A New Studio & Other Summer Impermanence

Life has been full of summer energy and things.  One of these things is that I have finally scrubbed the last of the sawdust from the ceiling of the old workshop and moved in paint and paper, canvases and all.  It feels good to have a workspace where I can make as much mess as I like. Paint on the floor, no problem it's plywood, paint on the counter, no problem, it's old wood.  Want to bang a nail into the wall to hang something up, just on a whim?  Go for it.  It's kind of like when you were a kid and you got your own room, there is a giddiness to it.  It feels exciting.  I like that it's old and worn and not too precious.

And I have in fact been in there alternating between gardening and painting and working away on another little project.  Here's some more peeks at the studio space and a Buddha in progress.

And the view of the old barn from one of the windows.

  I have been shaking up the spiritual path a bit lately too.  I have felt drawn to the Shamanic Journey work of Sandra Ingerman and have been doing some of that in addition to my more Buddhist centred practice.  Maybe it's living here in the forest, but I feel the call to add something nature based, something that moves into the world of the unseen, into the elemental world of spirit.  I find the two practices complement each other and coexist very nicely.  I love the Bon practice of Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche which is the pre Buddhist practice of the Indigenous people of Tibet and somehow adding the Shamanic work to the Insight meditation work I have been doing feels akin to this. For me the Shamanic journey work is simply another way to approach the "stuff" that we work with on a daily basis, the stuff that can feel stuck and intractable, kind of like turning a package that you are trying to open, upside down and working it from the other side.  One of the personal things I am working with is being comfortable with "being seen" which in many ways is work of the introvert.

Also on the spiritual front I am reading "The Great Heart Way" by Gerry Shishin Wick and Ilia Shinko Perez.  I was impressed with Wick when I saw him on one of the Tricycle online retreats and ordered his book from The Book Depository (my favourite place to order books online).  The subtitle of the book is "How to Heal Your Life and Find Self-fulfillment".  Wick, who is a Zen teacher, looks at the 3 poisons of greed, hate and delusion as expressions of our "shadow self", the parts we have unconsciously rejected.  He approaches the Dharma by having us look at what we have rejected in ourselves and bring it into the light.  In this way we can work to unlock the "stuck" places of anger or greed by going deeply into our personal terrain or is that subterrain?  Why do some situations or people's behaviour trigger our anger?  What is the deep source of our  desire?  This approach intrigues me and feels like it holds potential to approach the Dharma in a very personal way.  Hmmm, have I got a theme going on here?

An old kimono jacket that I bought years ago for $1 has found a home by the cute old wood stove

.  It was almost cool enough to light the stove this morning!

And on Thursday we saw Susan Moon read from her book "This Is Getting Old", a reflection on aging from a Buddhist point of view, pulled together with her lovely sense of humour.  She talks about the typical aging boomer topics of caring for aging parents, physical decline, memory loss, and becoming invisible.  She shared her aim to do it all with grace and humour.

And there was a volunteer stint at the Lavender Festival up the road and qi gong at the Japanese Peace Park in Ganges and an art opening called "100 Mile Furniture".  This is summer!  How's your's?