A new paradigm for being a conscious being here and now on beautiful Planet Earth. A cross between "synthesis", "renaissance", "cryogenics" and "benthic"..."a flowering of creativity that's extremely cool and very deep." And the name of a yahoo e-group I started in 2002, now with around 1800 members, mostly friends of mine. Cheers Jeff
Aruna or 'Roony' is a fantastic person I met who works at the Brambuk Cultural Heritage Centre in Halls Gap, Victoria, in the heart of Gariwerd National Park (The Grampians), where I was very blessed to live for several months in 2012-13. In this excellent interview he shares the story of his people, the REAL indigenous people of Australia, as well as his own personal story. With emphasis on the importance of educating not only young people, but the adult population of Australia as a whole, Roony recounts various aspects of the horrific treatment his people have undergone at the hands of the European 'invaders.'
SEE ALSO MY INTERVIEWS WITH TASMANIAN PHOTOGRAPHER RICKY MAYNARD
The New Year has created a very lovely conjunction of two new friends who are from the same distant galaxy. The path of conscious spiritual development and responsibility that Bailey has embarked on is very powerful for her at the individual, as well as a guiding light for the path and inner work that the universe is calling on us ALL to do: get in touch with, realize, become who and what we REALLY are as true human beings during this very sacred moment in time, that is, NOW. This is a posting from Facebook yesterday. Bailey recently completed a 10-day Vipassana meditation course and shared her experience.
A BEAUTIFUL, POWERFUL and RELEVANT SHARING OF INSIGHT FROM A
LOVELY NEW FRIEND. Read this and share Bailey's recent transformative
inner work that has given her a "...feeling of confidence [that] feels unwavering, and now through continued
practice I feel I can truly be an instrument for peace, understanding,
unconditional love and compassion. For only when we TRULY love and accept
ourselves, can we love and accept others..."
What Bailey has
just accomplished and embarked on is a TRUE spiritual path, of
self-awareness, self-responsibility, the right use of creativity and the
'ultimate technology' that we each truly are. Through meditative
practice of controlling her own mind she has begun to attain a level of
self-mastery and awareness that we are in fact 'creating realities of
our own.' Understanding oneself, going within, constantly re-creating
who and what we are is the essence of a true SPIRITUAL path.
What is so powerful and significant about Bailey's experience and
accomplishment is not only that is has helped her at the individual
level, enabling her to be and become an ever-more-awesome expression of
cosmic love and creativity, but also that by doing this in her own life,
by exerting this effort AND having the motivation and insight to SHARE
this with her fellow beings, is quite literally making it both possible
and easier to OTHERS to do the same thing.
"I share my
experiences with human beings in hopes that we can truly look at
ourselves and how our actions and beliefs about ourselves may be
crippling us and therefore the world."
SUCH a powerful message for
humanity at this this critical cross-roads.
Bailey's message is
precisely the same as my own: We are all being called on by the Great
Spirit, by Mother Earth, by all the powers of love, truth and beauty, to
ask more of ourselves, to be and become the highest expressions of the
beautiful gift of life that we have been given. To become aware of and
to honour our unique identity, our unique powers of creativity on a true
spiritual path, to walk in beauty and compassion, to ask not our planet
can do for us but what we can do for our planet.
THANK YOU BAILEY FOR SHARING THIS WITH US. YOU ROCK
BAILEY'S MESSAGE
Please
take the time to read andlisten to the words I write thoughtfully, and
in them we may see, a part of ourselves yearning to be freed.
I
would like to share insights from my experience of a ten day Vipassana
meditation practice that helped to shape the view of the world as I see
it now, an experience that allowed me to see what pain kept out, an
experience that eradicated many self defeating
beliefs, doubts, and fears that dwelled deep below the surface level of
mind. During a ten day vipassana course, one practices mediation for
ten hours a day and totaling a little over 100 hours in the week.
One
practices sitting, breathing, and being with the Self. Sitting through
the discomfort of physical and emotional pain, sitting and breathing
through it,not moving to react or flee from discomfort, anxiety, anger,
sadness, etc...One truly sits and looks deep within themselves...where
the source is... the source of our capacity for unconditional love and
the compassion...these qualities dwell deep within, and to bring about
and live in these qualities one must eradicate self defeating thoughts
and behaviours, desires, cravings and aversions. So what came up for me?
The heavy weight I was carrying of attachment, fear, greed, and sadness.
I saw within myself all of the times I had felt hurt...hurt by the
violence of another's words, hurt by another's actions in which I felt
anger and resentment. Then I realized they did not hurt me, I hurt
myself, all of these actions had to do with the pain I inflicted on the
Self, sorrow and self-pity is self created; may I ask, when we shed
tears for ourselves or another, is it love? Crying because we feel lonely,
because we have been left, because we are no longer powerful,
complaining of our lot or environment, always 'us' in tears? If we see
this we understand that sorrow and Self-pity are Self created by thought
and the outcome of time.“ He left me, now I am lonely, I am aching,
there is no one whom I can look to for comfort or companionship, and it
brings tears to my eyes” Tears of Self-pity. We can see this happening
inside of ourselves only if we look within, watch closely. We can see
that the whole structure of 'me', my tears, my family, my nation, my
belief, my religion-is all inside us, and this separates us, causing
violence, hate, and wars. When we see this with the heart, not the mind
to be intellectualized, we then see the ugliness in it all, the key to
end our own sorrow, and that no one else can hurt us but ourselves.
For
example, a loved one of mine tried to commit suicide, at first I felt
angry “ How could you do this to ME”, then I felt shame and guilt “ Did I
do something wrong” then self-pity “What did I do to deserve seeing
another in misery” then I looked within, my sadness was about me...i
looker deeper and found a profound depth of compassion “Ah, it is not
just about you and your misery, I see now the whole world is suffering
and in misery..this is no longer about me”. I have came to realize all
of the selfishness and greed I had been living, the desires I had,
desires that are still to be mindful of to not let arise. For desire
leads to craving, craving leads to attachment, and attachment leads to
hurt. Whatever we are desiring is not the actual object..not a person or
place to travel, it is the feeling of satisfaction we get when we
attain that desire, and when we dont we feel dissatisfied and hurt. May
I ask you what is your ultimate goal in life? Some may say to help the
world, to raise a family, to be successful..whatever it may be whether
you believe it is selfless or not, is for your own satisfaction...even
the goal to help the world is for the satisfaction one feels from
helping others. We are selfish beings by nature, this is neither wrong
nor right, no condemning or justifying, it just is.
I realized during the
course where my desires stemmed from, from need of acceptance,
attention, and loss. Three years ago I decided to have an abortion, out
of this decision I then created sorrow for myself, I felt empty and
didn't believe I deserved to ever be truly loved or happy again ( might I
add this is all deep within, rooted beliefs, one as myself may think on
the surface level of the mind that all is well, intellectually I did
not believe this about myself, I was ignorant to my own dysfunctional
thinking ) this reflected in the relationships I sabotaged, always
thinking the other did not truly love me or was capable of doing so.
Realizing that these were my own self sabotaging beliefs! And how could
anyone ever be capable of truly loving me if I didn't let them or allow
them in!? Unconditional love and compassion then came flooding in, a true
understanding and unapologetic acceptance for myself, this is security,
this is confidence. Being able to look at oneself without fear and
judgement, being able to sit through the pain, accept the reality for as
it is, not as I wish it to be, accepting me for who I am, not who I
wish to be or who I wish to look like.
This feeling of confidence feels
unwavering, and now through continued practice I feel I can truly be an
instrument for peace, understanding, unconditional love and compassion.
