The Great Wave off Kanagawa has been described as possibly the most reproduced image in the history of all art, as well as being a contender for the most famous artwork in Japanese history. This woodblock print has influenced several Western artists and musicians, including Claude Debussy, Vincent van Gogh and Claude Monet.
Roger Start Keyes, art historian, Hokusai scholar, and co-founder of York Zen, wrote his poem “Hokusai Says,” featured on the York Zen Welcome Page, in Venice in 1990. It appeared suddenly as he was making notes for the “Young Hokusai” paper he was to give at a symposium on Hokusai the following day.
Hokusai says look carefully. He says pay attention, notice. He says keep looking, stay curious. He says there is no end to seeing. He says look forward to getting old. He says keep changing, you just get more who you really are. He says get stuck, accept it, repeat yourself as long as it’s interesting. He says keep doing what you love. He says keep praying. He says every one of us is a child, every one of us is ancient, every one of us has a body. He says every one of us is frightened. He says every one of us has to find a way to live with fear. He says everything is alive – shells, buildings, people, fish, mountains, trees. Wood is alive. Water is alive. Everything has its own life. Everything lives inside us. He says live with the world inside you. He says it doesn’t matter if you draw, or write books. It doesn’t matter if you saw wood, or catch fish. It doesn’t matter if you sit at home and stare at the ants on your veranda or the shadows of the trees and grasses in your garden. It matters that you care. It matters that you feel. It matters that you notice. It matters that life lives through you. Contentment is life living through you. Joy is life living through you. Satisfaction and strength is life living through you. Peace is life living through you. He says don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid. Look, feel, let life take you by the hand. Let life live through you.
Click to listen to poet Roger Keyes recite his poem, Hokusai Says.
Hokusai’s instructions, received, written and recited by Roger Keyes, about paying attention, noticing things, and living life fully, remind me of Mary Oliver‘s lessons on attention, receptivity, listening, delighting in and writing, expressed in many of her poems, like Mindful and Praying.
When I saw this clever New Yorker cartoon by William Haefeli it reminded me of the one by Karl Stevens. Both humorously emphasize the need to be present—to learn to live in the moment, in the now.
William’s cartoon shows a wife’s frustration with her husband’s memory loss, and his clever way of dealing with it: “I’m not losing my memory. I’m living in the now.”
In a way, when it comes to dementia, the present moment is all some afflicted seniors are eventually left with as they forget the wounds from their past and stop worrying about an unknown future. A welcome relief. But the present moment is all that the rest of us have as well. It all comes down to how much of it are we aware of, and actually, happily, living.
To see more of William Haefeli’s cartoon art, visit the Condé Nast Store. He also has cartoons posted on the Punch Magazine website in the UK. William Haefeli was interviewed for A Case For Pencils. He was also featured in a more personal article at the Advocate: Drawing on life.
New Yorker cartoon editor Bob Mankoff is quoted in the Advocate article talking about seeing a cartoonist’s comic style and a personality. “Sometimes it’s commentary, sometimes satire, sometimes absurdity, sometimes what I call ludic, a mind play. It’s someone communicating his ideas through the medium of humor. Bill is one of the best examples of it—his cartoons are social commentary.”
It took Bill Haefeli 19 years of failed submissions to the New Yorker, until Mankoff became cartoon editor, when he received his first acceptance. “Bill is an interesting cartoonist because he thinks of a broad range of issues—gay and straight,” explains Mankoff. “He has a world that’s not just a joke. It’s bigger than a stereotype.”
There has been a wave of publicity before, during, and after the largest group of 11,000 TM meditators from 139 countries who gathered at Kanha Shanti Vanam near Hyderabad for 14 days to help create world peace. Here is a sample of some of that news coverage starting with The Week, which came out in their print issue on Sunday, February 4, 2024.
IN EARLY 2005, security checkpoints at the Abu Ghraib prison complex in Iraq―notorious for torture and abuse of its inmates―were overrun by armed militants. The surprise attack met with strong resistance from US coalition forces guarding the site. Several American soldiers suffered injuries, and many militants lost their lives. Brian Rees, a doctor with the US military, remembers rushing out to treat civilian casualties. Whenever he got a chance, he said, he would retreat to a corner and meditate.
I felt I could use TM to reset. It kept me resilient on the ground. It is important to maintain a healthy rhythm.
