This weekend I was so delighted to participate in a fabulous event at the Wang Center hosted by Sunita Mukhi the gracious director of Asian/American programs at the center. I am so grateful to Sunita for being welcomed into the beautiful space of the Wang Center as well as being welcomed into the inspiring community of the Wang Center. Here is a lovely place and community that exemplifies to me what my E Pluribus project is about: sharing our celebration of diversity.
On Saturday the treat was called TellebrAsian, it was a uniquely tailored yearly story telling event that this year was inspired by the flags. A talented group of story tellers, some professional and some students, chose a flag and launched into either a personal or a cultural story. The setting was intimate in the Wang Center Interdenominational Chapel with Oriental rugs comfortably welcoming kids and families to lounge as if they were on their own living room floor. The less flexible audience sat in comfort around the edges of the elegant room in chairs.
Nine delightful stories were told beginning with a half dance autobiographical story about the weight of making life decisions regarding career and boyfriend. Following were stories of a magical fish and a greedy wife, an inebriated Irishman mistaking thieves for the devil, a personal recollection of crabbing, why the sun follows the moon, ten ancient Chinese super-powered brothers, a covetous crane from the Mahabharata, the entire epic of Gilgamesh in ten minutes and finally a delightful story of a sparrow which was punctuated and enhanced by a Japanese percussion troop.
The broad range of subjects from Ancient texts to personal recollections was a rich and fascinating field of discovery for the audience. Skilled story tellers led the audience with experience and the inexperienced story tellers held us with their enthusiasm and so the entertainment never dipped in capturing our attention. The audience was entranced and often moved to laughter. Most delightful were two Chinese students, Erica Xie and Stella Yu telling their story of the ten brothers and minimally but very effectively acting out their super powers. Stories were also told by Robin Bady, Lorena Doherty, Shrikant Iyer, Pamela MacFarlane, Eva Nagase, Jorge Portillo, Kadhambari Sridhar and featured guest artist Dr. Donny George Youkhanna who is an Iraqi Assyrian archeologist, anthropologist, author, curator and scholar now visiting professor at SUNY Stony Brook and internationally known as “the man who saved the Iraq National Museum”. It was a thoroughly delightful afternoon wittily MC’d by Francesca Calarco and followed by a delicious meal of Asian cuisine from the Wang Center restaurant; Jasmine.
This kind of event is the growing vision for E Pluribus; that it may promote further conversations about harmony in diversity and further celebrations of our diversity. By sharing these stories of life, love, dreams, hopes, aspirations and terrible mistakes we can really connect with each other in profound ways and recognize each other respectfully. Whether same or different our hearts resonate with similar feelings and to see another is to see deeply within ourself to our core humanity.
I would like to also thank Jennifer Iacona for her over the top support and generous coordination efforts on behalf of E Pluribus and this event. I thank Sophia Dang, Manami Hotta, Luke Diorio and Allison Conley for their very careful and exacting assistance in hanging the artwork. I am also grateful to Graduate Assistants; Dan Woulfin and Sarah Feltham as well as Senior Student Assistant; Sumreen Dar, Student Assistant; Nastareen Khandaker and interns; Francesca Calarco and Madiha Hamdi and the staff of the Wang Center for their part in creating this great event and the exhibit of E Pluribus.
Author: Muriel Grabé
Why are we watching that?
Well, it has been a long time since I wrote a blog here, meanwhile I have been busy with another blog at HEAVEN IS HERE (http://murielanyc.wordpress.com) and with my artwork E Pluribus at (http://www.epluribus.us). I have never been able to focus on one thing so I am finally just going with it. Whatever seems to have it’s own energy captures my interest. And for some reason I am back here again.
This week I watched the film, “Killers” with Katherine Heigl, Ashton Kutcher and Tom Selleck. While I try to always look at things positively and refrain from critical reviews. I feel I must speak on this film and it’s genre. “Killers” is supposed to be a witty, poignant and funny film about an ex-CIA, we guess, father whose daughter falls in love with a guy who is also “licensed to kill”. The first question is – why is killing funny? The idea of constructing a comedy around the concept of killing is just wrong, and yet think of how many cartoons show one character trying to kill another over and over again.
