This painting holds one of my favorite lines from the prayer beneath the collection: "Help us restore what has been harmed and create a future of harmony and respect."
I painted it as a sunrise, a center of gold opening into rays of red and orange, the first light after a long, dark night.
I wanted to make something in color that remembered that the morning still comes no matter how hard the dark period.
The best way to see a sunrise is through an old growth forest of vibrant trees
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What we compose shows, so do it with care
The original is now ready to find its home.
Inquire on Cohart. People sometimes ask how long a painting like this takes me to compose. The painting itself is a matter of days, but the more complete answer is that it takes much longer. This is because the gold comes in layers that each needs its own time and cannot be hurried.
Gold teaches me patience. It will lift, crack, or refuse if it is rushed. So I stopped counting in days and started counting in layers.
I want to save our world's forests!
A future is built the same way: not in one grand gesture, but in patient layers, small daily choices and acts, the things we plant (sow) and tend (cultivate) and refuse to give up on. What we care for grows. What we show up for shows. Everyone can see what shows from our care in its composition.
As of today, "A Future of Harmony and Respect" is available to view on Cohart, to acquire by inquiry. If someone is standing at the start of something, this is a sunrise for that wall.
It is a one-of-a-kind, watercolor with 24 karat sustainable gold leaf, with a prayer sealed inside that can be accessed through a chip that allows it to be heard aloud. And it arrives with a certificate of authenticity and earth conscious packaging.
And I would love to hear: What part of the living world do you most want to see restored?
(Maybe it's forests, human communities, vegan kitchens, wild grasslands, fish oceans, bird skies, tunnel systems, space belts full of debris... Tell us in the comment section below)
With love,
Ekaterina Sky
P.S. Feeling moved beyond wall art and mural painting? PLANT TREES through a new movement at ourlifeforce.org. Also, see my art on Instagram: @ekaterina.sky.art
City Plants is a program funded by the LADWP, which is exploring opportunities to expand offerings beyond the City of Los Angeles and into surrounding communities. Send request
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City is getting hotter. We can be part of the solution. Donations plant shade trees that combat climate change, cool neighborhoods, and improve health. Help grow a cooler, greener LA.
Every year, Peace Class goes on hiatus from July through September. There is this meeting tonight and again next week (June 24th), then summer hiatus begins. Join me for final two classes of this cycle. This is the text of the peace talk delivered last week:
When all beings can clearly see everything-that-is, all beings will choose to live in peace, in harmonious coexistence with one another.
Harmony (akin to kshanti) happens effortlessly when everyone has access to all-that-is. Harmony is what happens when everyone is engaging their full intuitive powers, seeing with clarity, gazing at the world through their higher consciousness, through their Peace Minds.
Harmony happens effortlessly when all is known by all. But we aren't there yet.
We are at the end of the age that precedes all beings knowing all. We are at the beginning of the time of revelation that bridges two ages. We are at the beginning of the revelation that gets us from not-knowing to knowing.
What does this transition period look like? What does it feel like? Imagine that all-that-is-true were shown to us as a huge sweeping picture, a massive wall-sized image, one enormous scene.
Then imagine that wall-sized picture sliced up into 10,000 pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Yes, one would be able to reassemble the full picture, if one had all of the puzzle pieces.
What's happening during this time of revelation is that some people are receiving some of the pieces of what-really-is, whereas most people hold just a handful of the pieces. And rarely do two people hold the same pieces.
That means we might hold a few puzzle pieces of what-really-is, and our neighbor might hold a few pieces, and those pieces could be from different quadrants of the picture. Those assembled pieces could show entirely different things.
Our neighbor might hold three pieces that seem to be part of a barn and might say, "I've seen what is, and we're in the countryside."
We might hold a few pieces that seem to make a skyscraper and might say, "I've seen what is, and we're in downtown."
A third neighbor might be holding pieces that show part of a cloud and might say, "We're in the clouds—not touching ground at all!"
