Sacred Contemporary Art Blog by "Shey"

I will admit, that even before the obvious, the two things I missed the most during my 15 years as a Buddhist nun were dancing and blue jeans. I love to dance and there is nothing more fundamentally fabulous than a great pair of jeans. Today I reflect on dancing as a doorway to Divine Love.

As long as I can remember, hours alone, at home, lights dim, candles, sliding into contemporary rhythms, I would sail away. Out, dancing in the clubs.  Sunday afternoon tea dance my favorite, jeans and a white tank, boots with a heel, I love to dance in a heel. The music, the lights, I could sweat for hours on that dance floor. I am glad to be dancing again.  It is my chill.  Senses alive, body and spirit communing through music.  And when there are others there, the collective energy generated is a palpable force of joy and celebration, a place we can meet in our common humanity.

It is ballroom dancing that has captured my imagination these days.  It is a dance of partnership, a new dance for a new time in my life. I am learning to lead.  The role of the lead represents a chivalrous ideal appealing profoundly to my Sapphic nature*. The lead provides a frame for the lady. If well done, she will turn and bend, with grace and ease. She will appear to float around the floor. It is the lead that shines the light. It is the lady that shines. A powerful gift offered to another, beautiful, like poetry. I dream of dancing, dancing her around the floor, offering her a moment to bask in the beauty and the wonder that is her alive in the world.  

Beyond these moments of magic, I look to my everyday, where do I make way for others to shine?  Where am I generous in a way that offers so much yet takes so little?  Not just my “peeps,” the one’s I am close to or that I like.  Or of course those folks we need to know or hope to know. What about each person that finds themselves in my orbit?  What if there was something that I could offer that would let them shine? Let them see themselves more powerfully, to feel into their strengths? What if I looked with “the eyes of God?”  Looking past the layers of reaction or fear, mine and theirs, acknowledging their beauty, their worth.  Then, quietly, gently reflecting back what I see. 

I look to the great masters as my role models.  Committed in the fullness of their hearts to living in compassion, what would they do? Time after time they hold the space for others to flower. They offer us the opportunity to see the beauty that is our own face reflected back to us through them. Can I do that? I know it can be done.  And I know it can change a life forever.

Has there been a moment when someone has seen your truth, has seen in you the things you wished were true but feared might not be? I have received this gift many times. It has changed my life more than once, ordinary people loving in extraordinary ways. I had that experience recently and it was truly empowering. My fears relaxed.  Nothing had changed really, just that I had been accepted in my self-perceived imperfection, someone reflecting to me my strengths as they see them, having room for me exactly as I am.  A gift given, a gift received, beautiful.           

What if, in each moment, we were to look for our common humanity in those we meet? What if we looked past their style, their presentation, past the awkwardness, the devices we use at times to protect ourselves. What if we look with our Wisdom eye, through their eyes, into the heart? What if we were to take a firm step in the direction of seeing the light in everyone? No matter how hard we have to look. We all just want to be happy, many of us just have a strange way of going about it!

What if we got really radical and just refused to judge, to criticize, or to condemn at all? A very dear friend of mine has begun a movement.  He invites people to take a vow that they will remove the very acts of criticism and judgment from their behavioral vocabulary, from their speech, from their thoughts. You will hear more about this. He is brilliant.  His work is brilliant. It is catching on like wildfire.

I caught on to my inner critic and her destructive antics this past year, a brilliant coming together of insight and awareness.  She is part of my lineage, an old deep habit that has been shared through the generations. She had been hard at work for most of my 50 years, building momentum, strengthening her voice, criticizing, complaining and condemning.  The habit insidious, hiding in plain sight, she wrecked havoc.  I believe our criticism and our judgment wrecks havoc all over our lives, all over our world.  I believe it is a divisive force that accentuates our differences and gives us a false sense of self-importance.  I am committed to something different. 

I invite you to look and see where this might be showing up in your life, in your thinking, in your conversation. Then, just stop.  Stop criticizing, complaining and condemning. Shine your light, illuminate others and all our lives will be that much brighter.  There is something powerful, something loving to giving someone back to themselves uplifted.

Then we dance, maybe together, maybe each to our own rhythm, all a beautiful expression of spirit alive in the world.  I continue to learn to dance, the dance of the body, of the mind, of the heart, the dance of life.  Come, dance with me.     

