Still In The Game?

Why does it seem like such a dispersion to write to oneself?  Yet it happens and happens again?  Well trying to keep a conversation of one going is odd at best.  Yet while one persists... so does discursive thought.

Dont stop!

Absence makes the heart grow fond?

The true student of life stumbles but never falls?

The real artist is not merely a professional salesman.

Embracing the many false masks and then setting them down.

Not afraid to be in the moment with what is.

Just continue let the past be past and future be future

dont worry.

What have you got to loose or gain but illusions and truths.

So I paint. I hate myself and I meditate and I love myself and the universe.

I paint and I love every breath and molecule. I meditate and feel nothing. This is not a problem.

It is a puzzle perhaps. But like a crossword I can put it down and not be beside myself.

Not torture myself for next weeks answers from some invisible mastermind. whose games I am reduced to playing.

Not do I need to claim to be the mastermind who has authored

my existence with great aplomb.

I am just going on being and adjusting my sails.

Feeling the wind.

The sun the waves and tides.

But not even just that for we sale in spirals.

we cry and rage against our thoughts and despair and petty pains and inconveniences

like feudal kings or desperados.

take bake my child like joy from the buzzards of judgement

always circling waiting for one to break down and die of heart break on the road

with their vicious I told you so's

and your not better than me.

But the fool dances on

emperors' new clothes or not

in drag but not dragging.

Not in measured steps not wildly just

naturally

unselfconsciously

aware

at ease

like a deer in the woods

unseen unheard

unknown

unbounded

Afternoon pages poolside Anna Maria Island 7.26.09

Well finally getting off the hook and on line out here on Anna Maria Island.

No Not because things are that remote.

despite the end of earth feeling of hours on the beach in yogic bliss

But vibes here are in the swim by the pool.

Although I could go with a some "coolibah" shade

Towel canopy will do.

Kicken' back on the laptop Bob and Stevie etc " No Woman No Cry""Sir Duke" "Dock of the Bay"

surrounded by the cougar yoginis of serenity stream!

Hot Fresh brick Paversunderfoot

lots of bright white shellgravel everywhere.

Battery fading...time to log off........into the sunset.

Ciao Peace Brothers and Sistahs and gentle people of the webverse!

! Om Mani Pemme Hum.!!!

This Precious Life

If I can contemplate how fortunate I am to have this precious life

to work on accomplishing my own and others happiness

how rare how great!

It is easy to take for granted.

So easy to take for granted

so many precious resources

we require to survive and be happy

water

food

air

the earth itself

our homes and clothes

and cars

and computers

electricity

roads

family

friends

pets and all animals

that have there important role

to play in natures

balance

the seasons

the vast ocean

clouds

rain

all the libraries of knowledge

the laughter of children

the smile of the elderly

our own breath

that connects all these

precious things

Back In the Studio

How hard it is just to let go and let be and do what is right in front of youHow many lifetimes minutes in just this day week month year has it taken just to get to this point

a threshold

a stage

a scene

a picture plane

a roadside

a gallery

a store

a labratory

a museum

a feel good place

a room

a spot

a niche

a garrett

Raga surges

sitar bites acerbic plaintive notes into the thrumm of tabla drum

thum tAK TAK TumbS

AND THE FLUTE WAShES OVER WITH SILKY light

sitar dances like a snake in the cool grass

head and eyes in rapture

beyond hope beyond fear

beyond beyond

and simultaneously even more here at hand

The Eye: Older Blog Still Open

http://thirdeyegallery.tripod.com/themuse/

To flashback to original blogposts over a year ago!

Afghan 'Indiana Jones' hunts lost Bamiyan statue

Lyse Doucet meets the man on the trail of the legendary lost Buddha Lyse Doucet BBC Newsnight, Bamiyan Dr Zemaryalai Tarzi is an Afghan with a big dream. To be exact, this archaeologist dreams of a giant - a 1,000ft (300 metre) sleeping Buddha. Try to imagine a stone statue reclining across the length of three football fields. A Buddhist civilisation once flourished in Afghanistan's central highlands But it is more than a dream. Dr Tarzi is trying to make it a reality. "At first, people told me I must be mad," he recounted, barely concealing a smile, as we stood at his excavation in the midst of potato fields in the ancient Afghan city of Bamiyan. "An archaeologist needs proof. We need to keep searching." Dr Tarzi, who has been mapping the landscape of Bamiyan for 40 years, is renowned world-wide for his knowledge of the Buddhist civilisation that flourished centuries ago in the central highlands of Afghanistan. Bamiyan was a storied destination for travellers journeying on the Silk Road between East and West. Ancient text In the 7th Century, a Chinese pilgrim, Xuan Zang, marvelled at a colossal reclining statue: "To the east of the city there is a monastery in which there is a figure of Buddha lying in a sleeping position, as when he attained nirvana. The figure is in length about 1,000 feet." The Taliban destroyed the giant statues leaving just a hole where they stood His detailed journal piqued Dr Tarzi's curiosity. It read like tantalising proof because Xuan Zang also wrote with passion, and precision, of two magnificent stone Buddhas which stood guard over the valley. The Taliban smashed those statues, the world's largest standing Buddhas, in 2001, denouncing them as un-Islamic idols. That gave further fuel to Dr Tarzi's drive to find the third Buddha. It was an archaeologist's revenge. "A country's history cannot be destroyed," he fumed. I first visited Dr Tarzi in 2005, during the summer months he spends at the dig. It was hard not to find myself willing him to succeed. He confessed, his voice breaking, he still could not bear to look at the gaping niches in the stone cliffs towering over the place where he was working. Stunning finds He is still there, looking for all the world like an Afghan Indiana Jones of the epic films, with his chino apparel, floppy hat, and air of scholarly adventure. Dr Tarzi demonstrates the repose of a sleeping Buddha statue The earthen cavities are hives of activity. Afghan archaeologists trained by Dr Tarzi and French colleagues from Strasbourg University gently tap picks and trowels in the dust and dirt, backed up by a small legion of labourers. His team's diligent search for hidden treasures has yielded a stunning array of stone remnants from the remains of Buddhist monasteries - small feet from statues, chiselled folds of monastic robes, sacred stupas. Then, last November, a cry of excitement rang out across this verdant valley. At last, a sleeping Buddha had surfaced. But it was not the fabled giant. Their persistent digging had uncovered fragments of a reclining figure estimated to be 62 feet (19 metres) long. One hand protruded visibly, without a thumb. The head was destroyed. Bigger prize It was still hard for a novice to visualise. Dr Tarzi gave it his best, stretching himself sideways along a flat hard surface, one hand tucked neatly under his head. Indiana Jones could have done no better. I ask whether this smaller statue may be all there is. It is, after all, a wonderful find. Afghans trained by Dr Tarzi work alongside students from Strasbourg "I will persist," the sprightly 70-year-old declared with a firm shake of his head. He guided us to another area running along the foot of the sandstone cliffs where he believes a much bigger Buddha still lies sleeping. Dr Tarzi does not want this remarkable history to be forgotten. In the middle of the day, when a hot sun blazes in the sky, he teaches a master class for young Afghans training to be tour guides at an eco-tourism centre set up with the help of the Aga Khan Foundation. Bamiyan is one of the few places in Afghanistan now safe enough to dream of tourists too. Playing the role of a would be tourist, I asked enthusiastic students to convince me to visit. "Welcome to Bamiyan, historical place, safe for tourists," was the practised but heartfelt reply of an earnest bespectacled woman. An older male student shouted from the back row, "Bamiyan is exceptional in Afghanistan". All the students nodded in agreement. When darkness descended, Dr Tarzi was honoured at a musical evening attended by a gathering of Bamiyan residents who wish him every success. A trio of musicians sang of destroyed Buddhas that are still very much alive. The legend of a giant still lives in Bamiyan. He has slept through centuries of conquest, a quarter century of war, and the end of Taliban rule. If he ever wakes, it would be a dream come true for Dr Tarzi, and countless other Afghans with their own dreams of a lost past and a brighter better future. Watch Lyse Doucet's film in full on Newsnight on Thursday 10 September 2009 at 10.30pm on BBC Two, then afterward on the BBC iPlayer and Newsnight website.