In this film, Killers; Selleck’s character hires his daughter’s entire neighborhood and seemingly all of his new son-in-law’s co-workers to kill the son-in-law, Ashton Kutcher. I never quite figured out why. With the requisite but very thin character story arcs came a lot of killing as you would expect. By the end of the flick, Kutcher, Heigl and Selleck make-up with each other amidst a carnage of peripheral and very poorly drawn supporting characters whose deaths are so irrelevant as to be not even considered. There is not even a mention of ‘clean up’ crew or how the main characters got away with murdering about a dozen or more people. Kutcher who was seeking a normal, happy life supposedly by the end settles into that dream life; no PTSD’s or regrets as apparently his father-in-law might have had though this issue was as carelessly considered as the multiple murders.
I find myself wondering more and more what is it about violence, death and torture that so fascinates us all. There have been a spate of stories of serial torturer/murderers like, ‘The Lovely Bones’, ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’, and I know more that I can’t think of now – they blur together. Why do these kinds of stories capture our imagination so powerfully? I am victim to this too, despite my efforts at diligent restraint. Part of my excuse is as a student of entertainment and a professional in the entertainment industry it’s my duty to know what’s considered most interesting but I just don’t get it.
My own personal rationalization used to be that a shock to the emotional system, like a horrible act or fear of being terribly victimized shocks us into a raw sense of being. For a moment we taste that authentic Self that is our pure self. It seemed to me at first that this kind of entertainment was a little bit like a death meditation and there is a very strong and worthy tradition of death meditation in the ancient Vedic path to enlightenment. When we consider the impermanence of the flesh, when we contemplate the bones within us or life’s blood running away in the ash of the consuming fire of a funeral pyre this can lead to an awakening a sense of the true self that is beyond the form. This is a worthy meditation, but is it a worthy entertainment?
What is required in both instances whether meditation or entertainment is contemplation, self-inquiry, equanimity of emotions and a welcoming attitude to radical new views of one’s self composition. I now think that that is really not possible within the space of an entertainment. It is certainly not possible without awareness and self-inquiry. I have to admit I am a conspiracy theorist and I think much of the entertainment, and in this I include fear-mongering news media, is constructed specifically to keep us in a fearful mindset. When we are always worried, distrustful and fearful of our neighbors we are more inclined to do what we are told and to let slide the indignities of abusive and corrupt government. Remember what Goering said about war:
“Naturally the common people don’t want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”
I know it’s a stretch to include this quote in a discussion about entertainment but the question is really about taking responsibility for our own inner state not so that we will not be susceptible to the manipulations of power hungry leaders but so that we may control our own inner state of being. I know too many people who are now addicted to news and who get very upset by the condition of the world as presented in that sphere. Why are we watching that? Is it really useful in our daily life to be frightened several times a day, to be shouted at, to see multiple murders or torture acts or to hear about them? Is it useful to our state of being to witness these things without any conclusive aftermath or discussion of the repercussions? In the news cycle no one cares what’s going on after the terrible act or how it affects all the players, in movies the drama is past and what happens to survivors afterward is not interesting enough to be included in the entertainment. Only now for the first time in our culture is there a substantive discussion of the effect of violence on the inner state of a human being and its effect on functionality this because of so many soldiers returning from multiple wars.
This blog is about uplifting entertainment, about using entertainment to grow a sense of delight in being. How can we possibly create this model for nurturing ourselves if we reach so often for the junk thrill of fear-mongering entertainment? It is not nourishing and is in fact dangerous to our well-being. A very great and supremely loving teacher that I know once speaking on the subject of drama admonished the gathering in this way: “You are gnawing your own bones so that you may taste the sweetness of your own blood”.
The challenge is twofold on the one hand it would be so good for us all to avoid entertainment in the form of news media or other shows and films that stir up fear its related negative emotions. Alternately, we need to consider how we as media makers can come up with the next generation of entertainment and news that uplifts, nourishes and inspires us all? What does that look like and how can we make it watchable?
Celebrate!
Well, we are entering the season of celebration. But why should it be a season and why should celebration be constrained to certain locations or timeframes of life. Let’s celebrate all the time, celebrate life, celebrate love, celebrate having a body, celebrate family and friends. Here is a link to a fabulous event called a Random Act of Culture. It was clearly inspiring and wonderful for all who accidentally participated.
http://www.knightarts.org/uncategorized/what-a-joyful-noise-650-singers-burst-into-hallelujah-as-part-of-random-act-of-culture%E2%80%A8%E2%80%A8%E2%80%A8?ref=nf
Let’s invite each other to express joy and gratitude every day through this holiday season and beyond. Imagine the shift if we all recognize the sacredness of each moment that we interact. The minute effort it takes to choose to be in celebration mode by either wearing a special color, giving ourselves an extra moment to enjoy the sunset or a flower, taking time to say thank you or to offer a helping hand rewards us immensely with a lift to the heart. Celebrate.
