Mindfulness at Home

We like Karen Maezen Miller's "10 Tips for a Mindful Home" in this March issue of Shambhala Sun...

Wake with the sun
There is no purer light than what we see when we open our eyes first thing in the morning.

Sit
Mindfulness without meditation is just a word.

Make your bed
The state of your bed is the state of your head. Enfold your day in dignity.

Empty the hampers
Do the laundry without resentment or commentary and have an intimate encounter with the very fabric of life.

Wash your bowl
Rinse away self-importance and clean up your own mess. If you leave it undone, it will get sticky.

Set a timer
If you're distracted by the weight of what's undone, set a kitchen timer and, like a monk in a monastery, devote yourself wholeheartedly to the task at hand before the bell rings.

Rake the leaves
Rake, weed, or sweep. You'll never finish for good, but you'll learn the point of pointlessness.

Eat when hungry
Align your inexhaustible desires with the one true appetite. 

Let the darkness come
Set a curfew on the internet and TV and discover the natural balance between daylight and darkness, work and rest.

Sleep when tired
Nothing more to it.

—Karen Maezen Miller 

From the March 2010 issue of the Shambhala Sun.

Photo of Bet Giyorgis Church, Lalibela, by Mark Tuschman. 

Prayer beads from everywhere

Before we began this journey, Patrick Adams gave us this Buddhist mala

…which we 've carried all along our way.

The figure is a Thai bhikku – a forest-wanderer.

“Perfect,” I thought even then.

And the mala has felt like a talisman of our whole good journey.

You may remember the Turkish women on their way to Mecca who gave us their Muslim tisbehs -- while Debi gave them her ring-rosary in return.

So we have had a portable home altar with us all this time.

And this is an altar that our friend, Big Sur artist Missy Lofton, made for a workshop at Esalen.

But don’t we find prayer-beads and altars everywhere we go?

Some point towards a wild unknown -- even as they bear our own form

…while others lead us into the center of ourselves

…and into the center of everything.

But we aren’t observers of these cycles.

They move within us, and we move within them, too – like prayer beads our fingers,

…keeping time for us

… and remembering who we are – even when we might have lost track of that ourselves.

Pilgrims leave them at St. Brigid’s Well with prayers and tears for loved ones,

...and we have been leaving our prayers for Jeannine

...at all these holy places, too.

You see a tisbehs with verses from the Qu’ran on a cabby’s windshield on the busy streets of Cairo

…and swinging from a rear-view mirror heading out into vast desert spaces.

A rosary-ring helps a farmer in monastic fields in Tanzania remember,

…and they sway as gracefully with someone’s stride in Nairobi

…as they do in Istanbul.

And sometimes they don’t need to move at all.

So, considering this, we were delighted to visit Kazuri Beads in Nairobi,

…especially since we respect their mission so much.

The clay for Kazuri’s beads comes from around Mt. Kenya, and women shape it

…by hand

…to create forms

…like these.

They make pottery out of the same clay

...and paint the pottery and beads lead-free glazes

…and fire them,

…sometimes as many as three times,

…since some beads are re-painted with layers of glaze

…to produce iridescences like these.

Then the beads are strung

…according to patterns that the women have also devised.

The morning before we went to Kazuri Beads, I was sitting on the edge of the bed, idly spinning Patrick’s mala on my finger. Suddenly, the mala burst apart and beads went flying everywhere.

Since we were at our crossroads then, I couldn’t help wondering: did this mean that our whole journey was bursting apart at this same moment, too?

But the bhikku-wanderer wasn’t worried. He had lost none of his own humor and resolve.

And anyway, the scattered beads spurred Debi to a new idea.

“Hey, let’s make Red Egg prayer-beads,” she said,

…and so the designer many of you know so well

…went right to work.

And we called our prayer-bead board of advisors into session.

This is Debi’s brother Chris, the central of these three Zen priests. He has just been ordained at Sonoma Zen Mountain Center.

And we consulted Patrick Adams, too – and Camaldolese friends Cyprian Consiglio and oblate Yvonne Rose.

…and Lama Rodney Devenish (Lama Karma Kunzang) -- on the right,

...our friend who's the head resident lama at the Tibetan Buddhist hermitage of Kunzang Samten Yangtse on Denman Island in British Columbia.

With their advice, we happily went back to Kazuri Beads

…to search for the right forms and colors,

…and once we had found them, women at Kazuri strung three prototypes for us

…for a Muslim tisbeh, a Buddhist mala, and a Christian rosary.

We know there are many other possibilities from other traditions, and in future years we can create them -- because there are prayer-beads everywhere we go.

A few weeks ago our friend Pam Peck emailed about the eventual ending of this journey...

“You have given me a world I didn’t know existed, a world I never would have experienced except for your eyes and your stories. With you, my senses are on point. I taste, smell, hear din and solitude, revel in the hues and colors, watch sparkling eyes and shy smiles and take people I never would have known, to heart…

We don’t have a photo of Pam right now, but this is her beau Mike Caplin, at their home at upper Rocky Creek in Big Sur, our neighborhood, too.

“Do you know how amazingly and wonderfully you are imprinting us with your vision of a world we never would have known otherwise? Thank you. As glad as I will be for your return, I will be sorry when you are home – my adventure will be over.

“But that’s not true, right? Thee will be more pictures and stories and maybe a dinner or two, and a treasure to hold in our hand from a special place, and…”

And…so these women at Kazuri weren’t making prayer-beads just for us.

They’re making them for you as well.

Kazuri will create a custom Red Egg “guru” bead,

…and we’ll need to find three talismans.

But we’re not worried about that.

Perhaps we’ll find them in Ethiopia

…or in India.

Or back home -- or anywhere else in the world where you, or we, might go.

Since Kazuri will have our prototypes and will custom-make the Red Egg “guru” beads, once we send them the talismans, they’ll send us back the completed malas, tisbehs, and rosaries in the fall.

The proceeds of sales will benefit Kazuri Beads and Red Egg Gallery.

The second side of the gift card will say something like:

“When you purchase art through Red Egg Gallery, you are supporting and participating in a connection among local communities and their traditions all around the world.”

Because, yes, Pam, this journey isn't meant to end. Or at least it's not supposed to end just because two of us come back home.

And these prayer-beads can be one way to remember – and to practice – connections that include us everywhere.

And just to let you know, we’ve been taking your financial suggestions to heart,

…and have even implemented a few.

So now the saddlebags are loaded up, and we’ve hit the road again,

…for Tanzania

…and Ethiopia,

…and, in fact, we’ve just landed in Pondicherry, India.

Patrick’s mala is intact again – not that anything had ever disturbed that bhikku-wanderer,

…and the home altar only grown.

And always…

…the circle of connections has been there ahead of us – before we could even imagine what form it wanted to take next.