My brother's host
It looks like I will have to interrupt my monktour for a few months… Will be in LA for a while thanks to the Center for Conscious Creativity and a whole load of other things… Too much going on here. Such a buzzing place LALAland is at the moment… Several of my friends have some beautiful projects going on as well, and I am excited about being here and supporting them. We will see what comes forth in the next weeks.
The last two have definitely been quite amazing. My brother was here to visit for two weeks. Am working with him on Six Sigma for Your Life, a course I have been developing, and which he is investigating in the context of his PhD on stress management. It was great to spend some quality time with him here in LA. Wish the weather had been better as I had hoped my brother could get some sunshine while he is out here, but contrary to common belief, it does rain in LA sometimes 
Had a most lovely time full of adventures while he was here, though. Had a little impromptu event at the little house, made soup, and invited some of my lovely musician friends. Chris and Thomas came by without instruments (think they wanted to chill for once), but my friend who has a one-man band called The Lonliest Monk, brought an array of curious instruments with him, my friend Frankie “Fingers” sat down on the piano, and everyone was jamming before you knew it Quite lovely. The picture on the bottom is my brother after the party – not very charming picture as he was making a funny end-of-the-party face Light the light over his ajna, though…
Met two lovely gentleman that evening who are in the midst of shooting a documentary on addiction (they came to my place that night via Beverly Hills and Skid Row). Made me think about addiction quite a bit. Think that initially every act or thought is creative, conscious and willful. As we keep repeating it, it can turn into a habit without mindfulness. At some point, all the will is with the habit – and at this point, it has turned into addiction. From there, we can become conscious of it, turn it back into a habit as we reclaim our will over it, and finally, each act/thought becomes willfull again, without projection, conscious and creative. Hmm… will work on that one Am currently playing around with some of my habits, primarily smoking. Has been quite interesting and a good exercise in will. The mind is such an amazing thing…
Life is such a different experience when we exercise our will. Most of the time, we spend in slumber states, pulled by projections and imaginary rules we assumed often without questioning. If we actually pull all that energy back, take time to know and exercise our will, life suddenly becomes a whole new game of conscious creativity. Will write plenty more as I am putting together a book on the topic. So watch out
Much more to say, but no time right now…
Poetry, Soup, Poetry
Ahhhh, poetry… Words have such amazing power. I started writing poetry when I was 8 and stopped when I was 10 because I started to read other people’s poetry and decided that I had nothing to add. Kids
Really loved reading poetry for many years, but then became continuously disillusioned with it as much of what was being written was more intellectual masturbation than anything that – as Goethe suggested – could give us glimpses of the numinous in nature and in ourselves…
Lately, thanks to my friend Stosh, I have rediscovered my love for it, and have even written some here or there… Stosh moved here from Chicago, where I met him, and where poetry is read like firetrucks. Although there are some really great venues in LA that have a whole variety of poetry to offer (my favorite so far is New Earth’s open mic on Mondays), Stosh and I decided to throw our own last year. I made a vat of soup, and he invited a bunch of poets. We had several of those and tons of fun last year and had all kinds of additional entertainment, from handstand acrobatics to meditations with sound bowls by my friend Lahra, didgeridoos, music by my friend Mark from Cool Dry Place, as well as by my friends Chris and Thomas… Quite a trip… When I left on mine I was afraid there would be no more PoetrySoup after my departure to Switzerland. Fortunately, Stosh and my new delightful friend Carlye picked up the ball and ran with it.
Coming back to LA this month I was greeted with an invitation to a PoetrySoup at Carlye’s place. She has a most lovely place perfect for gatherings of that kind, her and her husband are amazing and gracious hosts, and they even have a trampolin in their backyard, which was quite a success at the party as you might imagine… Altogether, it was a most lovely PoetrySoup event. There was tons of inspiring poetry, laughter and mindful conversation, and I got to make soup (Yam and Carrot with Orange/Pineapple – very Californian). Have a pile of pictures to sift through, but the above was funny, as it is a typical kitchen party scene, only in this case with a bunch of intent listeners
Look forward to the next one already. Looks like I might be in LA for a while after all. Too much going on here… So much for a three month Sabbatical Maybe next time?
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