For only when we TRULY love and accept ourselves, can we love and accept
others. Only when we can admit to ourselves and others, not hiding any
part of us for fear of being accepted or not. I share my experiences
with human beings in hopes that we can truly look at ourselves and how
our actions and beliefs about ourselves may be crippling us and
therefore the world. All of the change in the world starts and ends
within. I share to let all know that we are not alone through these
trials, yet will always be alone inside and must make peace within. This is the real me, not some illusion, facade, or false identity. I share ME, pains, sufferings, and experiences fearfully. This Facebook page is not one of superficiality..take a long hard look at me and see you, see we. See what we are and what we can do. This is the only moment and love is always we can do. This is the reality. Flowing straight from the heart for all to wake up and see. MEDITATION IS AN A.R.T
(35 sec @f/3.5, ISO 3200, Nikkor 28-70mm f/3.5 @ 28mm)
RAINBOW FALLS NEAR HILO
ASCENDING MAUNA KEA(south-east view)
OBSERVATORY COMPLEX, MAUNA KEA SUMMIT
RAINBOW EUCALYPTUS
BEACH-SIDE PARK, HAMAKUA COAST
JANNAH'S HUMMINGBIRD ROCK
LAVA BEACH NEAR SEAVIEW
BACK YARD VEGETATION, LEILANI ESTATES
BUSH ON SLOPES OF KILAUEA VOLCANO
TEXTURES OF LAVA, KALAPANA
BEACH AT KALAPANA
SUNRISE PHOTOSYNTHESIS
MORNING FERN
INDIGENOUS OHI'A TREES
(A FLOWERING EVERGREEN SACRED TO PELE) [metrosideros polymorpha]
SIRIUS AND ORION FROM LEILANI ESTATES
(40 sec @f/3.5, ISO 3200, Nikkor 28-70mm @28mm)
CUMULO-NIMBUS THUNDER HEAD
THUNDER BEINGS RETURNING
HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM BIG ISLAND HAWAII!
Here are some photos from my first 6 weeks on the Big Island. Compared to how much there is to see of Hawai'i, not to mention Maui and Kauai (both of whom I plan to visit before I return down under), I've seen very little so far. Adventure is calling, and I will share new images as they are experienced. EXTENDING A HUGE 'MAHALO' AND SENSE OF GRATITUDE TO MOTHER PELE AND ALL THE WONDERFUL PEOPLE WHO ARE MAKING MY VISIT HERE SO LOVELY :)
HERE IS A LINK TO SEE SOME PRETTY MIND-BLOWING PHOTOS OF HAWAI'I (another slide show at bottom has many great photos, too, if you can weed out the food, beverages and superfluous people stuff :)
'Gorgeous Aerial Photos Of Hawaii Taunt The Rest Of Us'
Recorded on the morning of 30 December 2013, near Pahoa, Hawaii, during a lull in the massive thunderstorm that has been passing through for the last 48 hours. For a while the thunder beings continued to speak, but no rain was falling, so I went with my flute out into the back yard here on the lower slopes of Mauna Loa and played for them.
My Odell Borg 'High Spirits' native American F# aromatic cedar flute is named 'Aihe-waniwa Tui-Ruru Kotare-Kaitiaki Magellanic Thunder Song'.
The
Cloud Camera is an experimental high sensitivity camera mounted to the
catwalk of CFHT. The purpose of the camera is to take pictures of clouds
and other weather at night, even on moonless nights. It only operates
from sunset to sunrise. Because of its sensitivity, even very faint things in the sky can
appear very bright. The moon looks a lot like the sun and the planets
appear brighter than we are used to seeing them. Even a crescent moon is
so bright it saturates the image like the sun does to normal cameras.
You can usually tell the difference because when the moon rises you will
still see stars but when the sun rises all the stars disappear. Everything in the sky rises and sets at a different time each day.
The “Guides” tool annotates images and movies with approximations of
constellations (in red), the names of the five brightest stars in the
view (in white), and the planets plus our moon and the sun (in blue).
These positions are recalculated for each image to make sure the
positions are accurate. This camera is facing East towards Hilo and you can usually see the
lights of the city and the belt road through Hamakua along with boats
and barges on the ocean. You can also see inter-island and mainland
flights arriving and departing from Hilo airport. - See more at:
http://www.bigislandvideonews.com/2013/12/30/video-lightning-explodes-over-hilo-hawaii-on-cloudcam/#sthash.C7MJEvHJ.dpuf
MAUNA KEA, Hawaii – An incredible image was captured over night on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope on Mauna Kea. The view is facing Hilo, and it shows last night’s unusual thunderstorm over the east side of the island. At one point, the lightning is seen occurring with such high frequency that is appears as a fixed light on the cloudcam, which takes a picture every 60 seconds and compiles time-lapse movies from those pictures. Thunder and lightning is rare over Hawaii Island, maybe happening only a handful of times each year.
