The Beauty of Randomness

"Evolution is chaos with feedback."— Joseph Ford

Order and randomness are not opposed. There is an implicate order within the seemingly random. It is fractal. Fractals are self similar, but never quite identical, patterns generated by long repetition. This fractal order emerges from heaps and piles of similar things. Go ahead and try to make a random order of things. It is not as easy as you think.

Jackson Pollock used paint splatters onto canvas on the floor to make what we now recognize as fractal painting. Anyone can do that, right? Just throw a bunch of paint splatters on the floor! When today's scholars analyzed his fractals, they found them very hard to do. He had a real talent.

Here is my attempt at random colors:

Here it is, fractalized a bit:

When science recently discovered fractals, artists had already been using them, like, forever. Some of my favorite random things are fields of flowers blooming, or the pattern of flowers just beginning to open on a tree, with all different sizes at once.  

Fractal geometry seems to be the language of nature, God's math. Trees and clouds, stars and water, crystals and creatures, all share these structures. I also love audio randomness, such as the sound of rain on the roof. Perhaps this is why it feels so good, why we feel good in environments, natural or architectural, with these proportions. 

We are looking through fractal body apparatus and a fractal brain, at fractal objects or environments, developed according to fractal math principles! Cool! A circle of mirrors!

"The most complex object in mathematics, the Mandelbrot Set ... is so complex as to be uncontrollable by mankind and describable as 'chaos'. "— Benoit Mandelbrot

Brown

"The color brown is anything but nondescript. It comes in as many hues as there are colors of earth, which is commonly presumed infinite." -Barbara Kingsolver

This is not a 'real' pure color of course, it's a dirty orange. But brown is a very important crayon color. It is a full fledged member of the crayon box, found even in the small sized crayon set.

 How else can we draw hair color, skin color, and all those furry critters, not to mention trees, rocks and other earthen tone things!? And honestly, everyone is some kind of brownish. We humans range in skin color from tan to mahogany; all shades of brown.

 

So, brown. It is actually a magical color, a sort of golden in the rough. 

Like indigo, which contains all of the colors inside of it, brown is also a compound color. A deep inspection into a brown thing such as someone's skin, or a shiny stretch of tree bark, reveals warm rainbows full of dancing colors. 

Brown is a rich earthy confection of treasure colors. Brown is yummy, like crispy bread. Think dark chocolate, and coffee, which each contain hundreds of plant produced compounds. See the richness of polished wood, with dancing copper, bronze, and golden highlights. It is often a favorite of wealthy people, maybe because it resonates with earthly stability.

Brown is comforting and grounding, dependable and steady. Use brown when you want to harmonize with the natural world, or to add feelings of warmth and security. (More about brown:)

You Are OK Now

As a child, I remember worrying, for years, about the next 'shot', or vaccination in the usual series, to be administered by needle poke. I knew I had that 'booster shot' scheduled in another two or three years, and I dreaded it! All this about just one little moment of pain, compared to years of mental cringing!

Most of the time, even when I'm right in the middle of a great crisis, I'm usually ok too. It is my thinking, the way I frame the situation and turn it over in my mind, that causes most of the suffering anyway. 

You know this, right? Sometimes we can get ourselves jammed into these tight corners and dilemmas and feel trapped, but it is never the case! Have you not made it so far? Every time you had a crisis, you found the strength to get through it. And also, you were never without help, even if you did not realize it at the time.

You have been escorted, incubated, nurtured, carried, and cared for since your dimmest darkest deepest beginning. You are never alone, but you may have solitude if you wish, for however long you like. But you are always lovingly held in the extended arms of an ultimately friendly personal bubble of teachers and guides and spiritual friends. 

Now that you remember this, you can relax, lighten up, and realize you don't need to cling so hard to particular forms of nurturance and security because it is safe here. With this awareness, it is easy to be kind, generous, tolerant, and compassionate.

I cannot begin to express the expansiveness of this vision. Standing where you are now, and going out as far as the inner eye can see, and into an eternity of time, you are a free being with choices. The immensity of the playground that is our shared reality is beyond description.

