#5 Collecting Random Interactions with the other Series

"happiness is not all, people have a responsibility."
幸福不是一切，人還有責任 translation, A comment left on my Blog from someone in China.




"Can you please take our picture with us and Gwen, the old Dog." two old men having coffee with an old dog in the lake merrit area. It is always such a surprise when folks ask me something on the street.
they thanked me and I had to run....


Time Pics of Pollen Tree Shrine,five days after with my cat Paulo.

Sacred Fig, Buddhism

All the minorities of Xishuangbanna, China including the Dai minority, are nations of the forests. From ancient times till up to the present, the forests are the basic material and environment conditions for their survival. Forests are the objects of their worshipping and their worshipping for forests also has close relations with their worshipping of ancestors. In such circumstances, in all the villages and the unit above villages, they at least keep one piece of forest, which is called "Longshan wood" (village wood).

Sacred Tree Nepal

I love Nepal I traveled there in 1996. It was a life changing experience. I spread my Mom's ashes there after seeing an amazing image of the Green Tara.

The Green Tara is a bodhisattva - an enlightened being who refuses to go to nirvana until she enlightens all souls. She is the divine Mother - the mother of all the buddhas. She embraced me on a pilgrimage to the Nepalese mountains.

My journey to those mountains was one of healing. I had come to spread my recently deceased mother's ashes into the sacred landscape. I came with a tour group of 14 people. We hiked through the mountains each day. On the day of the most difficult climb, I fell terribly ill. I thought I was going to die. But I got through it. The next day, I felt rejuvenated. I saw the sun rise, and I embraced the beauty of the morning. I felt like I had died the night before, and that I had been reborn. I knew in my heart that this was the right day to spread my mother's ashes.

After breakfast, we began hiking again. In the afternoon, as we were ascending to a monastery in the mountains, I saw a magnificent river carving its way through the landscape passionately. My eyes were drawn above it. Three hundred feet on a cliff, I saw an image of the Green Tara. I was awestruck by the shooting stars painted above her figure. For a few moments, I felt connected to the eternal. I felt my mother communicating with me, telling me that she would always be with me.

On the evening I heard the shocking news of my mother's death, I stared at the sky hoping for an answer... a reason. Blazing through the Chicago night, I saw a shooting star... 'Mom'? That same evening, my older brother also saw a shooting star in the night, as he tormented over my mother's death. We both were moved to write and express this at her wake.

When I saw the shooting stars above the Green Tara, I knew that I was meant to be there at that moment in time. I felt my mother's love, and the warmth of her embrace. For a few moments, I felt that I was one with the universe, and that I would never be alone.

The stars and the Green Tara embraced me. I was filled with peace and a sense of letting go. I knew this place was where my mother wanted her ashes to be united with the universe.

Afterwards, on a short sabbatical in the Ozarks at my family home, my passion for the Green Tara spewed from my paintbrush and my soul. She has been my guardian from the moment I saw her on the cliff. She embraces the world, and assists all who ask for her guidance. She demonstrates her magic when one is letting go... and bliss transcends.