The Cloud Camera is an experimental high sensitivity camera mounted to the catwalk of CFHT. The purpose of the camera is to take pictures of clouds and other weather at night, even on moonless nights. It only operates from sunset to sunrise.
Because of its sensitivity, even very faint things in the sky can appear very bright. The moon looks a lot like the sun and the planets appear brighter than we are used to seeing them. Even a crescent moon is so bright it saturates the image like the sun does to normal cameras. You can usually tell the difference because when the moon rises you will still see stars but when the sun rises all the stars disappear.
Everything in the sky rises and sets at a different time each day. The “Guides” tool annotates images and movies with approximations of constellations (in red), the names of the five brightest stars in the view (in white), and the planets plus our moon and the sun (in blue). These positions are recalculated for each image to make sure the positions are accurate.
This camera is facing East towards Hilo and you can usually see the lights of the city and the belt road through Hamakua along with boats and barges on the ocean. You can also see inter-island and mainland flights arriving and departing from Hilo airport.
There
is another show going on above the clouds atop Mauna Kea, as East
Hawaii is getting drenched below. A coating of fresh snow has returned
to the 13,000 foot summit. - See more at:
http://www.bigislandvideonews.com/2013/12/30/video-lightning-explodes-over-hilo-hawaii-on-cloudcam/#sthash.C7MJEvHJ.dpuf
There is another show going on above the clouds atop Mauna Kea, as East Hawaii is getting drenched below. A coating of fresh snow has returned to the 13,000 foot summit.
The
Cloud Camera is an experimental high sensitivity camera mounted to the
catwalk of CFHT. The purpose of the camera is to take pictures of clouds
and other weather at night, even on moonless nights. It only operates
from sunset to sunrise.
Because of its sensitivity, even very faint things in the sky can
appear very bright. The moon looks a lot like the sun and the planets
appear brighter than we are used to seeing them. Even a crescent moon is
so bright it saturates the image like the sun does to normal cameras.
You can usually tell the difference because when the moon rises you will
still see stars but when the sun rises all the stars disappear.
Everything in the sky rises and sets at a different time each day.
The “Guides” tool annotates images and movies with approximations of
constellations (in red), the names of the five brightest stars in the
view (in white), and the planets plus our moon and the sun (in blue).
These positions are recalculated for each image to make sure the
positions are accurate.
This camera is facing East towards Hilo and you can usually see the
lights of the city and the belt road through Hamakua along with boats
and barges on the ocean. You can also see inter-island and mainland
flights arriving and departing from Hilo airport.
- See more at:
http://www.bigislandvideonews.com/2013/12/30/video-lightning-explodes-over-hilo-hawaii-on-cloudcam/#sthash.C7MJEvHJ.dpuf
MAUNA KEA, Hawaii
– An incredible image was captured over night on
the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope on Mauna Kea. The view is facing
Hilo, and it shows last night’s unusual thunderstorm over the east side
of the island.
At one point, the lightning is seen occurring with such high
frequency that is appears as a fixed light on the cloudcam, which takes a
picture every 60 seconds and compiles time-lapse movies from those
pictures. Thunder and lightning is rare over Hawaii Island, maybe
happening only a handful of times each year.
From the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope:
- See more at:
http://www.bigislandvideonews.com/2013/12/30/video-lightning-explodes-over-hilo-hawaii-on-cloudcam/#sthash.C7MJEvHJ.dpuf
MAUNA KEA, Hawaii
– An incredible image was captured over night on
the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope on Mauna Kea. The view is facing
Hilo, and it shows last night’s unusual thunderstorm over the east side
of the island.
At one point, the lightning is seen occurring with such high
frequency that is appears as a fixed light on the cloudcam, which takes a
picture every 60 seconds and compiles time-lapse movies from those
pictures. Thunder and lightning is rare over Hawaii Island, maybe
happening only a handful of times each year.
From the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope:
- See more at:
http://www.bigislandvideonews.com/2013/12/30/video-lightning-explodes-over-hilo-hawaii-on-cloudcam/#sthash.C7MJEvHJ.dpuf
MAUNA KEA, Hawaii
– An incredible image was captured over night on
the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope on Mauna Kea. The view is facing
Hilo, and it shows last night’s unusual thunderstorm over the east side
of the island.
