Body and Soul in Italy
Catholicism has a rich tradition of integrating sensory experience with religious worship. This Italian ad campaign, however, looks to a more Eastern tradition for its holistic imagery.
June 27, 2008
May 31, 2008
Karma Kids and the World Science Festival
I'd planned to be out of town at a conference all weekend, so I didn't make any arrangements to attend NYC's World Science Festival, which is being ably chronicled over at Science Fair. Alas, the events I'd wanted to see are sold out, and in my infinite wisdom the very time I'd chosen to drop by the Street Fair at Washington Square Park was during the thunderstorm. Still, it was cool to see the little kids with their galactic face paint--as well as the Park's atheist protestor who, given the immediate context, seemed a bit redundant.
On the way to the Fair, I had a religious experience of another sort, this time at the Madison Square Park Kids Fest. The event announced as I walked through: Karma Kids Story Time Yoga. Which got me thinking of the question I'd ask if I were a precocious Karma Kid--namely, if reality is an illusion, why do I have to go to school?
April 15, 2008
Sculpta Sutra--the Kama Sutra meets Wallace & Gromit
Taking the culture of personal production one level higher, in this spiritual clay sex kit you create your own instructors.
But if the whole clay thing is too earthy for you, Kama3D provides a comprehensive set of virtual Kama Sutra sexual position sculptures for your spiritual edification.
February 25, 2008
Thai wedding spirits (and a tasty kanom dessert)
Congratulations to Mok & Paul at Eyeteeth, which has one of the most informative wedding blog write-ups I've seen, chock full of insight into the religious significance of Thai wedding traditions and a nice image of global spirituality.
Without, thankfully, the traditional Web 1.0 MIDI accompaniment.
February 05, 2008
Tantric Tablet Collection--sex, spirituality and chocolate
Just in time from Valentine's Day, Sugah! offers this line of chocolates designed to reflect seven different--and distinctly NSFW--positions from the Kama Sutra. Of course, if you're reading this blog, I'm sure you're only interested in its religious significance:
Tantra is the philosophy of Spirituality, art and science that has eroticism at its core. Like our approach to chocolate, the Tantric approach to life is joyful and sensual.
Chocolate has long been heralded for its aphrodisiacal qualities. Ancient Tantric teachings have long been used to spice up new and old relationships. Take your lovemaking to new heights and treat yourself and your partner to a little something more than some fine chocolate with our tantric tablet collection.
January 29, 2008
Porn blessings from Thailand
One of my favorite Socratic dialogues is the Euthydemus, in which Plato explores the link between words and things. One of the limitations of language highlighted in the wordplay of this text is the way that one word can mean different things.
For instance, take the classical Greek verb "porneuo." In English we translate this most directly as "to prostitute", with its most common usage in the passive voice signifying "to engage in prostitution." Yet if we look at the most ubiquitous English cognate--porn--we find that it is rarely if ever used in reference to people classed as prostitutes, either by law or convention, despite the fact that any number of people depicted in pornography are doing so for money. Indeed, depending on the jurisdiction or observer the person depicted in the image need not be engaged in a sexual act at all; mere exposure of certain body parts may suffice.
Then there are other languages in which the word porn has no reference to sex at all--and that's the story behind the picture above. Design blog Eyeteeth explains:
One of the reasons my wife Mok goes by her nickname is that in the U.S. she's sometimes met with snickers when she says her given name: Julaporn.
But in Thailand, the word "porn" has a very different meaning. It's the name of the king's daughter (and technically, no one else is supposed to use it) and means "silk." Often a part of women's names, "porn" is a formal and somewhat antiquated word for a blessing from God. So the name literally refers to the ceremonial silk one would present to monks at a Buddhist temple: prayer silk, if you will.
For a complete explanation of Julaporn's neon sign, check out the rest of this enlightening post!
June 09, 2006
Tao hearts united
"With this--necklace?--I thee wed." That's the headline of this USA Today article discussing a recent engagement and wedding trend: forsaking the traditional rings in favor of more personally meaningful jewelry. Above is one such item--the Double Face Unity Medallion, with the couple echoing the yin and yang of the tao.
The article doesn't go into spiritual adornment in depth, but I can't resist mentioning this quote regarding a woman who chose to memorialize her marriage with a necklace:
"She was married in a choker," Delaney says. "On their 20th anniversary, she'll just wrap it around and around."
The big question is, whose neck?
Hat tip: the divine Ms. Emick
May 24, 2006
Cultural Revolution
For Communist revolutionary Mao Zedong, religion was the opiate of the people. Now that Mao is dead, however, he has for some of his more devout followers become an object of religious veneration.
Pictured here: a Mao pendant often used as a safety charm, akin to the Catholic St. Christopher's medal. For more on Mao as a pop culture icon, check out this article on Mao trinkets from today's New York Times.
May 08, 2006
Presto change-o
Abe Kenji is a Japanese swami with a peculiar talent: he can transform silver jewelry into gold & materialize diamonds out of thin air. This article chronicles the Swami's awakening to divine alchemy and ponders what kind of otherworldly stone could be neither diamond nor glass. Whatever it is, the reporter knows it's miraculous because
I tested it with my dowsing rod and the energy was stronger than my quartz crystals.
