Comment below: **
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > No, NOT the people who hang out on FFL, although > some of us are. :-) > > What I had in mind are "objects of power" -- things > in your house that you might have picked up along the > Way and that hold some spiritual significance for you. > > Whatever they are -- statues or paintings of teachers > or saints or gods and goddesses you revere, thangkas > of Tibetan saints, photos of places of power or actual > objects you collected in those places -- if you're like > me you fell in love with these objects when you first > saw them, and just had to take them home with you and > put them in a place of honor in your house. > > So, just out of curiosity, what cool spiritual objects > have the folks here at Fairfield Life collected in their > travels? > > I'm thinking about this because I saw a show of holy > relics in Barcelona yesterday, and then came home, > looked around, and realized that I had my share of them, > too. Most would qualify as art -- Tibetan tsaklis, a > drum from a Zen temple in Kyoto, etc. -- some are just > rocks or shards of pottery I picked up while visiting > a place of power. > > My favorite, just to show that I really am curious > and that I collect such things myself, is a garment that > hangs on the wall above my bed. It's a Tibetan high lama's > robe, 17th century, from the Drepung monastery. The head > lama of the monastery would have worn it on ceremonial > occasions, during which he would have danced for his > students, simultaneously transmitting an empowerment. > > For me it just rocks. I get high just looking at it, and > imagining the culture cool enough to invent something like > teaching your students via telepathy while dancing for > them. But to other people, it's just a faded brown robe > embroidered with dragons. For them it would have no more > ability to uplift and inspire than a dishrag. > > For you the relic might be a book signed by one of your > spiritual teachers, or a photo taken of you standing with > them, or a statuette of Lakshmi you bought in India in a > place that really uplifted and inspired you. It could be > a musical instrument played by someone cool, or by your- > self in some way cool place. If you've hung onto the > object for years, and it still serves to uplift and > inspire you, that's the kind of thing I'm talking > about -- whatever it might be. > > So, does anyone have any cool old relics they'd love to > rap about? Things that uplift and inspire you consistently, > and are thus of value to you on your spiritual path? > **end Great topic, Turq, I'm interested to hear what people write about. An important object for me along these lines is natural rather than manufactured, but the circumstances of finding it and it's resonance with me and its link to my dearest friend has kept it in a place of honor wherever I've lived for the last 25 years or so. It's a single, six-point antler from a Roosevelt Elk. It's about 15 lbs., approximately 40-inches long, entirely intact but along three of the tines shows the gnaw marks of the small animals who use fallen antlers as a source of calcium in their diet. The marks of their teeth on the tips of the antlers are like the chisel marks in a stone sculpture. Over time they would have reduced the antler to nothing. I had left Fairfield with my family in 1983, after living there for 2 years. We had auctioned off everything we had, bought a trailer and headed out west as gypsies. A few weeks later we found ourselves in the Pacific Northwest on the Olympic peninsula of Washington staying with a friend, an artist (see, tocfetch.com), who had a little house on the cliffs overlooking the Straits of Juan de Fuca. We parked our trailer in the yard and stayed for several months. One day during that period my friend and I were bushwacking in the interior of the Olympics, along a ridgeline not too far above the Elwha River. Somewhere along the way we got separated from one another. As I was walking through the forest by myself I found the antler, all by itself, just pure and pristine. For some reason, I had always wanted to find a full antler; it was just a long-standing desire I had. I was elated and about an hour later, when I joined up again with my friend I brandished it over my head in greeting and in triumph. He had found pieces of antlers in the past, but never a full rack and he couldn't believe that I had stumbled across such a specimen in one of my first outings while he hadn't been as fortunate even in a couple of years of looking. He demanded to know where I found it because he wanted to go back and search for the twin. I told him I had no idea where in the forest it was where I had found it and no telling whether the elk had dropped the mate in the same area anyway. But he wouldn't take no for an answer, and as best I could I led us to a place in the forest that "looked" like the place, but I really had no idea. I sat around for over an hour as he systematically pored over the forest floor, moving farther and farther away in his search until he was gone from view. After a long time I heard whooping and hollering and he came back to where I was with the mate to mine. His antler has been prominent in his studio, wherever he has lived since then, and mine similarly. A good, powerful bond. Marek
