This article from Psyche rings true to me. I have had many conversations with friends and colleagues who have encouraged me to take whatever creative product I have just shared and monetize it by finding a commercial outlet. While I find this flattering, I also am displeased by their extrapolation of the product of a creative moment to the realm of the commercial. I know from my experience that thoughts of commercial success and the behaviors that would be expected are dampeners to my imagination and creative process. Although I would enjoy the attention that commercial success implies, I would not trade it for the joy of the imagination, the interaction with the media and tools, the problem solving, and sense of completion- however fleeting. The striving takes me out of the moment, or replaces the in-the-moment joy with attention to the future rather than the now and away from the intensely personal experience into one that invites the judgement of others. I have been fortunate to not have to depend on my amateur interests to make a living- my career took another path related but not the same. And so now retired from that career I can spend more time and attention what I love.
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When I rekindled my relationship with the piano and tapped into my inner amateur, I discovered a quiet room of my own
— Read on psyche.co/ideas/feel-free-to-stop-striving-learn-to-relish-being-an-amateur
Different Realities, The Art of Frank Galuszka
September 9, 2020
A short film by John Thornton. (20:08) This is a short but rich biographical film about the contemporary art of Frank Galuszka with comments from the artist and many pictures of his beautiful paintings. Recommended.
Art Therapy in the Museums?
June 20, 2020
Art as therapy is wonderful and effective. I wonder if any of these museums will consider hiring a credentialed art therapist to direct these programs. Credentialed art therapists have been professionally trained in the therapeutic use of art and can facilitate and oversee effective programming.
www.nytimes.com/2020/06/15/arts/design/art-therapy-museums-virus.html
John O’Donohue Interview on On Being
January 28, 2018
This is Krista Tippett’s wonderful interview with the poet/philospher John O’Donohue from August 6, 2015- his last interview before his death. It is a deep conversation into beauty, life, love, language, and the imagination. Enjoy.
“So I believe that deep in the heart of each of us, there is this imagining, imaginal capacity that we have. So that we are all doing it.” John O’Donohue
Image by Anders Mohlin/Flicker
The Irish poet and philosopher John O’Donohue was beloved for his book Anam Ċara, Gaelic for “soul friend,” and for his insistence on beauty as a human calling. In one of his last interviews before his death in 2008, he articulated a Celtic imagination about how the material and the spiritual — the visible and the invisible — intertwine in human experience. His voice and writings continue to bring ancient mystical wisdom to modern confusions and longings.
Find the link to this interview HERE.
Or copy and paste this:
https://onbeing.org/programs/john-odonohue-the-inner-landscape-of-beauty/
Meditation Retreat
April 23, 2014
A few weeks ago I attended a three day meditation retreat at the Ligmincha Institute in Virginia. The retreat was awesome and I am sharing here a link to a video which was taken during this very retreat. It is an hour long so it does go into some depth and includes some guided meditation by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche and an interesting question and answer session with questions from around the world via internet. Enjoy.
Click on a link above or find the video here: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/46068128
12 Answers from Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, Bon Buddhist Master
February 8, 2014
In a 2013 interview, Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche explains his approach to teaching in the West and clarifies essential principles of Buddhism and Bon.
Effective Change
July 12, 2011
— If you want to change others, change yourself. —
Book Review: The Flying Drum by Bradford P. Keeney
June 23, 2011
The Flying Drum by Bradford P. Keeney
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Keeney is a therapist who used systems theory and cybernetics and had a national reputation with several publications in the 80’s. He was a student of Gregory Bateson and Heinz von Foerster. He has developed a radical approach to therapy which is deeply informed and shaped by shamanism.
If you are interested in this, there is an engaging podcast available that I would recommend with an interview with Keeney by Tami Simon of Sounds True. Here is a link to this podcast.
“The Flying Drum” book is a fast read. He tells his personal story of his own “professional” development and describes his way he met with shamans from all around the world, received initiations and instructions, and brings what he learned to the world. It is literally fantastic, operating in that domain of what seems unbelievable and yet here in direct experience.
While the book has similarities to New Age books like those of Lynn Andrews, etc., it feels to have more substance and is more grounded in ordinary reality while not shy of stories of the seeming impossible. It is also a bit like Carlos Casteneda’s books with many descriptions of encounters and personal experiences but without going into as much of the detail of the stories of his contact with the shamans.
I found this book to be validating and inspiring.
Steve Jobs on Life, Death, and the Whole Earth Catalog
January 9, 2009
This is a video of the a commencement speech delivered by Steve Jobs in 2005 at Stanford University. The 15 minute speech covers his early life, his successes and disappointments, how some of those disappointments led to later successes, his view of death as a motivator and contextualizer, and a comment on the Whole Earth Catalog (mentioned in an earlier post on this blog, here) as an influence for him.
Knowing Imagination 