my past life as a young artist going through some dark places while seeking the light. The art that I did when I was 15, I'm definitely not ready to share yet, but I'm fine with sharing the part of the journey that was in the light. I made these sketches and painting below during my high school years when I was spending all my time with doing art and exploring the life of painters, ancient alchemist, kabbalists and seekers. This one below was the first of its kind, a meditational sygil i made for myself, based on alchemical illustrations I was studying carefully back then. I must say that having artist friends who are also seekers give me a lot of inspiration to keep on expressing the quest. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/Lichiban-ALCHEMYnotebook7.jpg" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:small;">This is my note/sketch book back when I was 16. This was way before the birth of Lichiban, the little symbol on the bottom right corner of the book was my logo I designed for myself using my three initials A T SZ of my actual name. It connected the symbol of fire and air, the Eye, and the knot of life that had special significance for me back then. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/Lichiban-ALCHEMYnotebook6.jpg" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:small;">The Tree of Sephiroth (most of the notes there in Hungarian, sorry). Sephiroths are the </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;font-family:sans-serif;" ><b><span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:small;">10 attributes/emanations</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:small;"> in </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabbalah" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(6, 69, 173); background-image: none;" title="Kabbalah"><span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:small;">Kabbalah</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:small;">, through which </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_God_in_Judaism" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(6, 69, 173); background-image: none;" title="Names of God in Judaism"><span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:small;">God</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:small;"> (who is referred to as </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ein_Sof" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(6, 69, 173); background-image: none;" title="Ein Sof"><span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:small;">Ein Sof</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:small;"> - The Infinite) reveals him/herself and continuously creates both the physical realm and the chain of higher </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphysics" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(6, 69, 173); background-image: none;" title="Metaphysics"><span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:small;">metaphysical</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:small;"> realms. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/Lichiban-ALCHEMYnotebook4.jpg" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:small;">Cosmic diagrams are a way of mapping the connection between the microcosmos, the human body, and the macrocosmos, our galaxy. When we unlock the maps of galaxies beyond ours, simultaneously we unlock the doors to the hyperdimensions within ourselves and </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:small;">vice versa</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:small;">. "As above, so below" as Thoth through the words of Hermes Trismegistos would say. That is what I believe is the shift that is being heralded with the whole consciousness shift people are talking about these days. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/Lichiban-ALCHEMYnotebook5.jpg" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/Lichiban-ALCHEMYnotebook8.jpg" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/Lichiban-ALCHEMYnotebook2.jpg" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/Lichiban-ALCHEMYnotebook3.jpg" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:small;">This is the LOVE ∆eon as I've try to translate the experience/vision of it once back then. It reemerged again as </span><a href="http://lichiban.net/portfolios/11901-feline-fantasy#num=3721531&id=11901"><span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:small;">LOTUSHEART </span></a><span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:small;">two years ago. I created it as a collaboration with fellow artist comrade and seeker, Quan Luv, who introduced Lotusheart to Harakiti, his cosmic lover ninja.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/Lichiban-ALCHEMYnotebook9.jpg" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:small;">While I was going through some self-healing and soul searching, I discovered all these mystical traditions that to my understanding were talking about the same ultimate realization that at the core of our being we are divinity. That divinity is an awareness, or a special kind of vibration that our consciousness harmonizes with, or attunes to. It is the oneness-awareness, a state of non-duality. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/Lichiban-SUFIMysticalBuddhist1.jpg" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:small;">You can call it a changing of frequency, as we are made of various combinations of vibration types that corresponds to the degree of our being connected to matter.  It is not something humans that are bound to the four elements, i.e. matter, can realize completely, but we can achieve experiences of the state of absolute freedom from limitations, a state of buddhahood or heaven, if we embrace the vibration of that way of awareness, which is a mental state, or form of awareness on a particular frequency. Most traditions say that it is never fully achieved as a permanent state while our lifeseed is in the body.  