All three of these neighbors might have glimpsed some aspect of what-really-is yet not understand how those things fit together. So they might be tempted to turn to each other and say, "You're wrong!"
They might even be in despair wondering, "How can so many people think that this is an image of clouds we're in when I know it's a picture of a barn?"
This is what the Time of Revelation feels like, especially in the beginning. It feels to many like deep confusion. And such confusion can lead to despair.
But when we realize what's really going on, which is that all-that-is is being revealed, slowly, we can cross this bridge and transit this period with grace.
We can hold compassion for ourselves, knowing we are all undergoing a process that takes time. We can hold compassion for our neighbors, benighted as they seem. We can hold compassion for ALL beings.
Kill Iran so we can build up Israel. - OK, Bibi.
These are not easy times to transit. Our politics are polarized. Many of us look at our neighbors and say, "How can you believe that? How can you possibly see things that way?!"
What's happening is a literal difference of seeing, not a figurative one. This is not just a duel of differing opinions. Some have seen what's-really-happening by way of direct exposure or spiritual revelation, and others have not. Some have seen one slice of what's-really-happening, and others have seen a slice of a different portion.
We are stepping into knowing-what-really-is at vastly different rates. And this is exactly as things are meant to happen. What-really-is is that we're a group of beings evolving towards discovery and an expression of our own peaceful and loving truest nature. That's what's really happening!
We are evolving forwards. And eventually, we will know who we are. We are beings of peace. And eventually, we will feel as we are. We will feel the urge to choose to live peacefully, to express compassion-for-all.
We will choose to fully express our unique selves and selfhood, while creating space for others to express themselves fully. We will choose compassionate coexistence.
The trees have been waiting patiently in peace.
We will choose harmony with others, harmony with the waters and the forests and the soil and the air, harmony with the animals of this planet.
We will choose selfhood, and we will choose harmony. But we have a ways yet before arriving there. We are departing from one shore, sailing towards another.
We are departing the shore of believing our community is dog-eat-dog, that the rules are an-eye-for-an-eye. That's the shore we're leaving.
I like it better when we ALL get along in peace.
We'll arrive at the shore of dog-celebrate-dog, dog-help-dog. That's where we'll land.
Revelation is the time to discover who we truly are as a species. This is the time to learn, not later in peace. Right now, we can learn that dog-eat-dog was never our true nature. We were living through a dog-eat-dog phase, just as people, while they're babies, are living through growing pains in a diaper phase. A child grows out of using a diaper: A child becomes a grownup. We are now growing into dog-celebrate-dog.
Higher we rise, easier to see the big picture
We get from one shore to another by learning the truth about who we are. Now, there's a lot to know. The full picture of who we are as beings is a lot to take in. The full picture of what our planet is, how it fits into the greater universe, is a lot to take in.
The full picture of what's been happening in our societies, what's been happening of which we have been unaware, is a lot to take in. A lot.
Revelation arrives in pieces. It arrives as different pieces that are in the hands of different people fall into place at different rates. Eventually, all will know all. As for now, some know some.
So when we look at our neighbor and think, "How can that [bleep] think that way?" we must understand that our confusion is natural and know that our neighbor will eventually see everything. And so will we.
All will eventually see all.
In the beginning
The light slowly began to dawn.
What does revelation look like at its beginning? It can look like deep differences between how we see the world and how our family members, partners, children, and those pesky neighbors see the world.
If we choose to walk with compassion, we will understand that the children of earth are doing the work of waking up and becoming enlightened in perfect pace, with appropriate timing for everyone, at the right rate for each individual.
Everyone has the right to choose how quickly to evolve. Some will choose to cling to the dog-eat-dog way-of-being, and some will let go of such thinking, feeling, and being.
What happens when a person sees the completed puzzle, the full image of all-that-is? That person knows and chooses peacefulness, one's own peaceful way of being in peace. And what one feels for others at that moment is compassion-without-end.