"The Divine never says that suffering is necessary- this idea is created by human beings. The Divine asks us to be happy, harmonious, and peaceful." -Mother Meera

Me

“Don't be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth.” - Rumi

I am very selfish. I want everyone to be happy. I want things to work out, for everyone in the world to be successful.  If everyone is happy, they will be nice to me! So I want everyone to be whatever their most cherished wish is to be, and I want each person, indeed each being, to have what they need. And I wish all beings can have a chance to do what their heart desires. And it feels really good to me, to help that happen for you.

Why would I wish otherwise? Would my toe want the rest of my body to do badly? Indeed, without the rest, the toe would be worse than useless. It would be dead. We trouble ourselves endlessly fussing about our individual selves. 

If we focus too much on our personal reality, we feel isolated, lonely, even hostile. But if we think only of the group, the herd mentality, we are in danger of having our drive to fit in override our own inner guidance. This leads to mindless conformity, losing our own way, not even knowing how to think for oneself. 

I have a friend who fasted for forty days at the culmination of a course of spiritual study. He reached a point where he gave up and transcended everything. Except one thing, his individuality. Then he decided to give that up too. He later said it was like walking through a metaphorical 'wall of fire'. But a surprise was waiting for him on the other side. That is something you get to keep, he was told. It is a gift.

You are you. No one else can do this being you thing, but you. No one in the whole universe. You are a gift to the world. So now you can relax, and know that with loving intention, you can find your true path and be an integral part of the all and everyone.

"Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God."- A Course in Miracles

Seeking Mother's Healing with Art

“Let My worship be in the

heart that rejoices, for behold,

all acts of love and pleasure

are My rituals.” 

― Doreen Valiente

We are are a planet desperately seeking mother. The Great Mother has been tossed out of religion and power by the patriarchal takeover, but not out of our DNA. All of us come from a mother. As newborns, recognizing the mother is our first order of business in this life.  

The spot in our cultural mind where the mother is missing is often exploited by people trying to sell you something. Everyone wants to look at pictures of the the mother, so we find them everywhere. Pictures of women's bodies fill art galleries, advertisements, on down to sexually explicit materials. The oldest human sculpture is of the mother. The great mother is an archetype of deep power. Even in its most gross forms. 

Reclaiming this lost feminine is a journey of healing, individually and culturally. To us as yogis, it means integrating the more yin and yang sides of ourselves, and so becoming more whole as souls. Most gentle new age beings of any gender I know are Goddess worshipers.

In the world, this rebalance pictures as an elevation of the status of women and girls, and also protecting the "Mother Earth". This includes everyone, the children, the poor, the forest and oceans, the animals, (and the men too!)

The beauty of the mother, with qualities like nurturing and caring for all of the children, and the beauty and diversity and interdependence of nature, can be our guide. The world is round, and the great mother is on YOUR side.

When we humans make art, we can also transmit this healing beauty, whether it be through music, or visual art, movies, poetry, or stories. Perhaps in the future, maybe even now, when we feel bad, we will have a way to go to art and receive healing.We can give each other healing prescriptions of art and music as medicine, as we even do now, when we forward interesting things we have found in cyberspace. Together we are rewriting the Great Mother back into our cultural stories, and reweaving our inner being into wholeness.

Today the Great Mother is enjoying a resurgence:

“Now hear a new truth. The Great Mother Herself will be forced to hide from those who are coming. She will seem to disappear while they grow strong, but someday She will return. Although our children and their children, perhaps to the thousandth generation, must live in the new world that has forgotten Her, they must never forget. She will return.”- Barbara Ardinger

Vegan Cuisine Meat Eaters Love

"Some people think the plant-based, whole-foods diet is extreme. Half a million people a year will have their chests opened up and a vein taken from their leg and sewn onto their coronary artery. Some people would call that extreme."-Caldwell Esselstyn

The universe gave me lots of meateaters, so I have learned to cook mushrooms and create rawsomelty plant cheese. Often your carnivore expresses disdain for fake meat. Perhaps it falls into that 'uncanny valley' that is close, but not the real experience. Like the robot that looks a little too human, but is creepily off somehow.

