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Lucid dreams as a bridge between realities, September 2014 | Chongtul Rinpoche | TEDxFultonStreet

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. By walking the line between the dream world and the waking world, we can train to access more of our own wisdom and our own consciousness. In this discussion, we learn about his mode of spirituality.

Chongtul Rinpoche is a reincarnated Tibetan lama who grew up in India and studied philosophy for over 20 years. He was the director of a Bön monastery in India and now resides in America and gives various courses in Tibetan philosophy. In the US he founded a Bon educational fund that provides education and training for students of Tibetan philosophy around the world as well as for over 400 Tibetan orphan children living in India and Nepal. Bön is the indigenous religion of Tibet.

The Art of ‘Spirit’ come ‘a Divinity’ … At the time of this developing familial and social awareness as a seven year old or younger,  I developed what I now call a ‘beginning consciousness’ in that I was ‘meta observing’ my parents, my neighbourhood and society in an adult-like way. I needed to go inside of myself to find a ‘well of knowing’ (‘mind body’/Buddha nature) so as to understand what I was experiencing and the visceral feelings within my body, as a way of finding meaning for myself, as no-one was willing and/or able to offer understanding -this was the start of my own spiritual journey!

My spiritual journey has evolved from my own experiences of psycho-affective attraction to other boys and men, and social feelings of difference and secrecy -thus, developing an unconditional intention for equanimity, loving kindness and compassion for others through personal experience, compared to the conditional equanimity, loving kindness and compassion of most religions/philosophies/psychologies/spiritualities, to the present day, despite the presence of human rights legislation and a valuing of social justice.

https://sacredrainbowcreations.nz/an-open-letter-to-tenzin-gyatso-his-holiness-the-14th-dalai-lama-and-the-karmapa-ogyen-trinley-dorje-with-a-copy-to-khyentse-norbudzongsar-jamyang-khyentse-rinpoche-pertaining-to-t/https://sacredrainbowcreations.nz/an-open-letter-to-tenzin-gyatso-his-holiness-the-14th-dalai-lama-and-the-karmapa-ogyen-trinley-dorje-with-a-copy-to-khyentse-norbudzongsar-jamyang-khyentse-rinpoche-pertaining-to-t/

My lifelong relationship with my spirituality evolved from honouring the inherent ‘knowing’ of my body, not the social and cultural denial of such.

For several years now I have been developing my ‘artistry’ and bringing to the fore my ‘art’ as an artist and as a ‘living’ performance artist

–‘living’, in the sense that I use unique contexts to either perform in (eg. a public space) and/or adorn in a particular way (eg. a temple, combined with the photographic recording of such.

I am drawn to the juxtaposition of difference/contrast/contradiction between the artist and the context, together with the use of music, waiata and dance (ie. Sufi whirling dervish dancing -as of Rumi, the poet) within ritual woven around a core essence pertaining to ‘rainbow’ culture and gender.

Martin Luther King’s slogan of “I have a dream”, has resonated with me for most of my adult life. I now say: “I have had many dreams, and, they come to fruition! I am living my dreams!”

Afro-American See “An Unsung Hero of the Human Rights Movement” -Bayard Rustin https://www.ted.com/talks/christina_greer_an_unsung_hero_of_the_civil_rights_movement

See “Notes of a Native Son In the World According to James Baldwin” https://www.ted.com/talks/christina_greer_notes_of_a_native_son_the_world_according_to_james_baldwin

See “The Symbols of Systemic Racism and How to Take Away Their Power” https://www.ted.com/talks/paul_rucker_the_symbols_of_systemic_racism_and_how_to_take_away_their_power#t-4110

See ‘Magical Bones’ aka Henry Box Brown, Magician https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqwVWp4dWxg

See “The Hidden Life of Rosa Parks https://www.ted.com/talks/riche_d_richardson_the_hidden_life_of_rosa_parks

See “What It Takes to be Racially Literate” https://www.ted.com/talks/priya_vulchi_and_winona_guo_what_it_takes_to_be_racially_literate

See Valerie Brown, ARISE https://mailchi.mp/ee267297bda3/arise-newsletter-june1?e=17423a1c46

Transgender See the following Ted Talk Links
https://www.ted.com/talks/jackson_bird_how_to_talk_and_listen_to_transgender_people

Transgender: a mother’s story | Susie Green
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZiVPh12RQY&feature=emb_title

