Meditation in Action
It does not get any easier as one gets further down the road of life especially when it comes to having the energy to perform something physical or strenuous. The whole body seems to rebel cursing and swearing in the forms of aches and pains from the moment I get out of bed till I am fully aligned through my breathing exercises and stretches.It helps to get all those blogged areas free from energy blockage and i often feel relieved from all the minor aches and pains due to poor condition of sleeping on old mattress with spring about to pierce your back at any given moment in your sleep. The past few days of sleeping irregularly on living room floors and sofa cushions has caught up with me and my back is crying out murder.
The mind too is busy attaching itself to each and every episode that has been experienced while navigating the courses of events of the last  few days in KL. It is the nature of the mind to contemplate every event in the effort to make sense out of all that has transpired, adding and subtracting, judging and formulating what should or could have been or what aught to be. It takes some time to detach from all these events and episodes such that they are dispersed into the non essentials of life. To attain to a clear head again will tkae time and more sitting to strengthen the act of 'Bare Attention'. Hence my one refuge is to continue my work on the 100 feet long painting as you see above (pic).
 The well being of Body and Mind is crucial for a healthy development Clear Intuition and not to mention the act of Ccreativity especially for an artist. Long hours of sitting ang sketching or painting demands for good discipline in being able to remain in the Here and Now. Mind and body has to be synchronized to work together without external or inner pollutions and this can be attained only through Right Mindfulness. Hence to attain to Righ Mindfulness the mind and body has to be quiet as though they are not even there and the action itself of painting or wwriting comes into being. For most people it is most difficult to start on a project, to get both body and mind to become subservient to what needed to be done, the preparation, the setting up, the establishing of the time and space for the action to happen without any interruption or distraction. Herein the reflection upon the teachings of Raja Yoga or King of Yoga practice comes into mind that:
"I am the master of my thoughts and consciousness,
I am the Master of my Body Speach and Mind,
I am the master of my circumstance and environment...and so forth.
If for no other reasons these are reminders for me to bring my body and mind back into the path of Practice. If I am not the master of my thoughts and consciousness, who is? Who dictates what or how I think or act, it may have used to be my teachers and those who knew me better but at my age i need to learn to step over and beyond these crutches. I have to be the master and not the other way round. To be the master of my own destiny i have to learn be to master of every aspect of who I am on a daily, moment to moment basis I have to become fully aware of my ups and downs, my moods and agitations, my external corrupted influences that is dragging my mind into more and more accumulations of negative impulses and consciousness, I will have to maintain a healthy distance from being sucked into the votes of the mundane life and return to my Right Path. it is no big thing but simply waking up from getting too wrapped up in too much thinking.
Real great works are done effortlessly or so it seems as is evident in the Chinese and JJapanese Cculture and the Arts, their works seem to manifest from within spontaneously like it was there all the time and only needed the right time and circumstances to manifest into a work of art. They capture the essence of what is rather than the exact form as it is seen by the untrained eyes. A few simple basic line placed in the right places with the right tones and tensions will become a majestic mountainous scene, with rivers and shrines. A scene so majestic that an average mind on contemplating the work will find itself walking through the thick forest, up the slopes and into the ravines, ride the wooded boats and enter the ancient shrine to drink tea with the master far off into the mountain side; 'clouds hidden whereabouts unknown.'

  

                       A Landscape by Miyamoto MusashiMiyamoto Musashi (宮本 武蔵?, c. 1584 – June 13, 1645), also known as Shinmen Takezō, Miyamoto Bennosuke or, by his Buddhist name, Niten Dōraku,[1] was a Japanese swordsman and rōnin. Musashi, as he was often simply known, became renowned through stories of his excellent swordsmanship in numerous duels, even from a very young age. He was the founder of the Hyōhō Niten Ichi-ryū or Niten-ryū style of swordsmanship and the author of The Book of Five Rings (五輪の書, Go Rin No Sho?), a book on strategy, tactics, and philosophy that is still studied today.

Better known for his Art of Swordsmanship, Musashi was one of the most sensitive and dexterous in the art of Sumi-e in the history of Japanese Art and Culture; He had understood the practice of Right Minfulnessand and Detachment. The transitory nature of existence is depicted in every aspect ofhis ventures albeit in battle or art. He found the truth in good balance between life and death, Light and dark and his contribution to the Japanese Art and Cultural History is on par with Katsushika Hokusai or Utamaro if not more so for he put his practice to the test at the edge of the Samurai blade.