{"id":142,"date":"2011-06-15T16:03:16","date_gmt":"2011-06-15T20:03:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eyesofsilverblue.com\/?p=142"},"modified":"2011-06-15T16:19:58","modified_gmt":"2011-06-15T20:19:58","slug":"my-moment-of-zen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eyesofsilverblue.com\/?p=142","title":{"rendered":"My moment of Zen"},"content":{"rendered":"

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We all need to take some time to come back to centre, from all the noise and distractions of life. I find it easier to do when looking for beauty…in everything possible. From the simple lines of a nautical street lamp and a living gull perched atop to…<\/p>\n

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The piece of stained glass above my sofa (and my two plush companions, Blackberry Bear, and Roxette Bunny\u2122 to my mantlepiece:<\/p>\n

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…as you can see, I run the gamut in blue. I find it a mindful, soothing colour. The way I see the world through my eyes. I also have, IMHO, the perfectly balanced picture frame with inspirational messages:<\/p>\n

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As I’ve often said, “Life isn’t about learning to weather the storm, it’s about learning to dance in the rain.” The “rain” comment here means just as much to me.<\/p>\n

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I was fortunate in 2010 to meet with a group of the Drepung Loseling Monks who came to ODU for Peace week and received several gifts from them.<\/p>\n

I also watched them construct a sand mandala:<\/p>\n

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…which took the better part of the week to construct. They had, in the background, an altar of sorts with a picture of HH Dalai Lama, fresh fruit, and fresh flowers:<\/p>\n

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A better view of the altar. The mandala represents the energies of the universe, and is “destroyed” upon completion, to show the energies merging again…<\/p>\n

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Half of the sand is disbursed to the people in attendance. The other half:<\/p>\n

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is disbursed back to nature, preferably in a body of water.<\/p>\n

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I carry on the gifts that were given to me (physically, and spiritually) in my own “Zen” corner, which I’ve dubbed “Meditation Corner” in the Shenandoah Forester:<\/p>\n

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The roses are from the opening altar and the closing altar (they’ve been pressed and dried). The upper photo is also above, the lower photo is of the completed mandala. The blue tapestry to the right is the “Om Mani Padme Hum<\/a>“. The metal canister to the right is an incense holder. The tapestry to the left spoke to me, but I do not know what it means.<\/p>\n

The tapestry in the upper right (the small blue one) says:<\/p>\n

The True Meaning of Life:<\/strong>
\nWe are visitors on this planet. We are here for ninety or one hundred years at the very most. During that period, we must try to do something good, something useful, with our lives. If you contribute to other people’s happiness, you will find the true goal, the true meaning of life. – HH the XIV Dalai Lama.<\/p>\n

Silver Blue – who seeks mindfulness and enlightenment in all things.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We all need to take some time to come back to centre, from all the noise and distractions of life. I find it easier to do when looking for beauty…in everything possible. From the simple lines of a nautical street lamp and a living gull perched atop to… The piece of stained glass above my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[50,54,51,56,52,53,55,49],"class_list":["post-142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-photography","tag-buddhism","tag-corner","tag-dalai-lama","tag-enlightenment","tag-mandala","tag-meditation","tag-mindfulness","tag-zen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyesofsilverblue.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyesofsilverblue.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyesofsilverblue.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyesofsilverblue.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyesofsilverblue.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=142"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyesofsilverblue.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":157,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyesofsilverblue.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142\/revisions\/157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyesofsilverblue.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyesofsilverblue.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyesofsilverblue.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}