Sensoria | Desire Mandalas

Jan 1

“If viewed from three-dimensional space, imagining only a thin gold trace or hologram across a black void, this voyage actually painted a tapestry of whirlpools: my feet tracing uncountable clockwise spirals around the stupas and chortens; my hands spinning prayer wheels in each of their four walls; my fingers whirling the beads of the mala; each of these spirals an anchor for prayer, knotting intention into physical space, like a string being tied endlessly across the land, pulled tight each time a circle is completed. A strange and possibly beautiful earthen spiral mandala.”

SYNOPSIS:

I read from a collection of my short essays and evocative stories, published this year in the delightful volume Sensoria by Humans & Nature Press. Rich in description and transportive imagery, I’ll bring you on a journey deep into the lush forests of Northern California, where your senses will flip and knowing suspended; the trekking footrails of the high Himalayas on a pilgrimage around the sacred mountain Manaslu; asking what it means to live in a topography of prayer, the body as a doorway to deep participation, traces of longing, psyche and Eros, and what the significance of this may be in how we approach the potential of these times. A friend playfully called these “phenomenological field notes tackling human cognition, imagination and culture”. Sit back and enjoy.