Some of you may have noticed that this site has been dormant for a long time. I have been 'away' on other business and asleep to East West Wisdoms until this morning. Today, a joyous, wisdom-bearing sprite awoke me with her words and pictures. Some might call this sprite my youngest daughter; some a passionate photographer on a spiritual journey of sharing and discovery; others would name her as inspiration and guide. I shall ask her where you, too, can find her...You may like to hear some of her contemplations and see some of her pictures. But first I must get her permission to link with this site.

In the meantime, here she is being welcomed by warm hearts in Thailand:

A fitting example of East meeting West!

A reminder of our common humanity, love and connection...

And so, why now to start speaking again? Today I am filled with the joyful sense of connection: inter-connection or interbeingness of all humanity, all beings and all phenomena. We live in a dream world filled with ever-changing appearances that we mistakingly believe are solid and real. Many of us believe that we - and all things - are separate and independent.

But all that we see, touch, smell, taste, hear and think are but the creations of our conditioned feelings, perceptions and mental formations - our thought chatter. All is in a constant state of flux and all is dependent on prior causes and conditions. Mistakenly, we have been conditioned to freeze into a presumed reality that which our senses pick up. We see what we expect to see and each of us see differently.

We think we know what will make us happy but our minds are so cluttered with numerous contradictory learnings that prompt us to attach and hang on to a confused jumble of helpful and unhelpful perceptions and feelings, based on the past or imagined future. Discriminating between the positive and destructive requires wisdom. And wisdom can only flourish in a spacious, clear and calm mind attentive to what is arising right now.

At Peace With The Light

In our moment-to-moment travel through life, how much spaciousness is there to allow us to be fully present to what is arising? Or do we see what we expect to see? What we have been taught by previous experience and learned beliefs to see? My daughter is my teacher. She can relax in the spaciousness of the present moment and so there are no barriers to the spirit of interconnection, joy and love. Being present, her photographs capture the mind states creating the form.

Enough for now from me. But I cannot resist sharing how my joyous sprite describes the spirit of her most recent venture into the unknowns of a new and distant land:

"After rising from one deep and vivid dream reality I awoke into another...to find myself in Thailand, my ears filled with the sounds of roosters and cicadas..my nostrils filled with the sweet scent of frangipani and bamboo homes..my eyes filled with scenes of forested mountains behind me and an expanse of lakes and little wooden paths and huts ahead of me..my mouth filled with liquid from the coconut I cracked open myself grown a few metres up the road and my heart filled with fresh life, hope, joy, mystery, adventure and of course...love ❤ resting in the ever changing winds of the world...I am home."

And this is one of the many pictures of shared fun that she captured in her first days of this unfolding dream:

With warm wishes,

Jacqui