Creating causes and conditions

Spring is springing!

I'd like to say that there is a lightness in my step, but that is not really true.  Some business troubles, some emotional issues, some health concerns, the fighting in the Middle East, the tragedies in Japan...

Causes and conditions.  I wonder if it is correct to think of them as opportunities.  In these times, it is very difficult.  I am not sure.  I am just barely scratching the surface of the Lam Rim in my classes and in my life.  Much of it remains a profound mystery to me.

But recently, as I sat in class on the pillow on the floor, the copied text laid out in front of me, and listening to my... (teacher?  is that what I call him?  We have no formal relationship, he is just there when I show up!)

... listening to my teacher...  He was talking about causes and conditions, we are reading Lama Tsongkhapa's commentary and it is so analytical and straightforward - for this reason I enjoy it immensely!  The clarity!  I hadn't really understood that there is a point to being a Buddhist - this is going to sound silly and naive, but it's true.  I had thought it was a viewpoint, but there wasn't necessarily a direction.

But there IS a direction.  There is a GOAL.  There is a TASK at hand.  It is very, very clear.  There is something to DO.

Or, as I like to think, something to DEW...

See, this is where the name "beeanddew" came from.  One day, 3 or so years ago, I was feeling overwhelmed (as I frequently am) and I needed to calm down.  I set the mission for myself, that all I needed was to be and do.  Nothing else was required.  I am enough, as is.  Being springtime, like this time of year, and gazing out the window at the joyous greenery, the buzzing of the insects and the song of the birds, that transformed into "beeanddew".

In any case, I have been searching for a clearer direction for my artistic life, and I was sitting on the pillow, lounging really, my head in my hands, looking up at Don over his little table with the yellow flower prettily sitting there.  We had been talking about causes and conditions as described by Lama Tsongkhapa - Don makes this material so accessible! - and then somehow, someone asked about the Buddha.  I think the question was if one who reaches Buddhahood (Buddhaness? hahaha) is subject to causes and conditions.

I don't remember the answer.  Because listening to Don give the answer, I heard the phrase "creating causes and conditions".  There came an image in my mind to go with this phrase, and Don's words, something about the Buddha is in that place where positive causes and conditions can be constantly generated.  Something like that.

To be honest, I'm not sure this is right, in terms of the Dharma and Tibetan belief system.  But what came to me out of it was an idea of what my artistic life could be like, could accomplish.

I have been working with the ideas of seeds for a long time now.  I am currently working, in class, on a prayer wheel, similar to the Tibetan prayer wheel, but with an emphasis for sowing the seeds of creativity.  Each time the copper wheel is spun, thoughts of support and positive energy towards creativity - my own and everybody's - are released into the air to float around the world.

Committing to that idea, having my artwork pursue these principles, those of working towards creating the causes and conditions for creativity itself, and the Dharma in general - that's the direction that came to me.  Applying myself to furthering the causes and conditions necessary for positivity and creativity through my artwork. Each piece a spinning prayer offered to the world.

That's what I'm going to dew.


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