presence Is Here Now
Mindfulness with Sheela Iyer Singla, PhD, CMT-P
When we soften our gaze and see the here and now, we see that the present moment is kind of a gift. It’s a gift from awareness, which itself is both subject and object, both the giver and the receiver of the gift, which is itself. The gift is empty of a separate self, effortlessly allowing phenomena to arise and pass away within it.
Our dear friend Lindsay Lohan holds the space of presence, from which an enso arises.
Simplicty, Ease, Peacefulness
This sketch captures a moment in time, when a buddha, meditating, momentarily settles the mind on a thought formation or other phenomenon, here signified by a pleasant cloud. There is a feeling in the mind of ease, simplicity, and peacefulness.
The Spacious Heart
This painting shows a heart of spaciousness. In such a heart, we can hold everything that’s true for us right now. The clouds signify thoughts and transient phenomena, and the starry night sky signifies profound spaciousness.
The Mind is More Outside Than the Body
From the view of awareness, the mind is actually more outside than the body. The mind contains a breath or body sensation. This painting shows the mind as a membrane, a lighter area percolated with perforated darker marks. The perforations signify the permeability of the mind and heart of awareness to, for example, the air we breath. The heart of awareness is the innermost dimension of experience. The fire-like interplay of dark and light in the foreground signify the aversion and curiosity I was experiencing while painting. The lighter and darker areas and their gradations signify duality and unity. We can be present with aversion, and bring out metta with the heart of awareness.
May you be happy and peaceful
John 14:20
I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.
This enso is a succint way of saying: presence, which can mean the cosmic energy here now and perhaps always, takes different forms which are constantly changing. Impermanence and interconnection are the nature of this presence. We may try to pin things down, frame things and put them up, but these things are by nature impermanent.
Inside are the Elements
This painting depicts a buddha with a view through the hair and skull to a more inner dimension. The inner dimension contains earth, water, fire, and air.
Undertow
This sketch depicts earthy sand with a layer of water (upper right), the deep calm below the surface of the ocean (bottom left), and the undertow of Fire and Water at the border (upper left to lower right) pulling us into the beautiful stillness of awareness (presence). We see matching patterns, for example, in the turbulent, swirling movement of different elements (here, Fire and Water), that give a sense of ground. These patterns may reflect that Fire and Water have the same underlying energy, are made of the same stuff, as each other. As Pema Chödrön writes, we just allow ourselves to relax with the energy and as we increase the detail of our concentration, the undertow upends us. We move from the surface to groundlessness, the relaxed stillness of awareness (presence).
Bodhisattva
Everything we want and need is right here in the present moment. Our freedom, presence, is already here now. The clear butterfly signifies freedom from suffering, and the crystal ball signifies the bodhisattva’s vow to delay awakening until all beings are free from suffering. The crystal ball also signifies divinity.
Give Me Ten
The intended feeling of this painting is evocative of military base, a Native American reservation, partly cloudy cool weather perhaps New Mexico in Winter. See accompanying article about Noting. This painting is not only about the meditation technique of noting, but also about my own freedom from alcohol (free from alcohol for 7 years as of this writing). This painting is titled “Give Me Ten,” as in ten notes or ten pushups. Other keywords for this painting are: craving, earth, sky, country, eagle, land.
I am within Texas and Texas is within me
This painting is titled “I am within Texas and Texas is within me”. It’s about the space in and around the United States-Mexico border, and space within and without. Because of interconnectedness, the space around us merges with the space within us. Keywords for this painting are: “we are absolutely everywhere and relatively somewhere,” “pulmonary flow,” “Virgen de Guadalupe.”
The Trolls Within
The animals are drawn from Tibetan Buddhism, and signify aversion (ill-will, anger, hatred), ignorance (delusion), and greed (desire, craving.) The lotuses upon which the animals sit signify compassion, wisdom, and freedom (enlightenment). The humans are contemplating and about to experience groundlessness amid the klesas within. The hair of the woman on the left is about the sparseness, the impersonal nature, the emptiness and insubstantiality of thoughts (thought formations).
Block prints, titled From Near and Far, We are Interconnected and Tibetan prayer flag garland, titled Windhorse. The prayer flags are from The International Campaign for Tibet (https://savetibet.org/). We are all affected by and affect the events in all corners of our homes, communities, and the world.
Change
This painting depicts a half-red, half-pink lotus gradually being carried out to sea by the ocean currents in a delta. Within the red lotus is dynamite. The dynamite signifies the bomb in our heart that is preventing us from being happy and living freely. In the foreground is a half black, half white lotus in which the dynamite has changed into the hair and top of the head of a buddha. There are blue and brown triangles, the greek letter delta, signifying change. The title of the painting is Change.
As it is, As we are
This painting signifies equanimity. In the middle ground is a dark-skinned hand with wrinkles depicted similarly to railroad tracks on the fingers. The hand is holding a clear, empty sphere. In the background is a blue lake, and in the sphere the water in the lake is shown refracted as viewed through the sphere curved at the edges and raised up a few percent of the sphere’s radius. There is a red lotus in the foreground and black and white rain droplets falling from the sky.
Contemplative
Egret at the Trinity River
“Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara observes that everything is emptiness; thus he forsakes all suffering. It was not after he realized this fact that he overcame suffering-to realize this fact is itself to be relieved from suffering. So realization of the truth is salvation itself.”
“Even before we practice it, Enlightenment is there.”
-Shunryu Suzuki
Awareness that suffering is here is not suffering.