A new book on BABAJI by SONDRA RAY with MARKUS RAY
HI. We are about to launch a new book. Here is the cover. The book contains all of SONDRA RAY’s wild stories of all her person to person meetings with her Master, Sri Sri 1008 Haidakhan Whale Baba, also simply known as BABAJI. It also contains most of my paintings I have done over the past 8 years of BABAJI, and poems to Him I wrote in Herakhan and around the world. Below the cover is an excerpt from my section of Poems to a Maha Avatar. Enjoy this “sneek peek.” MARKUS RAY
Interlude No. 3
Sondra and I came to Catalina Island three days ago to focus on this writing of this book. The setting in which a writer does his work is very important. For me, the setting that surrounds me is the raw material for inspiration. I get myself as much into a state of silence that I possibly can and just listen to the sound of my own response to what I sense around me in these settings. One could say that beauty is a necessary ingredient. But beauty can be found in virtually anything, even in a pile of trash. The proper charge of a creative mind is one of neutrality in an acute state of attention. I give credit to the wise who say that inspiration can only happen when the mind has been brought to zero, to empty. Having been a visual artist as well for the past forty years has taught me that the best paintings are the ones that are not preconceived, but rather, the ones that unfold as I go and are the results of exploration in the moment. The meaning of true creativity is one free of the past. Of course, with writing of poetry, I decide to use the English language that I have been taught. But the manner in which I use it to describe the unique happenings in my mind and my world are as new and fresh as a snowflake or a maple leaf, though similar in structure to its myriad of siblings, never to be repeated in the past, present, or future ever again. No two thumbprints are alike, but everyone has them. This is the state of mind in which I place myself before commencing each work. Even now in this interlude, I invoke this presence of emptiness, of stillness, to bring forth what I need to communicate. I am happy to be free of “trying” and “managing.” There are enough managers in the world. A poet does not manage; he listens. And in that silent listening to the sound of his thoughts, his own impressions, the greatest force of nature interfaces with his awareness, and something powerful comes through him, the very spark of creation that caused the big bang in the first place. On Catalina, my impressions would be different—but also the same. The maple leaf is a palm tree, or the snowflake is a wave of saltwater, but the same force of Babaji Who permeates all things lovingly comes forth into the directions and power of my words. I do not take credit for them. Yes, I am the one still enough to hear them and write them down, but without this divine connection to the stillness and silence within, I would be amiss in the projections of my ego, trying to write something profound that was not my own. The gifts I inherited from my grandmother, Grace Balo, and my father, Michael Sullivan, gave me some kind of love for words. Many teachers came together in this work, came together inside of me for these poems to come forth. I cannot mention them all here. I have, no doubt, a debt to pay to the mentors that everyone of true intelligence has had in their life who opened their eyes to a different and new way of seeing. I refer to them simply as the wise.* Anyone who has deep interest in getting to the truth of the big questions “Why are we here?” “What is the meaning of my life?” “Is it possible to be free of sorrow?” find that they need the guidance of someone wise outside their conditioned system to liberate them from the grooves of their own limited thinking. These beings who have gone ahead of us are truly out there for our benefit; why not use them? This book on Babaji puts you, our reader, in touch with a higher reality that you can access directly. Babaji, a maha avatar, resides far beyond the boundaries of our thinking, yet is more accessible to you and me than the inhale and exhale of our own breath. Babaji is the real part of your mind that knows who you are. We are all children of a loving Creator. This is a fact, whether you are a poet or a political head of state, or you are an enemy in the eyes of someone who has felt wronged. A maha avatar is not confined to any one religion; in fact, He is beyond religion. It doesn’t matter what your religion may be. He will insist on you knowing yourself. And the home of your self is zero, that stillness and silence within that permeates everything.
* I give credit to my teachers Ihaleakala Hew Len, PhD, and Tara Singh.
MARKUS RAY'S "ART LOOK" 