Viz., #009

Apr 15, 2019

Note to self

Life is a journey of awakening.

We were born into ignorance and growing up and ageing is all about waking up to the fact that life is not about looking good and avoiding looking bad.
Old people all have one thing in common. They stopped caring what you think when they realized it makes no difference. Kids also teach us this. Both the young and the old express themselves with little to no concern for the unimportant opinions of others.

So why is it that from 13 to 50 or so we are all so uptight and self conscious?
Because we are subscribed to the materialistic propaganda that we are not more than our body and mind. We define ourselves by our body, clothes, bank account, humor, personality, charisma, strengths, weaknesses, likes, dislikes, philosophy, religion and how many likes our selfies get.

This is why we need knowledge. Until we grow up and get with the truth that we are unconditionally lovable as we are and stop trying to impress others we will stay in the pit of ignorance and suffer and have many regrets on our death bed.

What is life about then? Love
What is love? Service
How do I serve? You get a spiritual teacher and follow their guidance.
Who is legit spiritual teacher? The person who loves God, only uses their senses in His service and speaks only what's in scripture.
How do I know if their guidance is actually for my benefit and not their own? You will develop love of God and your life will be serene and joyful.

Muchukunda Das

Events

Every Saturday Street art Jam
RSVP only

Brisbane visit: 7th of May to 12th of May

Ratha Yatra festival live painting: 11th of May
Fed Square in the CBD

My Birthday and Art Auction: 13th of May
Kea Studio Ridderford Street
RSVP here

Youth Week
18th to 25th of May

Poem

If anyone would like to help make Viz., more juicy by submitting a poem please email me at joshuamenheere@gmail.com

Insights from the path of recovery.

I have been running from life since I was about 3.
All forms of addiction are simply attempts to escape the pain of being disconnected from God, self and others. The addict is just a sad person running from his or her reality.
In my life I have ran to many different things to avoid confronting my feelings of inadequacy, insecurity, loneliness and fear. I ran to the beach, to music, skating, devices, relationships, love, approval, lust, social media, graffiti and junk food.
Since going through different forms of therapy I have come to the point of surrendering my life and my will over to the care of God. Here I share the small gems I have received through recovery.

On Surrender and Complete Freedom

For so long I have pined thinking surrender a skill
That others can do but they're a special kind.
Actually its just giving over my tiny free will.
When I relaxed just a little into His lap
I noticed how freaking comfortable it is

I saw how insanely reckless and figity I have been all my life
I saw that I was constantly moving to try to prove my worth
Only because I had ran away from Krsna and was trying to win never ending games
trying to prove my worth for adoration and fame. All I really wanted was the love that I'm getting so easily right now by just accepting it.
I feel His hand patting my head and his deep velvet voice assuring me I can stay here.
That I don't need to go back, That I actually belong here. Those games are for fools.

After a couple of days in Gods arms I decided to close down my plan making factory in my head and allow His plans for me to guide my life. I kept doing the good stuff I was doing but dispassionately and without the need for likes and approval from others.
I feel calm, serene and quite happy.
I used to stop myself from feeling too happy and sabotage it for some reason.
But surrender means to simply accept His unconditional love whether I think I deserve it or not.
His soft but deep voice resonates: You need not change anything. Have no fear. You're with me now and I am with you.

On Escapism and Biting the Bullet

I used to think life was good
But I was also smoking weed and eating junk food among other things.
I was happy go lucky but I never confronted my inner void.
I kept busy by addictive patterns.
Once I finished one thing I would bounce over to the next one.
From graffiti to girls and from girls to ganja and from ganja to ginger-nut biscuits A whole packet in one sitting.. followed by a mars bar I stole.
I also grew up a total space cadet, Always somewhere else. Never present. Only in my head fantasizing and dreaming.
Then later I became a Hare Krsna.

