1Mandala Prints are Launched!

The new 1Mandala Print shown by social entrepreneur Catalina, near Bucharest, Romania.
The following is the first letter sent out to Canadians to announce our new 1Mandala print sales

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Hello dear Canadian 1Mandala friends,

You're getting this because you're Canadian and you're a part-- literally-- of the new 1Mandala.

Many of you have been following and supporting the project for a long time now. And almost all of you here have contributed your portrait! I am proud to say that your portrait, and a thousand others, are now in the newest build of the 1Mandala!

Beautiful, first edition 1Mandala art prints are now available!

Www.1Mandala.org/1prints

We've been working real hard the last few months and have made tons of progress. Alas, it has been on the foundation-- and all underground! This means in the coming weeks we will be unveiling a whole lot-- a new core team, a new intention, a new invitation, a new structure to organize our team, new funding mechanisms, and the new 1Mandala!

Since the 1Mandala began in Canada we're beginning the unveiling here first.

Buying a print means a lot more than getting a pretty picture. Consider it an 1nvestment: An investment in a cutting edge project that literally enables the cooperation of anyone in the planet to fulfill a shared intention. A project that will inspire thousands moments of oneness around the planet then weave them together, using the ancient and sacred art of the mandala. A movement that will be a mighty powerful way to reflect, celebrate and energize the consciousness of our Oneness that is emerging here on Earth. Oneness-- that one radical idea that enables us to truly transcend the conflict, injustice, hunger and separation that has plagued humanity for too long.

Invest and get a piece of the action!

Www.1Mandala.org/en/1prints

I am also proud to share that, going with the one of the goals of the project to outsource high-end-spiritual work to developing countries, Humanity's Team Romania is printing the 1Mandala from Bucharest. Catalina (shown below with her family) shown below receives a third of the profits for her social entrepreneurism.

Be sure you're on our 1Mandala Facebook group to hear as we unveil the latest 1Mandala developments.

Because we are all One,

Russell and the New 1Mandala Team

The New Global Team of the 1Mandala Project:

Russell Maier, Sagada, Earth

Helen Layton, Canada

Dan Millstein, United States of America

Yorlene Vega, Costa Rica

John Edwards, Canada

Catalina Sursilov, Romania

Vero Ciz, Argentina

Jarrett Krentzel, United States of America

Sarah Queblatin, Philippines

A Beautiful Conversation

Last night I had a beautiful skype conversation. As we talked I started a little mandala sketch. It's nothing much. I let it develop free-flow while my mind was focused on the conversation. That's the best way to do art folks! Get your mind out of it and just let it flow! Thanks Sarah!

A New Art

Here's a great quotation that my friend Brenda shared with me. She said it reminded of her of the work I am doing. A very nice and en-couraging compliment. Thanks Brenda.

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From The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing.

"Art during the middle ages was communal, unindividualistic; it came out of a group consciousness. It was without the driving painful individuality of the art of the bourgeouis era. And one day we will leave behind the driving egotism of individual art. We will return to an art which will express not man's self-divisions and separateness from his fellows, but his responsibility for his fellows and his brotherhood."

And here is a second quotation
from an email from Playing for Change—musicians who are having fabulous success right this moment doing the musical equivalent of the 1mandala.

"Behind the storms of daily conflict, crisis and struggle, it is the artist, and the poet, and the musician that continues the quiet work of the centuries, building the bridges of experience between peoples, and reminding us the universality of our feelings, our desires, and despairs, and reminding us that the forces that unite are deeper than those that divide."

Now, imagine 111,111 peace portrait artists working a little more loudly.

Kapia Mandala

This was filmed back in May. I have some down time here, so I am finally getting it up online.

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You can make and be Kapia anywhere.

That's the inspiration these kids share from a small village in the Northern Philippines. With only some clay, some flour/salt playdough and lots of enthusiasm we made this mandala together on the concrete floor. Afterwards, we said a prayer for 'Kapia' (peace) for the village and for the world-- important for a region with simmering tensions. As these kids show, making beautiful things together harmoniously is what Kapia (and fun!) is all about.