Tipping Point
This Heaven is Here blog is because I am noticing things in the world that show how amazingly blessed and supported we really are. Today I think we have reached some kind of tipping point; I was stunned to see that Oprah’s show was all about John of God. Since Oprah shied away from ‘spiritual’ topics a few years ago because she was roundly trounced in the media for her shifting focus her shows have been very careful around the, as she put it today; “Woo woo” stuff. But we all know there is no subject that Oprah cannot tackle with grace. Everything she touches becomes mainstream. This show was/is amazing; try to catch it somehow. Also there is an article in O magazine about John of God entitled, ‘Leap of Faith‘.
I have heard of John of God for many years, and I am heartened to know that he is doing his wonderful work; work that is miraculous. His presence and the presence of so many other ‘healers’ who work in mysterious ways are definitely evidence that we are in Heaven. Throughout the course of Oprah’s show we heard from many people healed or not healed, or even perhaps healed without knowing they needed healing grapple with a sense of reality as previously known coming undone. This is the true miracle. A skeptical doctor concluded by sharing the thought that maybe we are not really the physical beings we appear to be but something else. How many times do we hear this from the great masters?
We are on the cusp of miraculous awakening, the evidence is all around us. Things are coming at us faster than ever and in the fray of information, choices, worries, disasters, manufactured drama, political noise and financial dismay the Truth stands out. Watching Oprah’s show and listening to the sensitive way her guests spoke of their experience I would describe as a refreshing pool of wisdom, a respite from the noise. Anything that opens the mind and reminds the heart of it’s own miraculous power is a gift to be savored. This was a daring show for Oprah and I thank her for it. Psychic surgery is very mysterious and also very threatening to status quo in our current medical industry. When you have millions of people and a whole economy propped up on the illness of a great proportion of our population, a man who performs miraculous healing for free is not welcome. John of God does not recommend that people stop using their medications or avoid conventional treatments. Clearly now is the time for us to move on to the understanding that we are not simply the physical form, to grasp the understanding that our greater Self is far more powerful than we think.
Gazing at SELF
OK, finally back again to the blog. It’s been a very busy month with a show installation for E Pluribus and a return to a favorite job – making muppet costumes for The Jim Henson Production; Disney is producing a new Muppet Movie.
Anyway /breath/ here we are. It’s time to remind myself again as always – why do this?
Today I returned for a final session of ‘gazing’ with Braco (pronounced – Bratso), a well-reknowned “healer” from Croatia. I discovered Braco while surfing the net about 2 or 3 years ago and thought how very interesting that he has chosen to impart his message in complete silence with a 5 to 8 minute gazing session. Hundreds of thousands of people travel long distances to see him every year some to experience a healing, which apparently happens very often. Many come just to taste that pure and delicious sense of recognizing the highest within. I wondered if Braco would ever make it to the US and here he is. Ironically his first East Coast gazing sessions are right near my house in Connecticut – just 10 minutes away, how amazing. So I went yesterday for 4 or 5 gazings, I can’t remember and today for one more. Braco doesn’t charge for this service that he offers, the cost is a modest charge to cover set-up, amenities and venue and it’s very reasonable at $8 per gazing.
Yesterday was an exquisite day so in the midst of radiant fall foliage, scudding clouds and raucous migrating birds plus a couple of chickens scurrying around the farm hundreds of people maybe over a thousand experienced Braco’s form of grace for the first time. It was sweet with a few reports of physical healing and many reports of visions, experiences of warmth, openness, contentment and some tears. How awesome that we do not need to talk about it, explain it, be instructed or even follow strict procedures to experience the sweet wash of grace. Braco reminds us very elegantly of who we are, he sees everyone in their purest light and by doing so allows each of us to see ourselves in that light, he reminds us to look beyond the obsessions that distract us from our holiness. Of course, we are THAT already; pure, holy, magnanimous, abundant, creative, loving beings and we can access that at all times should we choose and yet what a blessing to have others who will remind us when we forget.
Thank you Braco.
To learn more and to see where you can go to see Braco in person go to www.braco.net.
However, if you cannot get to a “gazing session” right away then make one of your own: Take a few minutes, ideally when you first arise in the morning or after a meditation when you are open and relaxed, look into your own eyes in the mirror. Look without judgement, expectation, or even recognition. Seek out the divine spark in your own eyes, recognize yourself as that light, as transcendent, loving, pure and raw being. Accept and honor yourself.
