Evening Light over Mesopotamia

It has been a long drive over hard rock mountains and through deep valleys, following east along the old silk route, and we have arrived at sundown in the ancient fortress city of Mardin high on the hill. It echoes of Arab sensibilities and long forgotten tales.

We find ourselves watching the sun go down exploring the madresesi. A most beautiful sight... the poet sings a song - in Turkish - about the wonders and beauty of the land. There is applause and, not far away, the gypsy dances, movement and light filling our hearts.

The architect recites Ozymandias by Shelley:

I met a traveller from an antique land

Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,

Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown

And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.

And on the pedestal these words appear:

`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:

Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,

The lone and level sands stretch far away"

... And I look out as the sun sinks over ancient lands, where seeing far back into biblical times there was plenty, beauty where the crops were full and bounteous. Mesopotamia, the land between the Tigress and the Euphrates, stretches out before me... the stories that are told of Persia and its Mysteries, of Babylon and now in modern times the countries of Iraq and Syria.

Several years later wars have been raged. Tanks and guns have pounded the earth. Men have argued and come to blows... The rocks stand the testimony to time and the earth is always solid and strong below us.

Let us all today feel the earth beneath our feet. Reach down and touch being one with all that is around us and knowing that each man is a brother.

All Artworks © Robert Burton. Artworks are available as limited edition silk scarf squares or framed and unframed limited edition prints and original artworks. Please contact The Shaman for more information.

Embrace being and becoming

We awake ... The sun rising in our hearts ... flowing light to soften the soul's tears ... dreams fade as the sound of Aum builds its resonance in the stillness of Being.

As we enter the temple on the outskirts of Jaipur we walk towards the large golden statue of Ganesh ... Jai Jai Ganesh ...

An old friend holds his arms out warmth radiating from his Divine Aura ...

Welcome is the morning ... Embrace Being and Becoming.

All Artworks © Robert Burton. Artworks are available as limited edition silk scarf squares or framed and unframed limited edition prints and original artworks. Please contact The Shaman for more information.

A clear voice

In the garden of the Global Arts Village - just out of reach of the sprawling mass of New Delhi and the spaghetti western confrontation of Ghitorni, before the new metro was ever built or even thought of - there was a haven of peace with peacocks. In the damp mornings of the Indian winter, when the night drops to 4 degrees and winter woollies are advisable...

...from the neighbouring garden a clear voice would be heard... the chanting of mantra and devotion... praising God... in the new day and in the light.

The sound fills my ears with joy and through my third eye Krishna dances calling each one of us to listen to our hearts.

Let us remember this on his birthday

KRISHNA JANAMASHTAMI

Om Krishna

Hari Om

Jai Guru Dev

All Artworks © Robert Burton. Artworks are available as limited edition silk scarf squares or framed and unframed limited edition prints and original artworks. Please contact The Shaman for more information.

The calm seas of meditation and the churning ocean of rebirth.

Extract from Samadhi by Paramhansa Yogananda.

Not an unconscious state

Or mental chloroform without wilful return,
Samadhi but extends my realm of consciousness

Beyond the limits of my mortal frame

To the boundaries of eternity,

Where I, the Cosmic Sea,

Watch the little ego floating in Me.

Not a sparrow, nor a grain of sand, falls

without my sight

All space floats like an iceberg in my mental sea.

I am the Colossal Container of all things made!

By deeper, longer, continuous, thirsty,

guru – given meditation,

Brahma and the ocean

This celestial samadhi is attained.

All the mobile murmurs of atoms are heard;

The dark earth, mountains, seas are molten liquid!

This flowing sea changes into vapors of nebulae!

Aum blows o’er the vapors; they open their veils,

Revealing a sea of shining electrons,

Till, at the last sound of the cosmic drum,

Grosser light vanishes into eternal rays

Of all-pervading Cosmic Joy.

From Joy we come,

For Joy we live,

Meditation in the still waters

In the sacred Joy we melt.

I, the ocean of mind, drink all creation’s waves.

The four veils of solid, liquid, vapor, light,

Lift aright.

Myself, in everything,

Enters the Great Myself.

Gone forever,

The fitful, flickering shadows of a mortal memory.

Spotless is my mental sky,

Below, ahead, and high above.

Eternity and I, one united ray.

I, a tiny bubble of laughter,

Have become the Sea of Mirth Itself.


All Artworks © Robert Burton. Artworks are available as limited edition silk scarf squares or framed and unframed limited edition prints and original artworks. Please contact The Shaman for more information.

Light in my life on the No. 8 bus.

Aum Bhur Bhuvah Swah, Tat Savitur Varenyam

Bhargo Devasya Dhimahi, Dhiyo Yo Nah Prachodayat

ॐ भूर्भुव: स्व: तत्सवितुर्वरेण्यं । भर्गो देवस्य धीमहि, धीयो यो न: प्रचोदयात् ।।

 

All Artworks © Robert Burton. Artworks are available in a large number of formats including framed and unframed limited edition prints and original artworks. Please contact The Shaman for more information.