Thanks guys.

Being Hungry and Clear

Well, this has been a really challening time. What do you do when things are really low? What do do when you don't have much food, but you have lots of time?

You reflect. You surf the razor edge of depression and you mine the moment for the insights that can take you onwards.

If you've ever fasted you know you get really clear. It's something about the low energy of not eating anything and yet an uncanny focus of ambivalence that let's you cut through the clutter of the ego. The ego wants to tell me how shitty things are and how much I suck... But when you haven't eaten in a while the ego doesn't have the force to keep the clutter up. That would be why people fast, why people go up to mountaintops and monasteries. Clarity.

One thing is becoming clear to me: this individual heroic idea, the idea of one person doing everything on their own and finding enlightenment on their own... It is bull shit. It is also sustained by a pride that separates rather than unites-- oneself and others.

"You can't become yourself by yourself."

Down and Out in Sagada

When I was in university I read a book by George Orwell called Down and Out in Paris and London. Unforgettable it was. It documents Orwells experience as an unemployed vagrant surviving with other homeless poor in Paris and London. Yep, that's the same Orwell who wrote 1984.

I've had an amazing time in Sagada. Lots of mandala making. That was the first few weeks. But shit... I have to be honest. Things have crashed here too for me.

It's been so bad and hard that i havent been able to even write about it. I want to explain and give lots of existential BS to smooth it over... but basically I've gone several days without food, gotten sick, had no money, and lost alot of weight. That last one really sucks because i dont have much weight to loose and it effects the rest of my health.

I have had much time to meditate and reflect. Alot like Orwell I suppose, lying on a mattress in some half way house in London waiting for the day to end and the next to begin.

Am I comparing myself to Orwell? Maybe a little. There is deep consciousness to be gained from moments like these.

Of course, i am not staring aimlessly into space but working hard each day-- pulling together an international team around a planetary intention. What the heck am I doing exactly though if it leads to this, I ask myself? Why don't I do something else?

If you've ever fasted, you know that it gives you alot of clarity. The state cuts through all the clutter, all the ego and you touch and sense the important stuff.

And, the answer is simple. What I am doing is important.

It needs to be done and I am called to do it. And it is going to succeed. If I ask for it to and stand up for it. It is as simple as that.

All the manifestation mechanisms that we are taping into... They are powerful stuff. There is one ingredient missing however, that would be me. I not only have to believe what I am doing is important, but to choose it to be. I have to ask for the things I need to male it happen without shame and with bold confidence.

I am discovering I have alot of pride. Pride that finds it root in deep wounds and insecurities-- as some sort of protection mechanism. But, to continue, I need to humble those walls. I need to ask for what I need, and get over these paralyzing feelings of neediness or better-than-ness.

It's the only way.

Russell

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Russell Maier | Artist

Currently: Sagada, Philippines
Cell: +63.9994558472
1journey Blog: www.russs.net
Project: www.1mandala.org
Skype: russs95

Spontaneous

I am almost forgot to blog about this! The other week, I was invited to lead a workshop with the clergy, deacons and staff of St. Matthews Church. Art workshops aren't too common here and I literally walked into the room with no art supplies-- save one pack of pastels.

Everyone was very eager to learn about this mysterious art of the mandala they had been hearing about from Father Prenzel, who had invited everyone.

As an artist, I have learned there is no-such-thing as not having what you need to do art. The moment is always rich with creative potential! You just have to be creative!

And so we got creative. Of course, they had normal white letter size paper in the back office. On one side I has everyone write two sentences: what is your role in the Church? What is the Church's role in the community?

I had everyone take a sheet. I then had everyone select from the pastel box their favorite combination of colours. Then, I invited them all to fold their paper into the number that most resonated with them. Then, I had them colour in the sections of the paper with their favorite colours. The process became silent and meditative. There is much to absorb in even one single colour.