Once we understand that all who can see the full puzzle will carry peacefulness, and once we understand that the puzzle pieces are arriving into the hands and lives of most people we know, at varying rates, this era of revelation begins to make sense.
I never saw it that way! It makes sense now.
This is what revelation looks like: It looks like a few more puzzle pieces arriving into the hands of a few more individuals.
Revelation happens in stages, dependent on an individual's desire to know more. And individual who really wants to know more creates space within oneself.
If we create openness in mind, if we cultivate compassion in heart, with non-judgment and non-attachment (letting go), more puzzle pieces will begin to fall into our hands.
I'm starting to see, but my eyes are blurry.
It may take five or 10 or 20 years to have enough puzzle pieces to get a full sense of what's really going on, but we are so loved. Every human alive is so loved through this process, so loved by the divine, so loved by our ancestors, so loved in all phases of self-discovery and self-actualization. All who walk this process do it perfectly.
This summer, we might spend time with family members whose puzzle pieces imply a completely different picture than ours, and if we allow the lower mind to run the show, we are very likely experience, at best, frustration being around them, at worst, anger and hate, at very worst, expulsion of others from own compassionate heart because they're holding different pieces of the puzzle and they imagine that the shape of the puzzle is different than what we imagine it to be!
We get to choose how we walk this moment of revelation. We can do it with compassion, we can do it with grace, or... Walk in the way that builds the world you want. When you see all, you will know your own peace, and you will choose your own peacefulness.
If we choose peace now, even before we see all, we will walk through challenging times with the most possible ease. And our presence here, among those of earth, will be a living slice of grace.
Friends, this is the talk I gave last week presented here edited by Wisdom Quarterly:
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The War of Opinions
Should I write DC a strongly-worded letter?
When we are belligerent and violent, there are always two wars happening simultaneously, the War of Bombs and the War of Opinions.
The War of Bombs requires the War of Opinions as its fuel. If we end the War of Opinions, we simultaneously end the War of Bombs.
Is this what John Lennon and Yoko Ono meant?
We are all responsible for the War of Opinions, so we can end it at any time. The way we end the War of Opinions is by thinking then saying this: "Whatever opinion you hold, I have compassion for you, and whatever opinion I hold, I have compassion for myself."
If we choose these mental positions, we will never have to agree with each other to see the end of belligerence, violence, war, disputes, arguments, and doing harm.
The true cause of violence is not disagreement; it is how we think about each other and feel about each other when we disagree with each other.
Violence can only happen if it is acceptable for us to withhold compassion from those with whom we disagree. This is the cause of war.
Our differences of opinion do not cause violence. What causes violence is that we are willing to withhold compassion from others, any others, because of their opinions.
There is only one reason to withhold compassion from anyone: to actively build more violence on this planet. That's what our withheld compassion does.
If we are trying to accomplish something other than that by withholding compassion, then we are using the wrong tool. If we want to build peace, the tool that will build it is compassion-for-all.
The trouble with these times [is that they aren't a-changin' enough] is that many are trying to build peace by withholding compassion from those who disagree with them. That action builds war. So they are trying to build peace with that which only builds war.
That is like saying, "I'd like to build a house to sleep in, a good strong dwelling, so I'm going to build it out of water." [What do we think we are, fish, mermaids, aquatic plants?]
Water is useful for many things, but we can't cut it into blocks and build shelters with it. [What if we freeze it first? Igloo ice, sure, but this is water we're talking about, not permafrost ice in the arctic.]
Our misunderstandings are so basic to our belief system that we do not see that we are trying to build a house with something we cannot build a house with. That's how elemental our misunderstandings are. But that's also how powerful our opportunities are.
All we need to do is say, "Now that I can see that I've been trying to build a house with blocks of water, let me try again, but with blocks of wood, and see what happens." Voila: a beautiful, solid house.