Beautiful Deadline
How great it is to have something to work toward. For my current show at the Wang Center of SUNY Stony Brook I made four new flags to add to the collection. In my last blog I talked about the fabrics that I collected for three of them, the Hmong, Mien and Balinese flags. I am very pleased with how they came out. As soon as I get some good photos they’ll be up on the site. But they are there at Stony Brook for another month and a half so you can go and see them in person.
I also made another Japanese flag since the original was sold. It’s there too, beautifully framed by Jane and Doug of the World Trade Art Gallery. For that flag I folded another 50 cranes which means I have now folded at least 100 cranes. I need to come up with a really good wish and fold the next 900 cranes in order to get it to come true. How about world harmony – not peace but harmony? With harmony we can be who we want to be, different and joyful in our difference, respectful and appreciative of our different contributions.
Who would like to join me in this wish? Here’s directions for crane folding if you’d like to:
http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/user/sprite/www/Origami/crane_gif.html
Love
It’s funny because last night I remembered a very sweet encounter I had a week ago on the Bridgeport/ Port Jefferson Ferry. There was a woman sitting next to me studying a text book, her family was with her but giving her space to work even though it was a holiday. Her son who must have been about 12 came over many times during the hour plus trip to just hug her or stroke her hair and kiss her on the forehead. She barely acknowledged these tender moments. As I watched I thought how sweet and respectful he was, careful not to disturb her but needing to express his love. Witnessing this affirmed for me the purpose of this blog, I state with confidence heaven IS here.
When we take any opportunity to connect to our love we know this truth, we live it. Love is the easiest path to stable higher consciousness. Love of family, pets, the natural world, our work, our culture, our life, our self, the world, anything is a path to unconditional love which is the engine of our creation.
Love is the power of the heart, which is the next and the most important chakra in our discussion of how the chakras are represented and celebrated in clothing. So is it a wonder that throughout the world people wear symbols close to their heart – a cross, an amulet, a star of David, a hand of Fatima, a peace symbol, whatever moves our heart.
I copied this flower from a lovely blogpost – check it out:
http://life-is-meant-to-be-lived.tressugar.com/Self-Appraisal-4557235
Voice of Truth
So continuing with this exercise of looking at how we celebrate the spiritual body with adornment I first want to say a bit about why we are doing this now.
These are intense times, we are in a marvelous mystical transition from density to light and yet this light that we are has always been known and celebrated. My intention with this exercise is to ease us into seeing how connected we already are with our light body, our spiritual self, our 5th dimensional being where duality, conflict, struggle, competition, speaking out against each other, arguing, gossip and division hold no power over our experience of being. In our light body which resides consciously in the 5th dimension qualities of paradox where right and “wrong” are no different. Love triumphs over the seeming of difference and division. Functionality of unified dreams and goals overcomes partisan arguments and space of communal agreement is inevitable. When the simplicity of accepting that we can both be right even though we are in total disagreement washes through us we realize the energy it takes to argue is pointless. The dysfunction of taking stands of opposition against elements of our world requires immense debilitating rigidity of energy that takes us out of our liquid moment and distracts us from sparkling enlightened truths available in each interaction that we are blessed with.
Anyway, this is a quick intro to the concept of chakras celebrated by clothing so I am trying to keep it that way even though there is so much to say about the subject. So think about the neck. Today we don’t really wear necklaces with the consciousness of how it celebrates or affects our throat chakra, unless we are into gem vibrations and yet there are long histories of wearing symbols at the neck; crosses, Hamesh, Star of David, Ankh’s, Hand of Fatima. Most religions will provide some symbol that can be worn at the neck. It could be true that this is the obvious place to display our allegiance and yet think of what this does, the resonance of a cross at the throat quite possibly guides the chakra to hold the truth of that lineage, maybe.
There is so much to say and to learn about this chakra – in Egypt very often the Kings, Queens, Priests and Priestesses wore blue at the neck or lapis lazuli because it is that indigo blue. Shiva, the great Hindu God’s neck was stained indigo blue because he swallowed a poison to protect our reality that was stirred out of the cosmic sea. Each of the chakras is associated with color, color has resonance. There are also images, beings and numbers associated with the chakras.
