Early in the week I whipped up an ad with photoshop for Robert's excavation business, and he was so enthusiastic about the way it turned out he gave me three days off from farm work. Good thing he did, because a vicious Kona storm rocked Maui the first half of the week and stranded me at Da Factory, where I politely accepted a nice spot on a comfy couch...
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a welcome change from the inch-thick sleeping pad in my tent.
I made my first mudras last week. This one is Prithvi. My hands are getting tighter, in proportion and detail, but the challenge remains and keeps the process interesting. I took a few to a wellness center in Haiku to see if they'd consider a trade, and now I'm waiting to hear back. If it works out, I'm taking Yoga and Capoeira, the former for flexibility, the latter because I've always wanted to learn. Next to the Eastern traditions, Brazilian culture has always intrigued me, from the sound of the Portuguese language and the rhythms of Bossa Nova to the crushing political angst of Sepultura that I listened to as a teenager.
December 8th was Bodhi Day, celebrating the awakening of Siddharta Guatama. This is the Mantokuji Soto Zen Temple in Paia, where I go Sundays for Zazen. There was a modest celebration there yesterday for the holiday. There are very few in the congregation there, mostly elderly and middle-aged descendants of Japanese immigrants that came to Maui at the turn of the twentieth century to work on plantations. This lack of membership surprised me at first, because Paia is a town full of hippies. I thought, surely hippies practice Zen meditation. I guess that's the problem with stereotypes - they aren't reliable or accurate. Anyway, I befriended the resident minister there, who's about my age, and he's taught me a lot about the Soto tradition and Zazen. Buddhism is very interesting, and has always stood out the most of all of the Eastern traditions I've studied because of its tolerance and compassion-centered teachings. I've dreamed of experiencing this path first-hand for some time, and I'm happy to be living the dream now.
2 comments:
Does that hand position have a special meaning? The one in the glass piece with the fourth finger and thumb touching?
I'm no expert, and I've had a really hard time lately finding comprehensive explanations of the different mudras. I first learned about them in college when I studied Eastern art. To paraphrase from Wikipedia, mudras are symbolic hand gestures from Buddhist and Hindu art that are employed in meditation and dance. Each of the five fingers are thought to represent different energies or elements, and when certain fingers touch, these energies are focused and channeled for the benefit of the body and mind. You can google "mudras" if you want to know more, but like I said it's difficult to find complete information.
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