Art By Tali Landsman

     Kaizen, The Art of Continual Improvement. We enjoyed a relaxed and quiet autumn at our house in New Zealand. I enjoyed writing sutras, cooking all sorts of creations in the kitchen, reading and painting in my studio. The garden gave us lots of delicious cucumbers, gooseberries, fiejoas and lemons, some apples, figs and a constant fresh supply of herbs and green chives. We are yet to get some persimmons from the two trees that we planted over five years ago, although they look healthy and vibrant. Whenever I am not feeling inspired in the studio, I simply make some drawings and doodles or free floating sketches, until ideas come to me. While I paint, I listen to lectures and webinars (web seminars), music and inspirational talks. Now we are flying to Japan, to travel around Kyushu island and to study Japanese in Fukuoka, its largest city. As we pack and get ready for the journey, I reflect on the Japanese philosophy of "Kaizen." Kaizen is a Japanese c...

The Small Wonders Of The Natural World... When I was a young kid, I loved reading the books of Gerald Durrell. He wrote three classic tales about his childhood on the Greek island paradise of Corfu.   His mother, who had recently been widowed in England, was struggling to provide for her family. She decided to relocate, with her four children, to the undeveloped island of Corfu, which provided the family with lots of fun and misadventures. The books are: "My Family and Other Animals," "Birds, Beasts and Relatives" and "The Garden of the Gods."  The youngest of the four children, ten-year-old Gerald, discovered his passion for animals on Corfu. I still remember reading his vivid descriptions of the behavior of dung beetles, toads and tortoises, bats and butterflies, scorpions and octopi.  I was barely ten myself, but I remember eagerly searching in the one ...

The Man Who Saved The World By Trusting His Intuition  Some people call it a "gut feeling," but I prefer to call it "trusting your intuition". In-tuition is In-tuning or tuning in, a process of learning to recognize, and then trust your intuition, regardless of contrary data which might point to the opposite conclusion. Tuning within, and listening to the Voice of your Higher Self, is a lifelong process for most of us, as spiritual seekers. It takes time and effort to learn to identify when a voice is coming from your small, limited and self-serving ego-self, and when it is the Voice of your spiritual guides, your Higher Self, or the Voice of God within. One must learn to tune in and ask for guidance about everything. Before making any decision or taking any major path in life, it is most advisable to tune in to our intuition and ask for higher guidance. After asking, we must learn to TRUST the answer of our God within. Your Higher Self is ONE with ev...

Reflections on our Inter-connectivity, and Ski Season in Colorado In my last post, I lamented the rise of nationalism, and discussed communities that try to "protect their own interests" and end up turning a cold shoulder to people in need who live just a few hours away, while alienating members of their own community who do not agree with them. As always, my experience is that the Universe is gracious and loving, and this week I got some invitations to dream a NEW dream. Apparently, other like minded people around the world have also seen that this rise of nationalism is unfriendly, short-sighted and not at all effective in the long run. Since some of these invitations were written with exactly the same words I would have chosen to use, I am quoting them verbatim, just as they were sent to me. I regret not being able to fly to attend these early grassroots meetings, but it is ski season in Colorado and for us, ski season was very short this year. "The...

Warm Holiday Wishes And A Happy New Year Of New Realizations On The Horizon... First of all, allow me to apologize for not having taken the time to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy Hanukkah. All of you have been in my thoughts, but I've been taking a break from writing and have been delightfully immersing myself in the healing and energizing vibrations of my rural home by the Hokianga Harbour, NZ. It is SO nice to be home again. In my studio, I sit and paint colorful butterflies which merge and evolve into a multidimensional divine being, which is the essence and the very core of our true Nature as human beings. The colorful butterflies represent the diverse beauty of individual human beings, all merging into one collective Divinity. I regret that I cannot add an image of the painting to this post, because it is still very much at the beginning stages, and not nearly complete, despite the fact that I have been working on it, on and off, for six weeks now. ...