It is a shift that happens to our consciousness, a state of </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:small;">bliss</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:small;">, and it takes a life of spiritual practice to achieve it, if only for periods of time. It takes letting go of notions of the past, memories of pain, and then the ultimate letting go of the idea of the self, the thing that calls itself  'I'. It's the state that many mystical traditions describe as being one with God, or uniting with God, realizing the inner divinity. Sufis, the practitioners of Islamic mysticism describe it through the metaphor of the </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 204, 204);"><span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:small;">heart as a mirror</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:small;">, which has to be polished through spiritual practice of cleansing of the self from false notions of identifications with negative energies and orientations (such as greed, hunger for power, envy, hate, etc) in order to reflect the Beloved, God, fully.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/Lichiban-SUFIMysticalBuddhist3.jpg" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:small;">The first person who I experienced as someone who you might call an '</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:small;">enlightened human</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:small;">' was this old Sufi healer in Srinagar, Kashmir. He would sit there for 12 hrs a day and people would come to him for his healing energy all day. Something about him & his presence was different from any other spiritual guides and healers I've encountered before. He is one of those </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meetings_with_Remarkable_Men"><span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:small;">Remarkable Men</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:small;">, Gurdjieff inspired me back then to seek. He changed my life in some unspoken way with very few words. If he were a Buddhist, he would be called a </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodhisattva"><span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:small;">b</span></a><i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodhisattva"><span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:small;">oddhisattva</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:small;">.</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:small;">I don't have time to introduce these books, but I took a few snapshots of my library of books on spirituality, most of which are books on, or about Sufis, alchemy & magic (though I've been also sharing some of my Tibetan Buddhist references) that I'd recommend to anyone who would want to explore or continue to explore the forgotten part of our makeup. One of most accessible and yet one of the most powerful entry I had to these was Kahlil Gibran's THE PROPHET. I read it when I was 14 and it was the most important inspiration and light bearer I had encountered until then, which changed my life and the way I was seeing the world then in some deep way. In a way, it was through his work that I was first exposed to Sufi teachings, which was a major source of inspiration for Gibran.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:small;">"But let there be spaces in your togetherness and let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love: let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls."</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:small;">"I prefer to be a dreamer among the humblest, with visions to be realized, than lord among those without dreams and desires."</span></i><br />Kahlil Gibran</div><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/Lichiban-SUFIMysticalBuddhist2.jpg" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:small;">Yes, I am a book junky, and the cosmos made sure that I got the right openings to support it. I used to spend all my money on books, though I stopped buying new ones a few years ago (art costs a LOT of $$) and rather slowly reopening the ones I have (but they still keep coming through, like last time on the ones I found on the street or from friends). Ultimately all books are just there to lend a language to something we have to seek to realize as an experience ourselves, at which point they become disposable. Beyond them a whole infinite ocean, as one of my favorites, Jalaladdin Mevlana Rumi would say. Rumi is a portal of love energy. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;font-family:georgia,serif;font-size:14;"  ><i>"Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it." </i><br />— <a class="authorNameRegular" href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/875661.Mawlana_Jalal_al_Din_Rumi" style="color: rgb(102, 51, 0); text-decoration: none;">Mawlana Jalal-al-Din Rumi</a></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:small;">(here are </span><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/875661.Mawlana_Jalal_al_Din_Rumi"><span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:small;">some quotes</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:small;"> for inspiration)</span></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/Lichiban-SUFIMysticalBuddhist4.jpg" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:small;">Some of these might be too technical to be the first read, but we are always attracted to the things that are ready for at all time, so it's all good. Let me know if you have any recommendations.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/Lichiban-SUFIMysticalBuddhist6.jpg" /></div><div style="text-align: center;">thank you for reading. please share.</div></div>