A house made of water would not be nearly so nice or durable...or livable at all.
Not by hatred but by...this is an eternal law.
And so it is with peace. We can say, "Let me try using compassion-for-all to build peace, and see if that works any better than withholding compassion." And it will work every time. That is an eternal and universal law.
One can't build walls with wet fluid water; one can't build true and lasting peace with hatred of the people who disagree with us.
Our hatred builds something: It builds more of the Era of Belligerence.
It does not build peace in the world. It also does not build peace for us personally — in our day-to-day experience, our family and circle of friends, our workplace and our minds/hearts.
What builds peace for us, in our personal experience, is to say this: "I disagree with that point of view yet still have compassion for the person who holds it."
That builds the kind of deep peace that makes it easier for us to do everything we have to do throughout the day. It makes it easier to be a parent, easier to be a friend, easier to be a whatever.
A war brings these forces to our attention, but they are always at play, in smaller ways, within our lives. Disagreements break out in the home and the workplace. And we always make more peace for ourselves when we feel and think this:
"I disagree with the way my boss (spouse, child, friend, whoever) sees this situation. Still, I hold deep compassion for this person."
Similarly, the fire of war requires certain conditions to ignite and burn and grow.
Remove the War of Opinions and, no matter how many lit matches are thrown onto the fire of war, it will not ignite.
Compassion-for-all is like soaking fuel used in the fire of war. No matter how many flames are dropped on wet wood, it won't catch on fire. Our compassion-for-all ends this war and every war.
I serve my king with no question, Sir. - Good boy
When our compassion ends nowhere, there will be peace on earth. When our compassion goes everywhere, there is no ready fuel for war.
What will happen when we start to pair compassion-for-all with whatever opinion (view) we hold?
What will happen is that we will spend more time in our Peace Mind, which is the higher portion of our consciousness. And when we do this, we'll see new solutions—solutions that already exist, except that we cannot see them yet because they can only be seen from the more loving portion of consciousness.
When we have compassion for others, we free them from our hatred, vitriol, animosity, belligerence, so they visit their Peace Minds more often, too.
Republican gals love soldiers who kill for God.
And when we are all in our Peace Minds, new solutions will be so easy to see that we almost won't be able to comprehend how we ever stayed at war or disagreeing for so long.
Solutions to our problems already exist. Whether we can see them yet depends on our perspective. Where are we placing conscious attention in our own consciousness? Is it our Peace Mind?
It's not that this conflict, or any conflict, is based on an unsolvable problem. It's that we cannot yet see a solution that will resolve this issue from our current perspective.
Move our perspective, and the preexisting solution becomes apparent.
What's the one thing we can do to serve the world? We can learn to transition our own perspective upwards so we can see more solutions and bring more innovations to humanity.
What's another thing we can do? We can pair compassion with everything we think and feel. Compassion can be added to any thought, like this:
"I greatly disagree with what that leader has done, and I have compassion for everyone who lives in that country, even for the leader herself," or "I think that's a terrible thing to do, and I have compassion for the person who has done it." Just add one in.
No consensus of opinion needs to be reached to end the War of Opinions. We can end war without a single opinion ever changing.
We end it by adding our compassion-for-everyone to any opinion we have.
That ends the war, because now it's not a War of Opinions that we're seated within—it's simply a landscape of opinions that are allowed to exist.
It's not a War of Opinions when there is compassion-for-all present. Now it's a community of unique human individuals who compassionately respect each other. We came here to be unique.
We did not come here to create a consensus of opinion. We came here to be in a vibrant (lively and diverse) community of original thinkers, coexisting, more than tolerating but appreciating differences.
Peace Class, free, Wednesdays on Zoom
We came here to learn how to do that in peace.
What makes that possible is this phrase: Regardless of how we see things, we have compassion for one another. That choice-of-thought builds the kind of peace we came here to build.
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With love,
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