Unconditional love — journey with our transgender child | Christy Hegarty
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFL8yEql-GU&feature=emb_title

Time to Blossom: Accepting My Transgender Daughter | Elizabeth August
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LTaBGDrw4M&feature=emb_title

What Is It Like to be a Transgender Dad | Ib Hannahs
https://www.ted.com/talks/lb_hannahs_what_it_s_like_to_be_a_transgender_dad?language=en

What Doctors Should Know About Gender Identity | Kristie Overstreet
https://www.ted.com/talks/kristie_overstreet_phd_why_are_many_doctors_scared_of_transgender_patients

As early as about seven years of age, ‘dreaming’, in a reflective sense, has been my main modality for bringing a particular idea into life.

I have been visiting Asia since 2006. For the last five years I have been returning to Hoi An, Viet Nam, again and again, and at dusk when the lanterns come out I feel a sense of enchantment and magic -Thomas Moore wrote a book called “the Re-Enchantment In Everyday Life”.

As I get older and become more considering of my own death and dying, I am inherently drawn to a greater sense of ‘the spirit’ (the divine) in its broadest form.

I have had the opportunity to co-create with a local renowned photographer, Kiet Thai Tuan, and benefit from the goodwill of the people of Hoi An.

Michael Ocean

Commentary – I want ‘the perceiver’ of my art to have access(i)ability to aspects of who I am and my work. The art is sometimes implicitly referenced to Thich Nhat Hanh (Viet Namese Zen Mahayana Buddhist master) in terms of the number “three” -the practice of ‘the three breaths’ -pausing, ‘stopping’ and lingering a little longer with our breathing; this is a given constant (a friend for life!) up until the moment of our own death and dying!

The lotus flower is also an important metaphor for nondiscrimination and nondualistic thinking -the roots in the mud are inseparable from the beauty of the lotus flower!

In response to Max Gimblett’s quatrefoil, I am pursuing my own icon as a structural form from which my art will develop -I started with a ‘tri-foil‘ of three hearts and that is now progressing towards two (to make a heart) to three (to make a heart sitting on the base of a third oval) oval shapes in that they are less ‘fixed’ and have the potential for greater abstraction, mirage and movement.

Where possible there is a use of a “kite” (Maori for basket) and/or ‘the Zen’ of bamboo for the hanging of the works, and for contributing to movement, compared with the static display of art, generally.

There is usually an implicit reference to ‘the lesser known/unknown‘ -beyond conventional daily life as facilitated by ‘lucid dreaming’.

I look at feathers as an intermediary between daily life as we know it, and also as a form that is connected to flight, and towards less talked about ‘other realms’.

The use of especially gold and silver could be considered as colours that are representative of the ‘lesser known realms’ through the use of silver and gold thread, gold leaf, metallic pens and paint for reasons of luminosity etc.

Let us also consider the role of fragrance in art, which will eventually lead on into art as being of a multi modality -think of degustation in terms of wine as a parallel concept approach!

My use of the artistic name,’Long White Cloud DownUnder/Michael Ocean, is to invoke the ‘lesser known realms’ with a slight ‘rainbow’ smirk, but with personal authenticity none the less, in honouring the relative realm of everyday life, and  an ultimate realm of a divinity.

As a gay man, ‘rainbow culture‘ is a given, and, in so doing, I invite you to consider how race, gender, affective/psycho-sexual orientation, (dis)ability, class/caste, age, migrancy, climate change and/or philosophy/psychology/religion/spirituality have affected the pre-linguistic consciousness of a baby, child and adolescent within you and your life, and continue to affect our lives and the health and wellbeing of our society, culture and the world, in terms of power and control, despite our living in a so-called liberal country! In this instance, especially, consider the repercussions for all LGBITQueer+ babies, children, adolescents, adults and seniors.

As a Sufi whirling dervish dancer, per Rumi, the poet, I am already anticipating the day when I will open my first exhibition and step out of a basin of ink (stirred by Max Gimblett!) and create patterns with my feet -the ‘original (no)mind’ of my feet may replace Max’s hand-mind-mop! ‘Lucid dreaming’ gone mad, they may say, I think not!

‘Lucid dreaming’ became my well of greater knowing as a seven year old, and is still the primary inner source for the creating of my art.

Arohanui! Michael Ocean