Video Slide Show of our Nov. 2014 Trip to Zion National Park

http://youtu.be/lk25LrG3DYIhttp://youtu.be/lk25LrG3DYI

Cathedral of St. John in New York & the Phoenix's by Xu Bing

Trip to Mongolia 2014

for about 2 weeks this year, and one week last year, I stayed at this retreat center in Mongolia. A very good way to rejuvenate oneself.

The next few pics show the few from my balcony.

Since last year they added this wonderful little gazebo to sit under.

Below is a picture of the back from last year.

Nanka Nikkei News: Hinamatsuri JACCC 3-1-2014

I rambled over, or wandered over, to the JACCC in Little Tokyo Los Angeles today, for their Hinamatsuri Celeberation. It's always great to have a chance to meet up with my teacher Hirokazu Kosaka; and to support his events at the JACCC.


It was great!

As usual...

Thank you Sensei,


below is a link to the Nanka Nikkei News Blog where I posted the pics already.



Nanka Nikkei News: Hinamatsuri JACCC 3-1-2014: Hinamatsuri at the JACCC: I expected a nice talk about the history and meaning of Hinamatsuri, perhaps by the Artistic Director Mr. Hi...

Art Center College of Design

So this week I went to Art Center College of Design.

As you can see it was dark, foggy, and raining.

But everything was really cool anyhow, in fact, it lent itself to a mysterious adventure.
The cafeteria was closing down, just a few students on their laptops (mostly apple) and/or their phones.

I drove up in our new hybrid

So it kind of set the tone for a futuristic feeling.
The buildings at the Hillside Campus are mostly concrete, glass, and steel.
As I drove up it certainly seemed futuristic too,
but actually it's almost timeless.
Could be from the 50's or 60's even, anytime from then till now, and into the future.

I stopped by the outdoor library.

Though I couldn't get a good shot of it, there is luckily a well used library indoors too.
Through the windows above the bridge, there were plenty of books to study.

Art Center is well known for their Transportation Design, I was told that students come from auto makers around the world to study.

But they really have courses and tracks in almost every field of design and visual arts: Film, Graphic, and many  more.

The view from the hillside down into Pasadena is alone worth the short drive up. But once up, it feels like a different world. No wonder Art Center graduates some of the top sought after young designers.
Why was I up there? Well, my daughter goes there. So maybe I'm a little prejudice about just how good the place is. But actually that's the reputation, and why my daughter wanted to go there so badly. Glad she found the school just for her, and close to home. Happy that I can drive up there now and then too.

Helen Keller Quote

"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt with the heart." Helen Keller

Huntington Library 2-15-2014

The Huntington Library/Garden is one of my favorite places to take a stroll. Of course, the Japanese Garden is a must for me. Today the guide took us to what I thought was my least favorite as well, the Desert Garden; but actually, I found it quite an amazing place to visit.

http://www.huntington.org/

Lizard in the garden

The desert garden comes complete with wild life. Here's a lizard standing still. He's not meditating, he hopes to be unseen.

Moon over pasadena

Very bright moon over Pasadena tonight 2-14-2014

2014 New Years Resolution

Not just this year, but for every moment of everyday... from this day forward... unconditional kindness is my resolution.

From my center to be calm and collected as needed. To apply myself in all situations to bring peace and harmony.

Some circumstance may require a forceful hand and others a soft and gentle one.

But always from the intent of unconditional kindness.

Now not all kindness is nice. Sometimes we have to jerk someone out of the street quite forcefully if they are about to get hit by a car. But the intent must always be honest and true.

I resolve to live this way of peaceful living from this day forward.

Peaceful

Woke up being very peaceful... Full of Peace.

When full of Peace there is no room for anything else; by definition we are full of of Peace.

The Peacefulness both emanates from us, filling an ever expanding space around us, to the extent that we remain Peaceful. Also the Peacefulness inside attracts Peacefulness to us... it gravitates to us. In this way more than just around us, Peacefulness everywhere is exponentially increased.

With our own Peacefulness we create a Peaceful world, there is no other way.

Peace begets Peace is an eternal Truth, taught by sages of all time.

Rules to live by

The other day I noted that many of us don't follow the 'rules'.

Then the person with me said, "Well, what are the rules, where are they written down?

I responded that there were 84.200 of them, and that it wasn't knowing all of them or even obeying them, but just trying to was the key.

Once we open our awareness, and pay attention to those who came before, the way becomes obvious and we follow it;

so by follow the rules, I really meant pay attention and follow those that came before.

They said, "well, you really have no right to complain if you haven't written the rules down for people to follow.

And you know, they are right.

I'm going to stop complaining about it, and just let people learn to pay attention.

But you know, I wonder if it's possible to extract all 84,200 rules from the teachings and write them down?

Just as an experiment, I'm going to try and list some of them;

Though I wonder about what order to use, they kind of interlink, oppose each other to some degree, and run in circles a bit;

I suppose I can cut and paste later to play with the order.

