Here and There

Wow! This island just keeps getting better and better. I have been solo for the last 6 days, no internet, no Katie, just me and the jungle! From the tiny Hawaiian hut to the main road is about a mile and a half, then the hitch-hiking begins! I have been thrown out of my comfort zone, the one where I own a car, know where I am, and can read and of the street signs, into a world of cars passing by, road side Kona coffee and riding with the locals. I have been picked up by a couple in a Benz, a self proclaimed "Dude" in a jeep with no doors, John the helicopter pilot, Jeff the school teacher, and Paddle Boy the fisherman! Talk about a way to meet the island family! With each ride comes the question, "What brings you to the Island?",
"Well.... I am on a quest to find the Western Goddess and her connections to art, consciousness and culture...."
This is usually followed by a pause and a look of, well, confusion. Not confusion of what I said, just of how I came to be here, in Hawai'i, searching for something that is all around.
The Goddess is everywhere here. She seems to show her face in so many ways, coming at me from all angles. On the door of a friend's yurt stands Green Tara, the national Goddess of Tibet, representing the active aspect of compassion. In the land, fruits of the Goddess flowering at every turn. The Jack fruit has seeds as big as my thumb and a mandala in the center so perfect it must be from the Goddess. The inspiration that flows here is what I'm coming to find as the Goddess within me awakening. I have started to build a Hawaiian take on the story of Indra's Net. I have built a make-shift pit-kiln to fire the clay I found on Katie's property. Along with a bunch of beautiful wood and coral from around the coast I will do my best to recreate Indra's Net...

FAR AWAY IN THE HEAVENLY ABODE OF THE GREAT GOD INDRA, THERE IS A WONDERFUL NET WHICH HAS BEEN HUNG BY SOME CUNNING ARTIFICER IN SUCH A MANNER THAT IT STRETCHES OUT INDEFINITELY IN ALL DIRECTIONS. IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE EXTRAVAGANT TASTES OF DEITIES, THE ARTIFICER HAS HUNG A SINGLE GLITTERING JEWEL AT THE NET'S EVERY NODE, AND SINCE THE NET ITSELF IS INFINITE IN DIMENSION, THE JEWELS ARE INFINITE IN NUMBER. THERE HANG THE JEWELS, GLITTERING LIKE STARS OF THE FIRST MAGNITUDE, A WONDERFUL SIGHT TO BEHOLD. IF WE NOW ARBITRARILY SELECT ONE OF THESE JEWELS FOR INSPECTION AND LOOK CLOSELY AT IT, WE WILL DISCOVER THAT IN ITS POLISHED SURFACE THERE ARE REFLECTED ALL THE OTHER JEWELS IN THE NET, INFINITE IN NUMBER. NOT ONLY THAT, BUT EACH OF THE JEWELS REFLECTED IN THIS ONE JEWEL IS ALSO REFLECTING ALL THE OTHER JEWELS, SO THAT THE PROCESS OF REFLECTION IS INFINITE

THE AVATAMSAKA SUTRA
FRANCIS H. COOK: HUA-YEN BUDDHISM : THE JEWEL NET OF INDRA 1977

Hitch-Hiking back to the tiny Hawaiian hut to work on the infinite net of the Goddess, the art she creates and the world that is reflected. Talk to you all soon! Aloha!