For more information about empowering your life and the lives of others,

Click on this link and join the Movement: "Know Complaints"

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The story of this piece ... 

*Sappho, poetess of the Isle of Lesbos (600 BC)

Layered in magnificence today. I don the fashion recommendations of my friend the Countess, Goddess of Chic in my personal opinion.  Assembled with the eye of Shey, the elements splendid, worthy of praise and the care that gives longevity to fine things.  Slacks and jacket, coat and scarf, accessories not overstated, I feel like the queen of my life, the captain of my ship. Sails full of wind, I will take this vessel across the high seas.  Off on an adventure, extraordinarily prepared to take in every breath deeply, to experience fully the expanse of life, the depth of the moment. Yes.  A good day indeed.

How is your adventure unfolding?  Tell me your story … 

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Legend has it that White Tara was born from a single tear of Chenrezig, the Buddha of Compassion. She was born of a broken heart and a compassionate wish. As Chenrezig surveyed the suffering of all beings, great sorrow arose in his heart, a tear fell from his right eye and Mother Tara was born. She stood before him and vowed to help all beings until not even the word suffering could be heard. She is easily recognized by the Wisdom eye in the center of her forehead, open, seeing with penetrating clarity.  She has eyes in the palms of her hands and the soles of her feet as a symbol of her all knowing, all seeing wisdom.

Her sacred, abundant energy has been alive in my life in many profound ways. She appears as a guide in my daily meditations. Songs are sung about the Warrior Goddess Queen that initiated my journey into awakening praising her as an emanation of White Tara.  I have had the inconceivable blessing of receiving many White Tara teachings and empowerments from great masters of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition in the recent decades. Sedona’s first stupa, a 6’ White Tara long life stupa dedicated to the Venerable Gyaltrul Rinpoche sits among the red rocks. I had the honor of playing an integral role in its creation including sculpting the relief of White Tara resting at its heart. Tattooed on my right shoulder, an image of White Tara, she is an ever-present reminder of the Divine Sacred alive in my life.  A painting of White Tara my first commission as a pointillist painter. I did not plan it this way; I see in hindsight that she seems to walk with me in each moment. She is welcome. I am grateful.

She was with me again this weekend when I made my first small footprint on the Phoenix art scene.  The fifth largest city in our country, I was delighted to be invited to show there.  The venue was small and off the beaten path and it was perfect: the SPACE.

Skillfully promoted and perfectly presented the opening event was well attended. All the artists made sales.  The music was divine, Adam Smith shined. Towards the end of the evening space opened for others to spontaneously share their talents, the moment was perfect for a jam session. Thank you to Jim and Adam for all you did to make the evening possible, for your professionalism and your generous hospitality ;)  It was a success.

The day of the show I posted a picture on facebook of a limited edition fine art print of Mother Tara, 6’ tall, standing next to me.  We were headed for the show.  I was excited. White Tara expanded, in your face, was coming with me to Phoenix!  She would shine her radiant blessings on all she encountered, those seen and unseen.  My protector, my inspiration, the radiant presence of this Goddess of Love, of Peace, longevity and abundance, I loaded her in the back of my steadfast Chevy pick up and we headed South to step on to a new stage; we were welcomed so beautifully by friends old and new.  She was hung in a space of honor, she received accolades from the crowd, she was invited to live in the entryway of a fine home of a dear man in Scottsdale.  She was delivered today. May he too experience her extraordinary blessings.

The original painting measured less than three feet high but has many stories to tell.  The image was originally commissioned here in Sedona by a talented acupuncturist currently practicing in Maryland. It was then gifted to a Russian countess and her husband who live in America and are big supporters of the Tibetan Buddhist community.  They in turn donated the painting to a local Buddhist center of which we were all a part.  It then came to be in my care to be sold again to raise funds to support the centers activities. When I last saw it, it was resting in the collection of Nicholas Cage, one of the many stories worth telling.

White Tara has been there when doors have opened for me. They are opening on many levels.  She may be the one opening them; in her humility she just smiles. A fully awakened Goddess extraordinaire, I prostrate with the fullness of my being to the depth and breadth of her compassionate regard.  May my own heart open so fully and my commitments run as deep.  

This image is available as a Limited edition Fine Art Print

Hand Embellished with Tibetan blessing symbols,

Numbered (ed/108) and Signed by the artist

Visit Goldenstein Gallery for more information or email me directly