East Meets West

Song - 'Tis a Gift to Be Simple by Yo-Yo Ma and Alison Krauss 

East meets West

While in Lake Tahoe last month, I found an incredible little shop that sold items from Tibet & Nepal.  And since I began meditating this last year, I checked out their "singing bowls".

The saleswoman had me hold several different size bowls while she ran the mallet around the rim of the bowls. They all had a distinct tone and vibration.

Then I heard this one......in the key of G.

It is 100-200 years old.

It comes from Kathmandu at the base of the Himalayans in Nepal.

It vibrated through my entire body and spoke to me.  It was simply amazing.

I wanted it.

More importantly it wanted me.

It was singing to me.

I struggled with the expense and the "do I  REALLY  need one more thing" dilemma.

Mr. B just smiled and shook his sweet little head.

He knows me well.....

I asked the saleswoman to put in on hold while I thought about it..... she gave me a full week.

In 3 days, I returned and learned how to "play" the bowl.  I tried several more myself but kept coming back to this little gem.

I decided to buy it and bring it home with me but first we stopped at Baldwin Beach for a swim and the sunset.  When hardly anyone was there, I played the bowl and introduced her to the Lake.

She is a beauty huh?

Come over some time and play her!


"The sounds generated by Tibetan Singing Bowls are a type of energy medicine that promote healing from stress disorders, pain, depression, and most forms of dis-ease." --Jevon Dangeli

To read more about healing and Tibetan Singing Bowls follow this link:
http://jevondangeli.com/tibetan-singing-bowls-the-ancient-brain-entrainment-methodology-for-healing-and-meditation/

de Young and de Old

Om - Skyspace

Sunday a friend and I went to the Diebenkorn exhibit at the de Young Museum in San Francisco.  Richard Diebenkorn's painting style is not really my taste but I do appreciate his style. Most of his work was done in Berkeley in the 50's & 60's.

It has a lot of great energy, color and form.  Mostly I enjoy the idea that he painted exactly how he wanted to paint without caring what others thought.   

Seawall

Two of my favorite pieces were "Sleeping Woman" and "Untitled (Still Life with Iris)".

It must of appealed to some people though because Berkeley #5 was auctioned off by Christie's for over $6 million dollars!

Berkeley #5

After enjoying the show, we had lunch at the Museum Cafe and my friend, Melinda told me about this outdoor "bunker" that was really interesting and meditative.  Sounded claustrophobic to me but decided to give it a try.

We walked to the back of the garden, along a bamboo path and around the outside of a dome with high walls on both sides.  When you reached the back of the dome there was a open door and an open circular sky space with benches around the sides.  It sounds kinda weird but it was very Zen like.  So we sat with several other people on the benches and watched the sky float by.

It made me feel like a kid laying in the grass, having nothing to do but watch the clouds float by.  Remember when we had time to do such things?

Centered in the floor was this beautiful rough-hewn stone.

 

When I returned home, I Googled the space and found out that it was created by a California artist
James Turrell and is called a "Skyspace".

Just a few minutes of feeling like a kid has such a "lightening" affect on me.

Why don't we do kid-like things more often?


 "Abstract literally means to draw from or separate. In this sense every artist is abstract... a realistic or non-objective approach makes no difference. The result is what counts."-- Richard Diebenkorn