Let's get started.

They say the first rule is: Never quit; Never give up.

Also the pratice is every moment of everyday.

Watch the seniors, do what they do, and only what they do.

Once awake, do what awake people do; before awake... do what awake people do.

The practice and the Path are one. They are the same.

Everything should be natural.

It's funny in order to be truly free, we follow the natural path... but the natural path can be quite narrow sometimes.

We're supposed to both follow ourselves, and follow the rules; this is because ourselves goes beyond the individual and includes All.

This is the tricky part. We are both our individual selves and a wholeself, which is All.

So we find ourselves, but in realtion to All.

We begin to see why the words are tough... none of them are quite right. No wonder we say the words only point the way, and don't write the rules down. They need to be discovered naturally for ourselves.

But let's keep trying anyhow, let's point the way a bit; perhaps we need to point to opposite directions now and then to include both halves, both sides of the coin, or my favorite... both wings of the bird.

Individual and All... Not two we is The Teaching.

I used to like "All is One" and sometimes I still do, but it's not the Teaching... The Teaching says 'Not Two'. It is more accurate, I suppose, but I still like All is One. Part of my rose colored glasses of seeing things in a positive light I suppose.

We rarely say what the Way is, cause that's impossible, so we're usually left with what it is not. But still let's keep trying.

Solstice & Equinox

We have 4 marks of the seasons: Winter Solstice, Summer Solstice, Vernal Equinox and the Autumnal Equinox. In our tradition the Winter Solstice is considered the 'first' in this cycle. The Winter Solstice is the shortest day of sunlight during the year. From that point on the sunshine begins to last a little longer each day until the Vernal Equinox occurs. This is the first day of Spring. On that day the hours of sunlight and the hours of night are equal. Then the sunlight continues to last longer and longer until, the Summer Solstice or first day of Summer. This is the longest day of the year. From that day on the days get shorter and shorter until the Autumnal Equinox happens. This is the first day of Autumn. Day and night are equal lengths again. The days get shorter until the Winter Solstice. And the cycle repeats itself year after year, season after season.

More on the Environment

My teacher once told me that the teacher could not give anything to the student that they weren't ready to receive.

He said that the teacher creates an environment that was conducive for the student to figure everything out on their own. In this way the student 'owned', and truly understood, the answer found. This process of discovery, in fact, was just as important as the answer that was uncovered.

The Teaching he passed to me were the methods and processes for creating this environment. We call this process, The Way. The Way balances inside and outside; it walks a tight rope line along the gap in-between, while simultaneously including both sides too.

Environment

My latest mind meanderings have revolved around the environment. Not just reduce, re-use, and re-cycle for the ecology. But all the environments we create. What is the atmosphere in a room, and what caused that?

How do a 'clean up' a space to make it the most useful?
How do we 'prepare' the space for a certain effect?

In my tradition we have many principles that help.
Mostly these are based on being clean & simple.
But we need to be effective and efficient,
exactly wear to begin and when to stop is not always clear,
We just keep polishing 'our act' till it becomes just enough.
Not too much and not too little, but just right (like the 3 little bears [did I mention that I like bears?]).

It seems that most important is doing the disciplines and habits that build the relationships we want in our lives and not 'feeding' those that don't.

We polish our lives in this way, and sure enough the ancient teachings turn out to be correct... imagine that.

There's some food for thought I suppose.
Building clean simple relationships.
Creating clean simple lives.

ummm?

Quote: Jo Washington

Though living here and now, my attention sometimes strays in the direction of my dreams. Jo Washington

Gratitude

Lately all my journal writings keep coming back to this idea of Gratitude...Thankfulness (being full of Thanks).

We all intuitively know that we must give in order to receive. But what really causes us to give well, is not the desire to receive but a feeling of gratitude for what we have.

Gratitude automatically generates Abundance, and Abundance creates Generosity.

When we are full of Thanks it overflows into everything we do. Everyone around us can see the results. Each person takes a piece with them and it begins to grow.

Let no other emotion dwell within, just let the Thanks grow and grow and grow.

Jyozen quote

The snow hits the fire
and it's gone.

we drop our illusion
so everything is clear.

In that instant
all perception flips.

In one finger
the whole world resides.

Winter Solstice

Happy Winter Solstice everyone.

December 21 to 22 is the middle of winter in my family's tradition, with winter beginning on the evening of October 31.

In some traditions this marks the beginning of winter.

The Shinto tradition in many shrines will celebrate the coaxing out of her cave of Amaterasu, the Sun Goddess of the Yamato.

This is the shortest day and the longest night.
For the remaining 6 months or so, the days will continue to get longer and the nights shorter, as the relationship between the earth and the Sun continue their dance together.

I hope you enjoy the season.

Quote

"Words do not teach. Although they do inspire thought. And thoughts are carried out with feelings and actions. It is life experience that gives you your knowing" - Abraham Hicks