And who can argue with the techology that the U.S. government just might be using to find Usama bin Laden?
April 28, 2006
Jewelry of the Spirit
Continuing this week's occasional theme of emerging designers' jewelry of the spirit is, well, Jewelry of the Spirit, created by Liz Alpert.
Besides depicting her designs, Liz's web site tells the intriguing story of how breaking her back in ski accident led her to find healing power in natural beauty. Follow the links to learn more about the larger movements of which Liz is a part--including the Reconnection, a healing movement out of Hollywood that has made Liz its official jewelry designer.
SMALL WORLD EXTRA:
Liz Alpert is the niece of Richard Alpert, more popularly known as Ram Dass.
March 16, 2006
May Korea stand!
Well, at least until Saturday. By beating Japan 2-1, Korea has for the moment forestalled the elimination of the U.S. from the World Baseball Classic.
Now you may be wondering what this has to do with the B of G. The answer appears in the pins and medals in this post. As we noted in an earlier post, the Korean flag features an image of the tao, the Far East's sacred symbol of dynamic unity.
If the U.S. and Korea should meet in the semi-finals on Saturday, which will prove to be the dominant force in the great ying-yang of sports? Well, since Korea has so far been impossible to beat, chances are that the U.S. will yin.
February 23, 2006
Tattoo You
A charity auction isn't the only measure the Pope could take to counter criticism that his lavish fashion sense is too materialistic. He could also replace his expensive bling with a far cheaper tattoo.
As this newspaper article observes, religious tattoos are on the rise in the U.S., from the Bible verses on Duke's J.J. Redick and to the Hindu lotus flower.
Just we have long worn clothing has as "an extension of the skin" both to warm our bodies and to define ourselves, many now freely using their skin as an extension of their soul. This should not come as no surprise. Back in 1964 Marshall McLuhan observed that
After centuries of being fully clad and of being contained in uniform visual space, the electric age ushers us into a world in which we live and breathe and listen with the entire epidermis.
The Bahai tattoo above represents the fundamental unity of all religions, but it could also symbolize what McLuhan referred to as the "all-at-onceness" created by electronic technology. People, places, objects, time--everything now flows together, smashing the divisions and taboos of the literate West. Which also brings with the supreme irony of our technological age--
by immersing us in a world in which every surface is a communications medium, computers and the Web have actually helped revive our tribal spirit.
February 16, 2006
Spiral of Creation & Love
Our pendant today combines both of this week's themes of love & creation. It's the Japanese symbol known as the seed of the universe, and it's available from the good folks at Gems & More in Mooloolaba, Australia, a town at which I'd never shake the dust from my feet for no other reason than I love the name..
This image conveys a sense of dynamic creation and growth. If it reminds you of something you've seen already this week, praise yourself for your heightened degree of spiritual enlightenment--this symbol is one of many that echoes a spiral, and in so doing it echoes the spiral swirls in our Valentine's Day nebulae.
Why the fascination with spirals? We'll talk about a lot more as the Blingdom grows, but if you want a little taste check out this uplifting site.
February 02, 2006
The Monk and the Mandala
The mandala is an ancient symbol representing the complexity of the universe. This pendant from Exotic India Art captures in miniature the interplay of geometric forms that can make a larger size mandala a dazzling distillation of life itself.
In entries to come we'll explore such things as mandala construction, Jung's notion of mandala symbolism and the mandala's relation to modern math and science. For now, I want to call your attention to a ritual that is definitely worth seeing when it takes place near you: the creation and dismantling of a mandala made of sand.
If you live in New York you're in luck: this weekend (Feb. 3-4, 2006), in honor of the Lunar New Year, a Tibetan Buddhist monk will be dismantling a sand mandala he constructed at the Asian American Arts Centre. Saturday will have time for viewing and meditation, along with a lecture. On Sunday, the monk will destroy the mandala and then disperse the sand in the East River, with some of the sand set aside to give to those in attendance.
Yes, that's right. Not only did Tibetan Buddhism anticipate the deepest insights of modern science--they also sang a version of "Dust in the Wind" hundreds of years before Kansas!
January 30, 2006
I pledge allegiance to Taegeukgi . . .
Ever hear the phrase "civil religion"? It's a sociological concept used to describe the way that our civic rituals and symbols can take on what seem to be religious traits. At the center of many of these rituals is, of course, the flag, which in the U.S. can have deeply religious overtones lacking any direct religious reference.
But that's not the case everywhere, as we can see from the South Korean flag reproduced above. Known as the "Taegeukgi," or "Flag of Great Extremes," the flag contains an image of yin-yang symbol of dynamic unity in duality. Surrounding this are trigrams representing heaven, earth, fire and water, all phases of movement toward harmony.
And why would I write a post about spiritual symbols in a flag?
Because its fusion of religious imagery & national identity can make the taegeukgi a compelling image for designers in the Blingdom--and because I wouldn't want anyone to look at this charm & think that it was a celebration of Pepsi!