GET OPEN :: it all starts to make sense....

I've been often asked how does my art connect now to what I was up back in my teens. For a long time, I wasn't really ready to show ...

12:18 PM

LIFE AS A CAT: Mountains of the Gods

<a href="http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs104.snc4/35562_1454993608368_1039150033_31280442_5134906_n.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs104.snc4/35562_1454993608368_1039150033_31280442_5134906_n.jpg" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 600px; height: 452px;" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;">the home of felines...this is where my snowleopard beckons<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span"   style="  white-space: pre; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;"><object height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/TbG1hrZuwEA&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/TbG1hrZuwEA&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object></span></div>

LIFE AS A CAT: Mountains of the Gods

the home of felines...this is where my snowleopard beckons

10:28 AM

HIMALAYAS SERIES :: Tibetan Buddhist Method of Relaxation

HIMALAYAS SERIES :: Tibetan Buddhist Method of Relaxation

12:03 AM

NEW WORK ::: The Catship Has Arrived :: BODDHI, the cat messenger [HIMALAYA SERIES 3#]

<div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/Lichiban-BUDDHYcustomtoy15eyes-txt6.jpg" /><br /><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/Lichiban-BUDDHYcustomtoy2-600.jpg" /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">NAME : <span style="font-weight: bold;">BODDHI, the cat<br /></span>HOMELAND :<span style="font-weight: bold;">  Mt. Golden Blossom (Planet Citraka)<br /></span><span>CARRIER</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"> : Catship Lotus 7<br /></span>ROLE ::<span style="font-weight: bold;"> ambassador / trickster / connector /<br /></span>MESSAGE ::</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size:130%;"> love, liberation through light consciousness, eternal bliss through joy, nature & animal world harmony alert<br /></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;">MEANS OF INTERACTING WITH EARTHLINGS : <span style="font-weight: bold;">visualization & mental projections, parables, humor, telepathy, language of vibration control </span></span><br /><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/Lichiban-BUDDHYcustomtoy10crop600.jpg" /><br /><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/Lichiban-BUDDHYcustomDRAGON600F.jpg" /><br /><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/Lichiban-Dorje-TEACHEROFTHEMOUNT-3.jpg" /><br /><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/Lichiban-BUDDHYcustomtoy9-600.jpg" /><br /><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/Lichiban-BUDDHYcustomtoy-top600.jpg" /><br /><br /><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/Lichiban-MagicRoom11-600.jpg" /><br /><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/Lichiban-BUDDHYcustomtoy1-600.jpg" /><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102); white-space: pre;font-family:'Lucida Grande';font-size:10;"  ><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/Lichiban-BUDDHYcustomtoy6game600.jpg" /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:'Lucida Grande',fantasy;font-size:85%;"  ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre;font-size:10;" ><span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:'Lucida Grande';"><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/Lichiban-BUDDHYcustomtoy13600.jpg" /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">it was hard to let him go...NEXT APPEARANCE :: <span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><a href="http://www.crewest.com/index.html">Crewest Gallery</a> Saturday, March 27 th, 6-9pm, LOS ANGELES<br />Zakka, April 9, 6-9PM BROOKLYN,  NY<br /><br /></span></div>/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >This is #2 of the forthcoming series of work that will introduce the feline <a href="http://lichiban.blogspot.com/search/label/Himalayas">inhabitants of planet CITRAKA.</a> Limited edition prints are coming soon.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Two-city BIC BUDDY CUSTOM ART SHOW </span></span><br />Designed by my boy Marka27 (recently featured), CREWEST Gallery in Los Angeles have his newly launched toy platform the BIC BUDDY available, as well as 8" blanks, and the first big artist custom lineup of the year!<br /><br />The lineup includes Angry Woebots, Asylm, Auks, Dez Einswell, DrilOne, Enamel Kingdom, Erick Scarecrow, Gustavo Alberto Garcia Vaca, Jasper Santos, Jesse Hernandez, Jester, Jnub of “Leroy Jenkins”, kaNO, Keith Poon, Kenji Nakayama, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Lichiban</span>, Lou Pimentel, MAD, Man One, Marka27, Munk One, NC Winters, Nemo, Pen ‘Tha/Black/Krayon”, Phu!, Pon, Problak, Reactor-88, Ritzy Periwinkle, Saner, Scribe, Sket-One, Southerndrawl, Spankystokes, Nakanari, Tristan Eaton, Vyal.<br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" ><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/BUDDYSHOW-FRONt.jpg" /><br /></span></div>

