Over the years, I have collected ideas and notions that I admire. Once I read a short book about a young man who traveled to Japan to learn Zen meditation. He became friends with a Japanese woman who very carefully structured her experiences so as to have a wealth of Beauty for the future. I imagined that to be something like a bank account. She would create beautiful memories and store them into this account; for a rainy day, for old age.
I read about the Hopi Indians who strive to "walk in Beauty" all their lives. I have been near to tears thinking about the power of this philosophy.
I can't seem to remember to remember to create beauty. I can't pull myself out of the morass of the mediocre to consistently Walk in Beauty. In the chaotic bucket that is my mind, as if by random chance, the realization that I can Create Beauty By Will, will occasionally slip to the top.
It would be enormously helpful to have reminders, to act on them and to Walk in Beauty for extended periods of time. The Hopis have an advantage, in that this sort of thinking is taught early and re-enforced. By comparison, I learned fear and divisiveness.
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About Me
- roberto kiam borderlineartist@gmail.com
- I live in a quaint, little town, plagued with the specter of speculation and commerce. I am trailer trash,with wishes for good dishes. I shoulda died long ago, but like a rescue dog, didn't. I am indescribably scattered. I speak three languages. I walk a tenuously, true path. I am lucky. For myself, for others. God, it is said, protects orphans, widows and the innocent.
1 comment:
"I can't pull myself out of the morass of the mediocre to consistently Walk in Beauty. "
That is precisely what my Navajo connections and friends tought me, see the beauty everywhere, even in the dullest neighborhood. After my first visits to Dinet'ah (Navajo country), once back in Paris, the first way I found to apply this was to recall those memories of beauty anytime I'd need it. That was very helpful in the long, gloomy winters in Paris. I'd then visualize the Southwest landscapes, the red earth, the sandstone mesas, and that would pacify me. However I quickly realized it also made me even more aware of my growing rejection of living in an urban environment. Then I really understood that concept when I started just seeing the beauty there, wherever I was. Now this really helped, making me feel at peace with where I was, while it also helped me define where I wanted to be and take the steps to make the changes. It took me several years to fully understand that notion. So what is beauty here in your life? For there is some, from what I perceive, my friend, it lies in the things that you craft, it lies in the difference you make in your community. That is invaluable beauty. It is within yourself.
Here is the Navajo prayer of "walk in Beauty":
In Beauty may you walk.
All day long may you walk.
Through the returning seasons may you walk.
On the trail marked with pollen may you walk.
With grasshoppers about your feet may you walk.
With dew about your feet may you walk.
With Beauty may you walk.
With Beauty before you, may you walk.
With Beauty behind you, may you walk.
With Beauty above you, may you walk.
With Beauty below you, may you walk.
With Beauty all around you, may you walk.
In old age wandering on a trail of Beauty,
lively, may you walk.
In old age wandering on a trail of Beauty,
living again, may you walk.
It is finished in Beauty.
It is finished in Beauty.
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