Imabari, dinner party, and a new painting

Yesterday Jackie and I went to Imabari to visit our friend Trisha who fractured her knee. She is staying with a family while she recovers. The family is a young couple, very cool, with their daughter, and the husband’s mother, who lives upstairs (she is in front of the TV). Then, at night I had a little dinner party which was so good, and then this morning after zazen I worked a little bit more on my new painting (See finished version above). My mom wanted me to explain this painting a little bit so here we go (but keep in mind that this explanation is not in any way the painting. If we could put paintings into words there wouldnt be any need for the image. Symbols and colors and lines communicate to a level of the mind that is differnt than that of words and intelect. So, with that said, the symbol at the top is a vajra, a mystical thunderbolt or diamond. It represents a wisdom that is crystal clear and cuts through all delusion, or a wisdom that illuminates reality instantly like a thunderbolt in the night. The crystal ball represents the nature of mind (see "note" for more details). The central figure is modeled after Jizo san, a very, very popular deity found all over Japan, most commonly known as the protector of travelers and dead children (More about Jizo later). My mom says it looks like a penis. and she is right. In his hands he is cradling another crystal ball as a baby or as a gift. The warm colors are supposed to be the active heat and fire of passions (anger, suffering, movement, flames, illusions, excitement,) and the cooler greens represent stillness, freshness, cooling peace and heavenly softness . We feel draw to both. I plan on making the hub of the vajra a light blue. I love the saying that goes something like this: "Red, Green, Blue... those are colors. Yellow is a mystical experience shared by everyone."
Note: I began using crystal balls in my art when my root teacher Khamtrul Rinpoche, during the traditional "pointing out instructions," (which is when a spiritual teacher talks you through your own present experience (in a very investigative way), eventually pointing out exactly that aspect of your awareness that is already one with eternity), after talking me through it, simply held up a crystal ball and said, "See how the nature of this crystal ball is already clear?" He then put the glass ball in front of his red robe and said, "See how the crystal ball turned red? In the same way, the mind becomes whatever it is on, and simultaneously remains clear and pure." That teaching, that moment was very meaningful for me. He later added that this “clear nature of mind”, which never comes and never goes, is instead an already completely present condition or trait of everyone's mind. It was also never born, and thus, will never die. It is Eternity itself, the nature of the present Now, existing outside (or above) time. And therefore, it is this same "clear light mind" that will alone remain after the moment of death, after every memory and object and color existing within it dissolves and fades away. Discovering this clear nature of your mind is very liberating to say the least. And it is very easy. Just look!. (See "pointing out instructions" posted Thursday, May 19th, for more information about this stuff).