I thought I was free.
I had a few years of complete freedom from material life. I would wake up early every day and chant Hare Krsna, then go out and meet people and share Krsna consciousness. Id never felt so alive. I didnt care what people thought. I was part of a loving community and had tight friends I could have fun with. Then gradually I started using facebook. I got addicted to my phone, social media, starting doing graffiti again and sleeping in.
Something was lacking.
Then 7 years later I did some therapy and saw that all this escapism was due to limiting beliefs and resentments from my childhood.
I gave away all my devices and started getting rid of my vices.
I am still a while away from perfection but I am not focused on that. Progress is the goal for me and I feel like I am progressing.
The alternative to escapism is not biting the bullet. Its biting the lotus! Its being vulnerable to the wonder of life and choosing a new way of relating to life. I can now let life happen around me and revel in its beauty rather than running in fear of it or trying to control it. Others thoughts, words and facial expressions need not phase me for I am spirit soul, part of The Supreme Whole. Rather than saying FTW I say "Hare Krsna"

Humility is Nothing to be Proud of

Its just being real. We are small!
Humility means to realise that Krsna is the supreme and we are His servants
Humility just means to of heard and asimilated the truth of who we are.
I love being humble. It takes something to resist the force of delusional pride that insidiously seeps into the mind any time I do something good.
But since I got beaten up by God Himself It has been a lot easier.
I know the humble life is the easy life.
Pride means maintaining a reputation that I don't deserve.
It means seeking undue praise instead of praising The Praise Worthy Who gave me all I have.
Pride also means living in fear of being found out and rejected.
Humility means accepting where I'm at and trusting that others will too.

Comic

Digital drawing on ipad. 2017

Challenge for Change

Mawuko breathing into the cold air on our half hill pitstop after the Rama Navami Celebration at Bhakti Lounge.

Damn good ice cream from the ice cream truck on Oriental Parade. Mine was Boisen berry sorbet and his was Vanilla.

Just totally stuffed up our hand shake in front of everyone. It broke the ice though so that was good.
Mawuko looked a million bucks on this night.

I have been blessed with a role within one of Wellingtons finest well being initiatives called Challenge for Change headed up by BGI. Its a mentoring program that ensures youth have enough fun as kids and have good chances of success in the future.

Here's our group photo with the mentors, mentees, parents, friends and members of Wellingtons Administration

All the greats at BGI getting loose

ARTJAM

I love the connections and flow on this one.

Lucy is my longest standing student. We work one on one to create street art style artworks both on canvas and in public space. This time she was involved in a group project her school.

She has an online store where you can purchase her art under her own brand name called 'The Thing Is"

I love the initiative taken by the kids in my art classes. Connecting that L to the E...

Another trust theme.
The artist values trust because she needs to feel safe and to trust others as well as be trust worthy for others.

Kindness is the new cool.
Iv'e been reflecting about how I go about making friends, I wear a mask that says "I'm too cool for you" I end up unsuccessful in making friends when I wear that mask.

Creation station

Courage. This girl had it too. She had never done graffiti or even art apparently. But she nailed these letters with a bit of persistence and courage.

Lucy's most recent master piece at the skate park

Art

An old piece from last year now hiding between 2 buildings.

Illustrations to be cut out for Gaura Purnim festival at Bhakti Lounge.
I noticed one of them hanging at a friends house when I visited.
I like when people take my party decorations home.

One of the pieces that will be on sale at my solo show on May 13
(Details up the top)

A commission for my Uncles Birthday.

A piece I did in exchange for some upholstery work.

Love you.

Krishna in the Madhu Bani folk style.

Throwback

The time Camilo and I painted a huge Krishna piece on Johnston street, Melbourne. 2015

Photographs

Opening party at Kea Studio, A shared work space for start ups and entrapeners.
We met the owner by selling him a desk through facebook markert place and have been friends since. I did his logo and a mural on his wall. Its also the space Ill be having my first solo show in NZ on the 13th of May.

Rama on the flag

Iv'e always wanted to do a series of photos of smiling devotees and on this day I handed my camera to a devotee who was taking photos on her phone and asked if she would like to take some on my camera.
What came out were these perfect pictures of devotees blissfully smilling.
Another cool thing about this shot is the person smiling has a sanskrt name meaning beautiful smile.

Funny shot taken by Radhika Bhava

A cool shot taken by either Mawuko or Radhika Bhava

Gaura Arati singing her faverite song with the musical support of her husband Krsnanana, son Nitai and friend Harry. There are two more band member one the right called Saumya and Ramdas