NEW WORK ::: The Catship Has Arrived :: BODDHI, the cat messenger [HIMALAYA SERIES 3#]

NAME : BODDHI, the cat HOMELAND : Mt. Golden Blossom (Planet Citraka) CARRIER : Catship Lotus 7 ROLE :: ambassador / trickster / connect...

8:49 PM

JAY ELECTRONICA :: Exhibit A [HIMALAYA SERIES #3]

JAY ELECTRONICA :: Exhibit A [HIMALAYA SERIES #3]

2:54 AM

NEW WORK ::: The Catship Has Arrived : DORJE, the teacher of the mountains [HIMALAYA SERIES #2]

<div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/Lichiban-Dorje-TEACHEROFTHEMOUNT-2.jpg" /><br /><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/Lichiban-Dorje-TEACHEROFTHEMOUNTAIN.jpg" /><br /><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/Lichiban-Dorje-TEACHEROFTHEMOUNT-1.jpg" /><br /><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/Lichiban-Dorje-TEACHEROFTHEMOUNT-3.jpg" /><br /><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/Lichiban-MagicRoom22-600.jpg" /><br /><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/Lichiban-Dorje-TEACHEROFTHEMOUNT-4.jpg" /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">NAME : <span style="font-weight: bold;">DORJE, the teacher of the mountains (sage)<br /></span>HOMELAND :<span style="font-weight: bold;"> Mt. Golden Blossom (Planet Citraka)<br /></span>ROLE ::<span style="font-weight: bold;"> guide / teacher /master of non-verbal communication<br /></span>MESSAGE ::</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size:130%;"> liberation through non-duality & light consciousness, meditation, eternal bliss<br /></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;">MEANS OF INTERACTING WITH EARTHLINGS : <span style="font-weight: bold;">visualization, mental projections, telepathy, language of vibration control, mudras<br /></span><span>MEANS OF TRANSPORT ::</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"> levitation over Spacecraft '</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Lotus7'</span></span><br />::::<br /><a href="http://lichiban.blogspot.com/2009/07/inner-visions.html" style="font-style: italic;">the prelude </a><br /><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/K8sanctuarykashmir.jpg" width="600" /><br /><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/K17boatlotus.jpg" width="600" /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">Mt. Kailash (Meru) one of the most sacred sites of the planet: it is believed to be the axis mundi or primordial center and birthplace of the world. It is sacred to four major religions Buddhism, Hinduism, Bon, and Jainism. In Hinduism & Buddhism, it is often depicted as the center of the world mandala, the symbolic representation of the micro- and macrocosm. In Buddhism, it is the home of the Buddha <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chakrasamvara" title="Chakrasamvara">Demchok</a> (also known as Demchog or <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chakrasamvara" title="Chakrasamvara">Chakrasamvara</a>),<sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Kailash#cite_note-4"><span>[</span>5<span>]</span></a></sup> who represents supreme bliss. According to legend, Milarepa defeated Naro Bon-chung, the leader of the Bon religion of Tibet in a contest by riding to the summit of the Kailash on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunlight" title="Sunlight">rays of the sun</a>, thus winning the battle for Tantric Buddhism over Bon in Tibet. The closest I got to Kailash was a few years ago, when I stayed in Srinagar (Kashmir, India) which lies at the foothills of the Himalayas (<a href="http://lichiban.blogspot.com/2008/12/kashmir-my-spiritual-homeland.html" style="font-style: italic;">my journal entry on the trip</a>) for a month. one day...<br /></div><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/kailash-aerial-view.jpg" /><br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">inspiration :: MILAREPA, legendary yogi saint of Tibet  -- this is one of his tantric parables<br /></div><a href="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/Lichiban-Dorje-TEACHEROFTHEMOUNT-5.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/Lichiban-Dorje-TEACHEROFTHEMOUNT-5.jpg" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 338px; height: 449px;" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">VI. Songs About Vajra Love</span> <span style="font-weight: bold;">46. Answer to Dakini Tzerima</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">          I have mastered energy and mind,<br />May accept the mudra of your kind.<br />'Tis true, among many offerings,<br />Most fruitful is mudra we could find.<br />Your face and lotus is full of bliss,<br />Shell shaped nadi speeds the ecstasy,<br />Protective mark is in your recess,<br />Through elephant get true fantasy.<br />You are the noble body of longevity<br />BHAM and E shapes are in your lotus secret,<br />And in my Dorje there is a Bija HUM,<br />When combined with PAD as the semen great,<br />Wisdom & merit both joined together.<br />The Bliss of two-in-one thus dictates<br />The four blisses and four moments are<br />The essence of the four Buddhakaya.<br />Like the crawling of a tortoise,<br />Should drop down slowly without loss,<br />Then hold it in the channel central<br />Like the camel with water control.<br />When you spread all bliss in your body,<br />The liberating mudra is ready:</span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaTgvTBVBz3wOv-F9cVz_J3pYNK6ElewEio2sRAZjWx2R8ioB3WVYL3OWWXYkaw5387Sw5bB22QfAa6oS9WhoNCNDa_jtkKaUwlkXtKcu3swpX89j0YRVtLg_gUFemLp0pODSsjGI1uco/s1600-h/mila.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5449838166528437650" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaTgvTBVBz3wOv-F9cVz_J3pYNK6ElewEio2sRAZjWx2R8ioB3WVYL3OWWXYkaw5387Sw5bB22QfAa6oS9WhoNCNDa_jtkKaUwlkXtKcu3swpX89j0YRVtLg_gUFemLp0pODSsjGI1uco/s400/mila.jpg" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 291px; height: 400px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">         TIA is the bliss of equality,<br />LE is Nirvana of reality.<br />LA means the various coitus actions,<br />KYI is the twixt bliss meditation,<br />PHYAG is the intercourse this and that<br />RGYA, Nirvana & samsara unite.<br />LA is to contact this & act on that,<br />KYI is do this & that & associate.<br />PHYAG is the union of voidness & bliss,<br />RGYA is the one beyond which nothing could pass.</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">         This is the most speedy path of union<br />Which is blissful in both companions.<br />Enable us to quickly be enlightened<br />In illumination of wisdom,<br />Leading to the great Dharmakaya,<br />Obtaining great Sambhogakaya,<br />Manifesting Nirmanakaya.<br />This is a path of bliss and voidness<br />Of no thought of no duality.<br />This is a path of assistance<br />By the Dakini to the reality.<br />Following this good inspiring way<br />Four Ladies you will in freedom stay,<br />And remain in the realm of non-born<br />Oh! Fairies you are always welcome.</span><br />[Source : <a href="http://www.quietmountain.org/links/teachings/yogi_chen/87.htm">The               Essential Songs of Milarepa </a>]<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">this is a video i <a href="http://lichiban.blogspot.com/2009/07/inner-visions.html">posted a while back</a>. was one of the inspirations<br /><object height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/J-kOuHkQErc&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/J-kOuHkQErc&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object><br /></div>/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >This is one of the first of the forthcoming series of work that will introduce the feline <a href="http://lichiban.blogspot.com/2009/08/new-work-messengers-of-kingdom-of.html">inhabitants of planet CITRAKA.</a> Limited edition prints are coming soon.</span><br /></div>

NEW WORK ::: The Catship Has Arrived : DORJE, the teacher of the mountains [HIMALAYA SERIES #2]

NAME : DORJE, the teacher of the mountains (sage) HOMELAND : Mt. Golden Blossom (Planet Citraka) ROLE :: guide / teacher /master of non-ve...

9:47 AM

BROOKLYN DIARIES :: IN SEARCH FOR A SPIRITUAL HOMELAND :: TIBET [HIMALAYAS SERIES #1]

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFmvaQsBT0UMyRYo2pvf7s8dZP7kt_uuQkjiDBYSv4d59nFkH3F3yi9L7TWM8MqPGX-ninjK0_Ot1NlmZFc93I-uIl-Nc8GaamhPxbTfMBvxsn6kZR1Paf5SzTLAtUXrazBf2Sz2P8gxw/s1600-h/korositanka.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><span style="display: block;" id="formatbar_Buttons"><span class="on down" style="display: block;" id="formatbar_CreateLink" title="Link" onmouseover="ButtonHoverOn(this);" onmouseout="ButtonHoverOff(this);" onmouseup="" onmousedown="CheckFormatting(event);FormatbarButton('richeditorframe', this, 8);ButtonMouseDown(this);"><img alt="Link" border="0" class="gl_link" src="http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif" /></span></span><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5449804155557178370" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFmvaQsBT0UMyRYo2pvf7s8dZP7kt_uuQkjiDBYSv4d59nFkH3F3yi9L7TWM8MqPGX-ninjK0_Ot1NlmZFc93I-uIl-Nc8GaamhPxbTfMBvxsn6kZR1Paf5SzTLAtUXrazBf2Sz2P8gxw/s400/korositanka.jpg" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 301px; height: 400px;" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">I'm going to feature a series of posts dedicated to my love for Tibetan/Himalayan culture & spirituality. This is the first one of the HIMALAYAS series.</span><br /><br />One of my cultural heroes is Alexander CSOMA de Koros or Körösi Csoma Sándor (1784-1842), a Hungarian pioneer of Tibetan studies who was responsible for compiling  the first Tibetan-English dictionary. Born in Transylvania (not too far from where I was born), CSOMA was an adept linguist (he spoke over 10 languages) and a fellow nomad in spirit. Inspired by the quest for the "original homeland of the Magyars (the way Hungarians call themselves) in Central Asia" that has been part of my countries cultural tradition, he set out on an adventure to follow up on a traditional lore recounting that there were Magyar tribes still living in Asia. Oral legends recorded at the times when the pagan Magyars were converted by Christian missionaries in the 11th century would claim that some of the tribes had stayed in Asia. People have to this day set out to find the roots of our nomadic tribal ancestors who came and settled in the Carpatian valley (Eastern Europe ) around 9 AD...what makes the search difficult is that being a tribal-oral society, there were no written document left by the Magyars, who claimed to have been  part of the Scythian tribal empire (which included many other ethnic groups like Persians, Huns, Turks, Mongols and other Asiatic tribes). Recent research based on archeological & ethnomusicological evidence found some ethnic relatives of the Hungarians in Xinjiang, the north-western province of China, called <a href="http://factsanddetails.com/china.php?itemid=168&catid=5&subcatid=89">UGARS</a>, a now Muslim minority that used to have a similar shamanistic tradition to the pre-Christian Magyar tribes.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_3fnpPhLbSMRbUCKah5k4l0lt-GJusRZsx0eMWGvw5_otzOj41nYJWnbeTVnBtjRaaLucK7EESVUGbPxTmeDuA1UbiIgJexQcYqZunSZFbJ69FzOQSzs4op9L7Gnbwi3bqIUZdFRW7Mo/s1600-h/csomaszobor.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5449804039733744610" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_3fnpPhLbSMRbUCKah5k4l0lt-GJusRZsx0eMWGvw5_otzOj41nYJWnbeTVnBtjRaaLucK7EESVUGbPxTmeDuA1UbiIgJexQcYqZunSZFbJ69FzOQSzs4op9L7Gnbwi3bqIUZdFRW7Mo/s400/csomaszobor.jpg" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 228px; height: 316px;" /></a><br /><br />Long story short, CSOMA set out for the East on foot and traveled to the frontier Himalayan regions, Ladakh, but he never reached Tibet. In Ladakh, he studied under local Tibetan Buddhist teachers or lamas and compiled the first Tibetan-English dictionary and a Tibetan Grammar (both published 1834) while studying  Buddhist texts. In 1842 set out again on quest for Magyar homeland, but died on the road in Darjeeling of malaria. You can find his writings that were composed by Csoma’s teachers at his request <a href="http://csoma.mtak.hu/en/kozmologia.htm">here. </a><br /><br />He was later recognized as "<span style="font-style: italic;">Csoma Bosatsu, the Bodhisattva of the Western World</span>" by <a href="http://www.korosi-emlekpark.hu/eng/bodhisatva.php">Japanese buddhists </a>who consecrated a Tibetan tanka (see above) and a statue to him.<br /><br />For me, his story is not so much about 'looking for the ancestral land' but rather about 'finding home' in a country that offered him spiritual roots. As someone who believes in reincarnation, I have a hard time connecting my identity to my current ancestors alone, and I prefer to identify myself as an artist/spiritual nomad/soul traveler [we all go back to same cosmic source]. Tibet, this completely magic land with a tragic history, has always had a mysterious power over me. I've been drawn to the Tibetan visual and spiritual world  since I was a child and had several dreams about living in the mountains as a young Tibetan boy. Once an isolated country with one of the most powerful, but hardly accessible traditions, the displacement of Tibetans by the Chinese government had inadvertently forced their Buddhist leaders to become the spiritual ambassadors of the world who have been playing a major role in elevating people's consciousness globally.<br /><center><object height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/_Xswu4SHixA&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/_Xswu4SHixA&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="385" width="480"></embed></object></center><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4Wp-erFSTaSYjPCTaDXA_36Cfvqk_HF7eHWa-EALhkCyDYBl_lpgzArIDXUep1yd47i76nW-eAKmPEgEu5-OvGHhaeuaXm16FB-0HWGjyCpPAfKPLXh01_fdLe0mDN8BNNv46zO58-vM/s1600-h/sir01_.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5449803920092444354" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4Wp-erFSTaSYjPCTaDXA_36Cfvqk_HF7eHWa-EALhkCyDYBl_lpgzArIDXUep1yd47i76nW-eAKmPEgEu5-OvGHhaeuaXm16FB-0HWGjyCpPAfKPLXh01_fdLe0mDN8BNNv46zO58-vM/s400/sir01_.jpg" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 287px;" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">In our life and in the world "...the only way to break the chain reaction of confusion and pain and to work our way outward into the awakened state of mind is to take responsibility ourselves. If we do not deal with this situation of confusion, if we do not do something about it ourselves, nothing will ever happen. We cannot count on others to do it for us. It is our responsibility, and we have the tremendous power to change the course of the world's karma...As bodhisattvas...we are acknowledging that we are not going to be instigators of further chaos and misery in the world, but we are going to be liberators, bodhisattvas, inspired to work on ourselves as well as with other people."</span><br />- Chögyam Trungpa<br /><br /><br />///////////////////////////  <span style="font-style: italic;">In my new series, I will try to honor my spiritual debt to Tibet.</span>

BROOKLYN DIARIES :: IN SEARCH FOR A SPIRITUAL HOMELAND :: TIBET [HIMALAYAS SERIES #1]

I'm going to feature a series of posts dedicated to my love for Tibetan/Himalayan culture & spirituality. This is the first one of t...

2:53 AM