I actually like fake meat products like mock turkey and unchicken for brown bag lunch sandwiches, for example. I use them once in a while, just for fun, or when they are artistically called for. Last time I ate real meat was way way back in the the last millennium. But I was brought up on Texas beef and traditional southern cooking, so I know what these recipes are supposed to taste like. 

I'm good at pleasing omnivores when I make food for them. I don't even have to think about it any more since they naturally like the food I make. The trick is to supply all of their needs, but it doesn't hurt to make the food delicious as well. 

You can't please meateaters by leaving everything on the plate the same, and just removing the meat. For that matter, you will not make the vegans at your table very happy that way either. Meat is a very complete food. Replacing what is in it is an emerging, veggie-cutting edge art. 

It is very cool. Also it's only recently scientifically possible, to do some aspects of it, such as vegetarian B12, EPA oil, and vitamin D from mushrooms. We all need vitamin D in latitudes with several months of sun deprivation. You can get EPA oil from algae, which is where the fish get it, eliminating the fish killing part of getting this essential fatty acid.

Then there is the availability in the industrialized world of a very wide range of foods, which makes complete healthy nutrition easy. You do need to find and eat a variety of things to fill out all of your requirements and avoid any deficiency. Things like seaweeds for minerals, and fermented foods for probiotic balance. 

You need to find out how much and in what proportions of protein and fat you like, so you can make transitional dishes. People who are into really heavy protein intake should not depend too much on any one protein source such as tofu or nuts. Rather, they can avoid acquiring food sensitivities by eating a wide variety of beans, grains, nuts, and soy products. And mushrooms. Lots of foods have protein. Goji berries, for example, a mainstay of Chinese food and medicine, will grow anywhere and are as high in protein as beefsteak.

Mushrooms are a great meat substitute, and also have more benefits in the diet than can be listed here. Remember to only eat mushrooms grown on wood. Herbs, another whole topic, are also very useful. 

If you stop eating meat for a while, your tastes will change. Things that you were not attracted to before will appeal because they have something you now need. Carefully listening to that leads to well being and yummy food.

 Sometimes it's fun to make traditional recipes and substitute. These recipes were kept all this time because they were good, because they worked as combinations of sweet and fat and this and that. They are often easy to convert.

Simply base the menu around whatever veggies and fruits are in season, add proportions of fat and protein foods to balance it out, and frequently throw in the obscure bits, like seaweed and mushrooms, fermented foods and spices. And remember to consider your vitamin D and B 12 availabilities.

"You put a baby in a crib with an apple and a rabbit. If it eats the rabbit and plays with the apple, I'll buy you a new car."~ Harvey Diamond

Mandala

“In the products of the unconscious we discover mandala symbols, that is, circular and quaternity figures which express wholeness, and whenever we wish to express wholeness, we employ just such figures. ”-Carl Jung

As a young art student, I learned that symmetry was uncool, it is better to have your composition be irregular and unbalanced. Always use odd numbers of objects. That way it grabs the eye, holds interest. 

Nevertheless, many of my compositions come out symmetrical. It just feels good to me to do mandala structures. Mandalas are naturally beautiful.

I have a mandala brain. It likes symmetry. A lot of sacred art is symmetrical, even concentric, and radially symmetrical. My geometric mirror ipad art apps make the process of mandala making really fun.

In meditation I also see mandalas. My perception is that this is a view as if I were looking down at the top of my head from above, showing all of the energies at play in my field at that moment. Just like seeing a tree from above, with the trunk in the center and the branches radiating out. 

Mandalas are centering, focusing devices, that mirror our brain's visual way of perceiving, which probably mirrors the way the universe is structured. This brings a feeling a of peace, and naturally aligns us in harmony with our soul essence.

Labyrinths, found all over the ancient world, are walkable mandalas. 

Traditional indigenous humans on opposite sides of the planet apparently independently of one another, developed sand painting mandalas, the Navahos and the Tibetans. Many spiritual traditions and meditations use mandala like sacred art.

People are making millions of mandalas!

“ I saw that everything, all paths I had been following, all steps I had taken, were leading back to a single point — namely, to the mid-point. It became increasingly plain to me that the mandala is the centre. It is the exponent of all paths." -Carl Jung

(You can share your mandala art here:)