He says:
I am neither the mind, intelligence, ego nor memory; neither am I the ears nor the tongue nor the senses of smell and sight; neither ether nor air, nor fire, nor water, nor earth – I am eternal bliss and awareness – I am Shiva! I am Shiva.
All Seeing Eye
OK, it’s true, I am very undisciplined about this blog but here we finally are now thinking about the next part of the Sacred temple. We are working down from the crown.
The Ajna chakra is the third eye, the all-seeing-eye of consciousness. It is located in between the eyebrows in the center of the forehead. In India this chakra is honored with a tilaka, a small red dot of paste and powder or a glued on gem sometimes for women. Persian princesses wore jewels dangling in front of the third eye, Indian Ascetic monks paint flames at this point on their foreheads. It is a chakra associated with light and seeing, but not just seeing but also comprehending on a deeper, spiritual level. At this chakra major forces of manifestation, energies of life come together before bursting from physical to transcendent realms, it is the gateway of our mundane life and consciousness to our transcendent consciousness within the Sahasrar chakra just above.
Though we do not honor this chakra so much today in our clothing or decorative motives it is well represented in ancient and tribal cultures. In Egypt the kings often wore a crown with a winged serpent on the forehead signifying flight from the gravity of earth to the transcendent spaces of higher consciousness. The third eye in Hinduism is a symbol of enlightenment hence the red dot or sometimes graphic flames. It is the eye of knowledge representing not just seeing but knowing the truth as well.
Treasure Trove
Yesterday was a very fun day, I hit a treasure trove of new materials for new flags. I already found a couple of great pieces for a Bali flag from Foreign Cargo in Kent, Connecticut so I thought I would go in and see if I could pull together the last pieces of the puzzle for that flag so I can finish it. The reason I am so excited about these new finds it because E Pluribus will be exhibited at the Wang Asian Art Center of Stony Brook University on Long Island this fall. I am delighted to have more Asian flags to include in the show. I had red and blue for the Bali flag but no white Ikat fabric. I found a great pink ikat instead; why the white is so hard to find I don’t know but I love the pink so here we go.
Then poking around some more in the fabulous collection of tribal imports that Jeff Kennedy brings back from the far east I discovered some great pieces from Vietnam and Thailand. I bought a pair of pants that Jeff had bought right off a Mien woman in the mountains Thailand. To go with the pants which will represent the stripe field of the flag I bought two headdresses with an assortment of stars already embroidered on them. The other find is cloth made from hemp by Hmong people to which I will add an embroidered panel made for a pillow case as the star field. My query becomes whether to call these flags by the name of the tribal people the materials represent or whether to name by the borders we recognize today: Vietnam, Thailand, Laos. I am inclined to honor the tribal names because these are people who cross borders and yet still hold an allegiance to their cultural roots no matter where they end up. In fact on wikipedia I discovered the American connection to the Mien and the Hmong people included here:
Most Mien Americans arrived in Laos from Southern China during the late 1800s. Reasons for this migration remain controversial, varying from political to socio-economic ventures. Many Mien American elders fought alongside the United States CIA during the “Secret War” of Laos in an effort to block weapon trails to Vietnam. When the American operation pulled out in 1975, hundreds of families were forced to seek refuge in the neighboring country of Thailand. Hundreds died during this heart-breaking journey on foot through the deep jungles of Southeast Asia. In the next few years, thousands settled in Thailand refugee camps awaiting uncertain fate. Through programs from the United Nations, roughly 60,000 were sponsored to western countries such as the United States.
As a people from ancient, isolated farming societies, first Mien American generations struggled through obstacles of language, acculturation and more as they resettled in bustling, modern cities. As younger generations Americanize, they face generational gaps, loss of language, loss of culture, lack of identity and more. Community-based organizations formed among communities in Washington, Oregon and California to provide direct services, catering to resettlement issues.
They celebrated their 31st anniversary in Sacramento, California, on July 7, 2007. Achievement awards were given to Mien American doctors, lawyers, educators, scholars, leaders, and others.
There is a large population of Mien Americans that have settled in the city of Sacramento.
A number of Hmong people fought against the communist-nationalist Pathet Lao during the Secret War in Laos. Hmong people were singled out for retribution when the Pathet Lao took over the Laotian government in 1975, and tens of thousands fled to Thailand seeking political asylum. Thousands of these refugees have resettled in Western countries since the late 1970s, mostly the United States but also Australia, France, French Guiana, and Canada. Others have been returned to Laos under United Nations-sponsored repatriation programs. Around 8,000 Hmong refugees remain in Thailand.