—Brian Rees, us army veteran
Rees has learned to find peace among chaos. He meditates twice a day―20 minutes each in the morning and in the evening. Transcendental Meditation (TM) has been a source of strength for him while serving in Iraq and in Afghanistan. It helped him beat long periods of boredom and to cope with the shocking sights of blood and gore. “I felt I could use TM to reset. It kept me resilient on the ground. It is important to maintain a healthy rhythm or things can go very wrong,” said the veteran about the benefits of meditation in a war zone.
Rees has introduced hundreds of US veterans to TM in the last 10 years, helping them return to normalcy after stressful missions. He still remembers a veteran telling him just two minutes after attending a session that TM was going to save his life. “The veterans have a lot of questions on why this is happening. But they have no answers,” said Rees. “TM will really help them see hope and remove negative aspects.”
Nearly 4,000 TM practitioners from outside India like Rees and 6,000 Indians took part in a residential meditation programme organised by the Global Union of Scientists for Peace (GUSP), a group that works to carry forward the legacy of the late Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. It was held for two weeks from December 29 at the Kanha Shanti Vanam ashram near Hyderabad. The programme was intended to trigger a world peace field based on a theory propagated by the Maharishi.
Tony Nader, chairman of GUSP, explained the idea behind getting 10,000 people at one place. “The research is based on findings of 50 years that when one per cent of the total population practises Transcendental Meditation in any city, there is a reduction in crime, conflict, hospital admission and road accidents. One per cent of the world population today would be 81 million and it is a big number to bring together for meditation. The Maharishi produced a new technique, which is based on Patanjali yoga sutras, where it was found that the square root of one per cent of the population is enough to achieve the desired effect. It means that instead of 81 million, its square root―9,000―could be used. The number 10,000 was selected to have the safety factor on top of the needed number.”
Nader, who leads TM-related organisations in more than 100 countries, hails from conflict-ridden Lebanon and credits meditation for helping him survive the horrors of the civil war in the 1970s. The 14-day programme saw participants practise basic TM, yoga sutras and flying sutras. Frederick Travis, director of the Centre for Brain, Consciousness and Cognition, Maharishi University of Management, Iowa, used a special device fitted with 19 sensors on a participant to study the impact of group meditation on the brain. He recorded a high coherence in the brain as a result of meditation practised by thousands in the vicinity.
Alex Kutai, a theatre actor-turned PR professional from Israel, said meditation was an antidote to war. Kutai, an active TM teacher, was drawn to the movement after the 1973 Yom Kippur war. “After every war, the interest in TM becomes high. Thousands learned TM after the Yom Kippur war. I thought it could support my well-being,” he said.
Kutai said many people were suffering from trauma, depression and pain because of the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict. “When people along the Gaza Strip had to be evacuated, we taught them meditation so that they could cope with the loss. We are also teaching TM for free to those who are suffering from the loss of lives of close ones,” he said. Kutai lives in Hararit, a village near the Lebanon border which was created by a community of TM members in the 1980s. Though he has not taught TM to Palestinians, Kutai said he was willing to teach friendly Arabs who reside around his village.
Another participant in the programme was Vadym Bykovets, a Ukrainian who nurses war wounds even though he is not physically involved in the war with Russia. The 49-year-old lives in Lithuania and works in the private sector. He counts his friends and acquaintances among those who died or were seriously wounded. He encourages fellow Ukrainians to practise meditation. “I feel that they are emotionally wounded and stressed. Without meditation, they would feel terrible. They are even scared of loud sounds.” How does meditation help him? “War is a painful topic. Regardless of what information I get from back home, I meditate,” he said. “It cleans my mind and soul, and I do not feel involved in that situation.” The reason Bykovets came all the way to Hyderabad is to support the belief that meditation is the right medium to achieve global peace.
Correction: Maharishi University of Management is Maharishi International University.
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Visit Dr Tony Nader’s Instagram @drtonynader for inspiring photos, excerpts from articles, and video clips from the course and more.
They wrote: Dive into the fascinating world of Dr. Tony Nader, a Lebanese neuroscientist, researcher, and leader of the Transcendental Meditation movement. Discover his inspiring journey from the turmoil of the Middle East’s civil war to becoming a renowned figure in neuroscience. Join RJ Archana as she explores Nader’s insights on the current global conflicts, the roots of youth anger, and the importance of grassroots change. Learn about Nader’s transition from his initial days to his current stature, and gain profound insights into his work, including the founding of the International Journal of Mathematics and Consciousness. Don’t miss this thought-provoking episode on Viral City!
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