This done, I had them tear up their papers! It was then with the multicolored pieces that they assembled their mandala. The results where beautiful and full of the symbols, numbers and meanings of both the Igorot indigenous culture and the Church. We spent a good 45 minutes processing each creation.

After a great lunch we came back and using the pieces of each individual mandala, we made the last great big one.

Wow! Even I was in awe at what we manages to create together with pure no-budget-creativity!

But it didn't stop there. I filmed the priests blowing the mandala apart and walking backwards to create this little movie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYzWRFcz-ao&feature=youtube_gdata

Peekaboo!

Light Saber back in Hand

I wrote this four weeks ago. I've just updated my light saber... Er... iPhone to the powerful new operating system. It is a good moment to post this.
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The last few days have been wonderful. For the first time, in a long time I have been completely disconnected. My iPhone died mysteriously as I entered Sagada. For the last two days I haven't been able to SMS, call, internet, or email.

It has been soooo nice.

I need to do this more often! It has not only given me a great breather, but a great appreciation for my iPhone based system that I operate with. As I struggled to use internet cafes and Dada the Monk's laptop, I was struck by how much time I was consuming just to do a simple blog update, or email message or balance transfer.

With this little device that I carry in my pocket, I can do all that and more ten times more efficiently. I use my iPhone as my camera, photolibrary, video camera, voice recorder, map, gps locator, you name it. And if I wish to share a photo, a video, a recording, it is but a few slides and it is off. I am incredibly organized and efficient when it comes to my digital life and communications. All this enables me to travel and be just about anywhere and do my work.

So why not work from a breathtakingly beautiful cabin perched on a hilltop of terraced rice paddies? Exactly.

But what exactly is my work?

Dada is a monk for the Ananda Marga order. He spoke of how the founder of his order, Shrii Shrii Anandamurti, envisioned a time when monks with elevated psychic skills would wander the Earth using their powers to sew seeds of love and peace. The "Jedi" they were to be called. We've all seen Star Wars which is also inspired by this idea.

I also recently saw the movie "Men who stare at goats". The movie tells the story of a man who beleivde in developing "warriors of love and peace". They too were to be called the Jedi.

I beleive these sources are all pointing to a deep and true archetype.

Of course in Star Wars, these Jedi do more fighting with light sabers than peacemaking-- Anything else would have probably decreased box office sales! So what would these Jedi knight really look like?

I can tell you.

First and foremost, they would be deeply in touch with "the force"--the web of consciousness and energy that we are all apart of and contribute too. Guided by their intuition and their dreams they would move fluidly place to place as they were needed. The would have well honed ears for listening and integrating. They would meld into the languages and cultures of each place they visited. Through long periods of study, mentorships, self imposed trials and tribulations, and much meditation, they would have a deep consciousness of themselves, their own culture, their weakness and strengths-- enabling the empathy and openess to Love greatly and brilliantly. There would be little judgement in them, enabling deep connections with everyone that the Force in it's wisdom, guides them to on their path.

They would also possess elevated telepathic abilities again developed through the constant demands of their unending stream of interactions with people from all demographics, ages and cultures. 'Mind reading' -- a deep empathic attunement-- would enable them to connect with strangers easily and to learn languages at speeds most would assume impossible. Dreams would guide them to places and people with glimpses of the future. Astral projection would enable them them to visit and bless people and places they have since parted from. Pure living, eating and breathing would enable clear intuitional choices and guidance by benevolent extra dimensional beings and intelligences-- as well as protection from the not so good ones.

Wherever they go these Jedi would sew potent moments of peace that would reverberate for years of generations to come. Not always would it be a smooth series of care-bear-ish rainbow interactions. On the contrary. Their example, their hearts and their potent chanelling of the force would inspire and challenge deeply, causing stress, emotional reactions and more in those that they meet-- alas the necessary growing pains for discarding antiquated skins of consciousness.

But always, as they move on, ripples of peace are set in motion to echoe on.

There are more of us emerging. As we realize that the only way to bring peace is to be peace-- it is inevitable.

May the oneness be with you.


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- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone