Creativity and Contemplation explores the intersection of meditation and creative expression. Impulses for creativity originate deep in the soul, psyche, or what Buddhists call “mind.” The arts give voice, shape, feeling, or color to this human journey of living and dying, and are modes of integrating our experiences of reality. Visual art, sound work, spatial exploration, and even cooking, dreaming, and work can be forms of meditation in action if engaged in with awareness.
Sarah C. Beasley (Sera Kunzang Lhamo), Nautilus Gold award-winning author of Kindness for all Creatures: Buddhist Advice for Compassionate Animal Care (Shambhala 2019), has been a Nyingma practitioner since 2000. Sarah is a Certified Teacher, and an experienced writer and artist, with an MA in Educational Leadership and a BA in Studio Art. Sarah spent six years in traditional retreat under the guidance of Lama Tharchin Rinpoche and Thinley Norbu Rinpoche. With a lifelong passion for wilderness, she has summited Mt. Kenya and Mt. Baker, among other peaks. Her book and other works can be seen at www.sarahcbeasley.com.
I have practiced visualizing and making mandala offerings for years, but when I entered the main temple at Ankor Wat, I found myself stepping onto
A long-time Vajrayana Buddhist practitioner, Helene Rein moves seamlessly between contemplation and immersion in the natural environment of tactile crafts. As a child growing up
“It is so magical, it is so wondrous, this meeting, as in a dream—”** I met artist Fiorenza Menini during late summer 2014. After visiting
The story of a jewelry artist on embodying the sensual and…
The light of the guru is a lamp that never goes dark. My root teacher is still the North Star in the night sky, though
During a Hakomi* session some years ago, my lama Yeshe Wangmo asked me, “What would be a nourishing statement for you?” In this therapeutic context, dialogue
Walking along the prairie cliffs north of Santa Cruz I come across a whale skeleton, stark unexpected sight, exhibit of the Marine Discovery Center. I
Who is dragging this corpse around? This huatou, similar to a koan, was popularized by Hsu Yun, a famous Chan Buddhist master of the late 19th/early
