Thoughts

OLGA DE AMARAL

I had the great good fortune to travel to Paris
to see the Columbian weaver
Olga de Amaral’s – The Texture of Time show at the
Cartier Foundation, there til March 16, 2025. 
The space and the 80 plus weavings were
extraordinary.
Each intricate weaving challenging my perception
of how they were made. 
 
In the show, there’s a description: 
“text” and “textile”
share
the same root, in Latin “Texere”, which means both 
to weave and to tell. 

Each of Olga’s textiles tells a unique story. 
Her connection with nature is felt throughout
the exhibition.  The large slate
boulders on the first floor, communing with
her large woven sculptures, give
way to nature’s textures. 
Color, Technique, Light emanating from inside. 
It was all there.

Connecting explicitly with our meditation practice and studies.
Olga states, 
”The vitality of a rock is its presence.”

How Vedic can you get?

I recall in more than 3/4 of my life, how I would feel
after going to a show like this. Jealousy,
despair, critical of my underachievements.
A persistent drumbeat in my mind that I will
never be good enough. 
“Snap out of it” I would say to myself. “Stop
bullying yourself.”  
Honestly, it wasn’t until I learned this technique of meditation,
to calm my nervous system, to see
what I was doing to myself.
This is what allows us to 
transcend all of these small self
indoctrinations. 
And let go of this discrimination of ourselves and of others. 
Vedic Meditation brilliantly brings the joy and light of life
into focus.  

In this way, I can be fully open to these incredible,
intricate, delightful pieces and be enamored by
Olga’s weaving techniques that could bring 
intrigue, happiness, life and love to 
the craft that I behold.

12.15.2024 Deck Talk available upon request info@fifthfloormeditation.com

Weaving creates a steady state. This particular piece
reminds me of the spine. Vertebra by vertebra. 
Consistent “picks” between each material
holding the structure in place.
All too often, through too much weight strain, 
too much sitting, too much repetitive motion,
we sense damage to the
structural apparatus that holds us upright. 
Or is it muscle memory around the spine? And 
tension we put upon ourselves?
Dr. John Sarno wrote books about the subject of
back pain and how it comes from too much stress.
I’m beginning to realize that there is
something to the books that Sarno wrote
which makes sense. 
Add our awareness of the possibility to
allow ourselves to be in a steady state,
without desires, beyond our self and back pain.

That gives us a path to move forward.

I love this quote from the Bhagavad-Gita:
“When a man completely casts off all desires
that have gone (deep) into the mind… when 
he is satisfied in the Self through the Self alone,
then is he said to be of steady intellect.”

This means then… if we allow ourselves to rest
in the state of blissful Being and realize that this 
steady Self is different from the mind, engaged
with all kinds of desires and activities, then
we can recognize our steady Self is really 
all we need.
And let go of the stresses and to-do’s.
It’s not that we become inactive. 
It’s that we stabilize our body and mind,
with our twice-a-day meditation practice,
to recognize the difference between 
our steady state of Being and an overly fraught,
desire- and object-driven mind. 

Weaving our way into Happiness.

12.08.2024 info@fifthfloormeditation.com

Hoping you all had a peaceful day of giving Thanks!

Being with family always gives me a quick check up 
on how my nervous system has evolved. 
Thinking about the concept of “who am I” coming 
into the lives of my brother’s family and reframing 
it to “what am I” feels a lot more like how I want to feel.
 
Who am I feels so separate, almost
defensive;  what am I, feels more contented.
If I can stay in that field of Being 
the observer of all things going around me. 
Then I can be of service to others and 
be of the most help. 

I stepped into my nephew’s room, who was 
home visiting too, and was thrilled to see
the vastness of
his collection of shoes. @samtick_footwear
Some he made — prototypes
that were brought to market, some
never destined to be on the market.
Others, he simply liked and collected. 

I was struck by the vast personalities of each shoe.
Each with their own unique nervous system. 
It sent me looking for a favorite passage in Alistair Shearer’s book: The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali 
he writes: 
”According to yoga, we suffer because
we live in ignorance. We are ignorant of our real nature.
Our true nature lies beyond the restrictions of
our careworn and humdrum existence,
ecstatically free and untouched by suffering.
Deep within the mind, beyond the faintest
flicker of thought, it is experienced as an
undying and omnipresent vastness. 
It is absolute consciousness.
Animating everything in creation,
this is the source and goal of all life… 
The more developed the nervous system,
the more it will express the qualities of pure
consciousness—intelligence, creativity, and bliss.”

Recognizing this year feels different than any 
other year of visiting, I am left with 
this quote
by T.S. Elliot
”We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring 
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.” 

Giving thanks to all of you that 
are curious and in my life.
Sharing our lives together
growing and expanding
is the absolute best.

12.01.2024 Deck Talk available upon request info@fifthfloormeditation.com

I had rested with this small stainless steel woven
foundation for a bit, until I realized
I was going to run out
of the special metal fiber I had acquired in 
Paris. I was there some ten years ago. The fiber
was awaiting the perfect piece.
So I pulled it all apart this week to start afresh.  
I have saved the metallic thread to 
cast it in another direction for this ground weave.
A 3+1 twill, the strongest weave, that
Levi Strauss has used 
for years in their jean structures.  

Recognizing the concept to stop ignoring
the inevitable, I needed to redirect this project.  
Like life, and some dark laden relationships.  
We must recognize if propositions, friendships,
products, weave structures are failing, then best to 
redirect your energies onward before the Used
by Date gets you.  
Building a strong foundation for 
friendships and for weavings
(at least in my life) never ends.  
It’s the style of relating to find 
fulfillment and fullness that changes and we are 
looking for.  
A better way to relate.  A better use
of the materials at hand.
Couldn’t help but recognize the strength 
of the number 3 + 1 here.
A point for discussion.
As nature teaches us we are always evolving
so, let go of the ever-repeating known and 
take action in a new direction if you are at
a point of no return…

11.24.2024 Deck Talk available upon request info@fifthfloormeditation.com

These pastel portraits were drawn by my grandmother,
Annette Sayler.  
Gingi, as we called her, worked at the local photography gallery,
where she spent her time coloring black and white portraits with pastels. 
She grew up in rural Illinois on a farm and moved to
the city to work and take evening classes
at Illinois Wesleyan.
This was when models would come to sit so artists could practice 
on coloring portraits. 

What a batch of Beings found in the box of my
parents’ home. 
All pastel portraits carefully housed in their own plastic sleeves.
The colors are stunning and pure.
Each Being is a unique blueprint of consciousness
embedded in their own physiology and recognized thru their eyes.
The eyes, the entry point to the brain. 

These days we can barely get a glimpse of peoples’ eyes. 
They are so transfixed on their cell phones.  
Or too anxious and uncomfortable to take the time for a long
healthy conversation.  
Favoring texting.
Expanding one’s awareness can be difficult,
as problems are consciousness states that don’t know how to 
use all of the resources before them. 
Connection with ourselves, with our art, with our
friends is so important.
Settling the nervous system is key to gaining knowledge.
Knowledge has organizing power.
The mind
creates a solution field
if given access to these subtle states of awareness from meditation. 
What can we do to be perceptive and have capabilities
of comprehending what is going on at any 
given time?  Meditate. Come to group practice. And then Take action. 
Create a Solution Field.  
Be aware. Be yourself. Be Bold.
Be the blueprint of what 
you want to be.  
Enjoy this very powerful Full Moon about to come
over the horizon in NYC.
This is the time to build inner strength for the winter. 

11.17.2024 Deck Talk available upon request info@fifthfloormeditation.com