Daniel Chiriac: Creating A Lifetime Of Art By Painting Beauty

Johnny Lingo opens with a boy running across an unnamed Polynesian island to a Hawaii Five-O type soundtrack. He arrives at the village and announces to the kindly white shopkeeper who owns the island's only store, "He comes, he comes! Johnny Lingo! Johnny Lingo!" The village explodes with excitement.

golden teacher I am pulled to breakfast not from hunger or appetite but because of the bountiful variety present to choose from. Something I am not use to. I'm a lunch guy not a breakfast guy. After a sumptuous breakfast of fruit and home baked bread I hit the baths. The view down to the baths is amazing.

Greg is a soul in conflict: he wants to do right, but the budding drive for status and girls seem to tempt him unduly. He wants to be a winner in the popularity race (where he thinks he's ranked 52nd or 53rd), but there is always an obstacle that trips him up. Readers cheer Greg on because he is vulnerable and they identify with his struggles, even though he is oblivious to his gaping weaknesses.

"Eight cows?" Mr. Shopkeeper gasped in amazement. Eight was unprecedented. "It must be some kind of mistake." However, true to his word, Johnny delivered the cows himself to seal the deal. Before the wedding, Johnny came to the shop to order a wedding present--a golden, hand-held mirror.

Men are not saints so who can avoid mistakes? It is most important to correct the wrongs. He who knows his sins and still does not repent cannot return to Heaven. If one accumulates merits first but sin later, all merits will not be counted. If one sins first but accumulates merits later, merits can offset sins. If one corrects previous wrongs and then accumulates merits, all his merits will be recorded. If one has a lot of sins and few merits, he will be cast into the great catastrophe. Merits in Heaven are counted in this way so he who repents and corrects wrongs before accumulating merits is a true pillar of Heaven.

growkit golden teacher Never Mistake the Egg as the Gift. We have become a society that values things more than people. It is often joked, tongue-in-cheek that you are only as good as your last accomplishment. That is the ultimate lie. We are not a collection of the things that we do, the sale that we make, or the goal that is conquered. You are the gift. You are the Golden Goose. The egg is just the last thing you created.

I walked into the event a lot late. In the 1960's it would be called "a happening." The name of the event was "Children, Our Ultimate Investment." It was a celebration of Aldous Huxley's birth. Ram Dass was on stage with (Alan Watt's cohort) Al Huang (of the Living Tao foundation). As Dass did his thing about Shiva and existence and bliss Al Huang danced spontaneously and these professional big kids were having a really good time as they carried Laura Huxley around the packed room and danced with her in their arms.

golden teacher Still other workshops may have breathing or breath work or sacral cranial work or acupressure, shiatsu or, well the list is infinite. They even show movies. And there are places where one can borrow consciousness raising sound and video tapes. There is a bookshop in the main office filled with tapes and books and things one might need. Some come for room and board but most are here for workshops and seminars.

Ashley Montague says Anthropology is the Science of man embracing woman (he was joking I think). We laughed at his statement of "certainty without proof rather than proof without certainty." He spoke of evolution by child-like traits rather than childishness. He said: "Psychosclerosis is the hardening of the mind." Montague spoke of investigation, testing and checking. He characterized psychoanalysis as the study of the id by the odd. Once again the audience was in an uproar. He said, "We have a dysfunctional educational system but cheer up for the worst is yet to be." I think he got a few of his lines from Robin Williams. Or maybe vice versa.

golden teacher growkit Like any experienced Jewish son, I quickly disregarded my mother's concern as paranoia. This is a woman who would triple-lock her bedroom door living in a convent (probably to ward off any lesbian nuns). When I became a lawyer, she suggested I change my last name and pretend to be gentile, because "law firms might not like the Jews." I informed her that in fact many of the most prominent law firms had Jewish names, but my mother wrote that off to an "attempt to be politically correct." According to her, those Jews were probably just figureheads. Apparently the Pope is the real mastermind behind the American legal system.

growkit golden teacher The emphasis on intent is important in tai chi because the use of strength is very different than other martial arts. Tai chi uses slow, soft force to deflect or divert an opponent's energy instead of meeting force with force. This allows time for your mind to contemplate the movement and imagine the movement in your mind before your muscles actually move.