Thursday, March 20, 2008

Beauty in Architecture


Roman Baths
Bath, England


Library of Congress
Washington, D.C.


Eiffel Tower, Paris


Milwaukee Art Museum
Santiago Calatrava, Designer


The Parthenon
Athens, Greece


Grand Staircase, Lake Park
Milwaukee, Wisconsin


Temple of Saturn
Rome, Italy (Taken w/my cell phone)





Beauty in Nature


Canopy of Trees
Maui


Lake Louise
Banff National Park
Alberta, Canada



Hamilton Pool Nature Preserve
Travis County, Texas



Aurora Borealis










Leonid of the Lake

Beauty in Art

"Harbour at Collioure"
Andre Derain
1880-1954
 
















Nicholas Roerich
1874-1947

 













Henri Matisse
 

















Joseph Urban
1872-1933


Marie Laurencin
1883-1956


Artist: Otto Nilson
Date: c. 1950


Interesting perspective
of the Eiffel Tower


Mermerized
http://www.mosaicdreamer.com/
I really like this artist's work.


Circe Individiosa
John William Waterhouse
1849-1917



The Lantern Bearers
Maxfield Parrish
1870-1966


Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose
John Singer Sargent
1856-1925


Le Pont De L'europeGustave Caillebotte
1848-1894



Cycladic "Thinker"
Circa 2,500 B.C.E.



The Tree of Life
Gustav Klimt
1862-1918



"Into the Realms of the Unreal"
Henry Darger
1892-1973


 














"Constellation"
Joan Miro
1893-1983





Words of Wisdom

~ Everything in life, whether physical or spiritual,
originates from thought-energy. The power of the
mind is unlimited as the universe itself.
A thought of love and generosity brings benefit to mankind;
a thought of evil and selfishness results in agony and emotions.
Whatever the mind can conceive and concentrate on,
the mind can achieve. Buddha teaches us to direct every
thought to a good course, and gradually purify our minds to
attain enlightenment.
Sign at the International Buddhist Society
Richmond, British Columbia
~ In our most private and subjective lives
we are not only the passive witness of our age,
and its sufferers, but also its makers.
We make our own epoch.
C.G. Jung, 1934
~ The best things can't be said.
The second best are misunderstood because
they're interpreted by time and space.
The third is conversation.
Joseph Campbell
~ Everthing you could ever want, or want to be,
you already have, or are.
Dustin Hoffman in I "Heart" Huckabees
~ If you follow your bliss, you will always have your bliss,
money or not.
If you follow money, you may lose it,
and you will have nothing.
Joseph Campbell
~ The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind
is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors
the servant and has forgotten the gift.
Albert Einstein
~ You should always keep an open mind, but not so open that your brains fall out.
Anonymous
~ The arc of the universe is long, but it always bends toward justice.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
~ Conquest is easy, control is not.
Captain Kirk, Startrek
~ Simplicity is the last recourse of the truly complex.
Oscar Wilde
~ Never miss a good chance to shut up.
Will Rogers
~ Everything we do is futile, but we must do it anyway.
Mahatma Ghandi
~ I don't know why we're here but I'm pretty sure
that it is not in order to enjoy ourselves.
Ludwig Wittgenstein
~ As we acquire more knowledge,
things do not become more comprehensible,
but more mysterious.
Albert Schweitzer
~ To persevere with the will to understand
in the face of obstacles is the heroism of
consciousness.
Dr. Nathaniel Branden
~ Sometimes a scream is better than a thesis.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
~ We take long trips.
We puzzle over the meaning of a painting or a book,
When what we're really wanting to see and understand
In this world, we are that.
Rumi
~ Keep walking, though there's no place to get to.
Don't try to see through the distances.
That's not for human beings. Move within.
But don't move the way fear makes you move.
Rumi
~ Pain makes man think.
Thinking makes man wise.
Wisdom makes life endurable.
Teahouse of the August Moon
~ Only after the last tree has been cut down,
only after the last river has been poisoned,
only after the last fish has been caught,
only then will we find that money cannot be eaten.
Cree Indian Prophecy
~ On the last day of the world, I would want to plant a tree ...
W.S. Merwin
~ The world is perfect. It's a mess.
It has always been a mess.
We are not going to change it.
Our job is to straighten out our own lives.
Joseph Campbell

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Think Peace

The Tibetan National Flag (shown below) is no longer allowed to be flown in Tibet.
Please keep this in mind when the 2008 Chinese Olympic Games are brought to you live, from Beijing.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Scotland & The Isle of Skye









It seemed we'd been driving North forever - past Liverpool, Blackpool, and the Lake District - when the undulant, ochre-hued rim of the Cumbrian Mountains came into view ... my first indication that we were nearing the England/Scotland border. Negotiating the narrow, twisting mountain pass was test of nerves, but I was encouraged by the knowledge that we would soon reach Glencoe, proclaimed to be the most beautiful Highland glen in Scotland. We were two hours behind schedule yet I lingered awhile on the viewing deck of the Glencoe Visitor Center, absorbing the atmosphere and marveling at the expansive view of the ancient panorama before me. Little did I know then that even greater beauty lie ahead.



















































































Syncronicity

Synchronicity. More than just another great song by Sting.

According to Carl Jung, synchronicity is "acausal orderedness" and a "special class of natural events."
His ideas met with skepticism within the scientific community of his day, but interestingly enough, the "new physics" of our time echoes many of Jung's theories.

I would venture to say that most people experience synchronicity at some time in their life. It seems to happen to me alot. Or, maybe I'm just hyper-sensitive to signs, symbols and interesting phenomena - which includes just about everyone and everthing with whom I come in contact on a daily basis.

My most recent experience with synchronicity is worth recording here:

While in graduate school several years ago, I was doing research for a paper in which I compared and contrasted the Chinese and Hindu energy systems (the meridians/channels of acupuncture and the chakra system, respectively). In the process of searching a dissertation database, I came upon an abstract written by Barbara Ann Carter, Ph.D., entitled Birth, Death and Sexuality: An Interrelated Matrix in the Unconscious. I found the subject matter very compelling and intended to purchase the dissertation in the near future, so I printed the abstract and stuffed it in a notebook.
Four years later, in the process of organizing my files for the umpteenth time, I came across the abstract and decided to order the dissertation the next day. At this juncture it is important to note (for reasons that will become clearer, later) that several weeks earlier I'd registered for a three-day retreat sponsored by The Association for Research and Enlightenment (A.R.E.), to be held in October, 2007.
The large, brown envelope arrived more quickly than anticipated and I wasted no time unwrapping the 504-page, unbound document. Maybe twenty pages into the dissertation, I came upon the phrase "Holotropic Breathing." In that very instant, "THAT VOICE" (you know, the feeling that originates in your mind and solar plexus at the same time, and merges in the heart) that said: "You must learn more about this." Just like that.

So now it's October; time for the Texas Fall A.R.E. Retreat at Mo-Ranch I'd registered for the past Summer and spoke of earlier. As it turned-out, Mo-Ranch was a lovely setting for a peaceful and consciousness-expanding weekend. Over the course of three days, Gregg Unterberger, M.Ed. delivered a presentation entitled, "Mind is the Builder:Discovering Your Internal Blueprint." Sounded fascinating.
After a lovely, albeit very early, meditation in the chapel, I headed for the opening session. I found a seat, settled in and began flipping through the 20-page handout. When I got to page 10 I was completely stunned. There, in big, bold letters were the words: TRANSPERSONAL, HOLOTROPIC AND INTEGRATIVE BREATHWORK. Following were short descriptions of these processes, including references to Stanislav Grof and Holotropic Breathwork (from the Greek Holos, meaning, "wholeness" and tropic, meaning "moving towards" - definition borrowed from Gregg's handout.)
This past February, I attended the Gregg's Transpersonal Breathwork workshop in Austin, Texas; one of the most intensely affirmative, life-altering experiences I've ever had. Therefore, as is often the case with "life-altering" events, I am still physiologically, psychologically and spiritually processing the experience.
More to come!