At one point, the lightning is seen occurring with such high
frequency that is appears as a fixed light on the cloudcam, which takes a
picture every 60 seconds and compiles time-lapse movies from those
pictures. Thunder and lightning is rare over Hawaii Island, maybe
happening only a handful of times each year.
From the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope:
- See more at:
http://www.bigislandvideonews.com/2013/12/30/video-lightning-explodes-over-hilo-hawaii-on-cloudcam/#sthash.C7MJEvHJ.dpuf
MAUNA KEA, Hawaii
– An incredible image was captured over night on
the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope on Mauna Kea. The view is facing
Hilo, and it shows last night’s unusual thunderstorm over the east side
of the island.
At one point, the lightning is seen occurring with such high
frequency that is appears as a fixed light on the cloudcam, which takes a
picture every 60 seconds and compiles time-lapse movies from those
pictures. Thunder and lightning is rare over Hawaii Island, maybe
happening only a handful of times each year.
From the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope:
- See more at:
http://www.bigislandvideonews.com/2013/12/30/video-lightning-explodes-over-hilo-hawaii-on-cloudcam/#sthash.C7MJEvHJ.dpuf
MAUNA KEA, Hawaii
– An incredible image was captured over night on
the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope on Mauna Kea. The view is facing
Hilo, and it shows last night’s unusual thunderstorm over the east side
of the island.
At one point, the lightning is seen occurring with such high
frequency that is appears as a fixed light on the cloudcam, which takes a
picture every 60 seconds and compiles time-lapse movies from those
pictures. Thunder and lightning is rare over Hawaii Island, maybe
happening only a handful of times each year.
From the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope:
- See more at:
http://www.bigislandvideonews.com/2013/12/30/video-lightning-explodes-over-hilo-hawaii-on-cloudcam/#sthash.C7MJEvHJ.dpuf
MAUNA KEA, Hawaii
– An incredible image was captured over night on
the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope on Mauna Kea. The view is facing
Hilo, and it shows last night’s unusual thunderstorm over the east side
of the island.
At one point, the lightning is seen occurring with such high
frequency that is appears as a fixed light on the cloudcam, which takes a
picture every 60 seconds and compiles time-lapse movies from those
pictures. Thunder and lightning is rare over Hawaii Island, maybe
happening only a handful of times each year.
From the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope:
- See more at:
http://www.bigislandvideonews.com/2013/12/30/video-lightning-explodes-over-hilo-hawaii-on-cloudcam/#sthash.C7MJEvHJ.dpuf
Mine on left, one from central Australian artist, 1996
RICKY WITH PHOTO OF ANCIENT PETROGLYPHS ON TASMANIA
HONOURING THE ANCESTORS
THE OLD CHURCH AT WYBALEENA FLINDERS ISLAND
FURNEAUX ISLANDS LANDSCAPES
VANSITTART ISLAND
THE REAL PEOPLE
OF AUSTRALIA
GLADYS
Ricky Maynard is an
internationally-known indigenous Australian photographer and activist.
Originally from northern Tasmania, he and his wife Anita were living on
Flinders Island, Tasmania when we did this interview in February of
2013. Soon thereafter, the Maynards moved to Clark Island where they are
working with indigenous youth who have been in trouble with 'white
civilization.' In these interviews we talk about many things, from what
it's like living on Flinders Island...regarded as 'the worst of the
worst' places in Australia from the perspective of the indigenous
people, from the days of 'terra nullius' to the not so distant past...to
Ricky's numerous international sojourns as artist-in-residence...to
various dimensions of photography and artistic creativity in general.
Ricky is very much a photographer of the 'old school', and in many ways could be thought of as the 'Ansel Adams of Australia.' He works almost exclusively in large format black-and white film photography, and his primary goal as photographer and artist is to tell the real story of his people, the indigenous people of Tasmania, who were subjected to the most brutal treatment of anyone in Australia. A big part of Ricky's story is dispelling the institutionalized myth that the indigenous people of Tasmania are extinct. They are, in fact, very much alive and well, despite what the 'powers that be' have tried to do for the last 200 years!
THANK YOU RICKY AND ANITA...KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK! :)
