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ARTISTS, POETS AND SAGES

Patti Marlene Boekhoff

Patti Boekhoff is a talented visual artist and poet. Her specialties include environmental art and vibrant poetic prose that expresses the wonder of the Universe. She loves to depict imagery that addresses ecological concerns and our interconnectness with Nature. Patti adores tapping into the wellsprings of the natural world and the human psyche. Please enjoy this endearing imagery.

View a slidshow of more of Patti's work HERE. View Patti's online gallery HERE.

Artist's Statement    Visual Art Resume    Author Resume

Interview (Conversation with Loren Lewisohn)

Link to Ecoarts.org - Listen to excerpts from Patti and Loren's Audio Books

Michael Green

Born in 1943; New York University; film school; studied at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil then and hitchhiked around the Amazon. "Contentious" Objector during Vietnam War. Joined Castalia Foundation in Millbrook, N.Y., worked on germinal light shows with Tim Leary. Participated in various tribal/communal societies. Lived in a mountaintop tipi in Woodstock, New York, finally moved to Pennsylvania to study with the Sufi master Bawa Muhaiyaddeen.

Insight. The original purpose of "the arts" was to guide & document the process of getting aligned to the Great Mystery. Compared to this, the contemporary attitudes of self-expression or holding a mirror up to society, while useful, may be seen as somewhat superficial or indulgent.

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Guru Bawa Muhaiyaddeen

Bawa Muhaiyaddeen was a Sufi master from Sri Lanka who came to America and taught here for about a decade and a half before his death in 1986. I encountered his work recently for the first time and have been struck by both the divine atmosphere that suffuses his photos and writings, and by the unusual perspective his teachings give on the core experience of mysticism. One of the surprises was that his teaching on the afterlife initially appeared to embrace a limited doctrine of rebirth that I have never heard associated with Islam; and this despite the fact that Bawa seems to have operated firmly within traditional Islamic belief and practice. (For example, the recent book The Illuminated Prayer by Michael Green and Coleman Barks relates that Bawa taught the five-times-daily prayer discipline of Islam to his Western students; though his primary teaching was that we should practice dhikr, the remembrance of Allah, at all times and not just while praying or meditating formally.) - excerpted from "A Sufi View of Spiritual Rebirth: Bawa Muhaiyaddeen" by Ahamed Muhaiyaddeen

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DANIEL ABDAL-HAYY MOORE

Born in 1940 in Oakland, California, his first book of poems, Dawn Visions, was published by Lawrence Ferlinghetti of City Lights Books, San Francisco, in 1964. In 1972 his second book, Burnt Heart, Ode to the War Dead, was also published by City Lights. He was the winner of the Ina Coolbrith Award for poetry and the James D. Phelan Award for the manuscript of poems in progress that became Dawn Visions. From 1966 to 1969, Mr. Moore wrote and directed ritual theatre for his Floating Lotus Magic Opera Company in Berkeley, California.

In 1990 Mr. Moore moved with his family to Philadelphia, where he continues to write and read his work publicly. He has received commissions for two prose books with Running Press of that city, the best selling The Zen Rock Garden and a men’s movement anthology, Warrior Wisdom; his commissioned book for The Little Box of Zen was published in 2001 by Larry Teacher Books.

When he became a Muslim in 1970, he took the name Abd al-Hayy, and began traveling extensively in Europe and North Africa (Lawrence Ferlinghetti wrote of this period: “Moore [became] a Sufi and, like Rimbaud, renounced written poetry.”). After ten years of not writing, however, Moore “renounced” his renunciation and published three books of poetry in Santa Barbara, California in the 1980's, The Desert is the Only Way Out, The Chronicles of Akhira, and Halley's Comet. He also organized poetry readings for the Santa Barbara Arts Festivals and wrote the libretto for a commissioned oratorio by American composer, Henry Brant, entitled Rainforest, which had its world premiere at the Arts Festival there on April 21, 1989.

Daniel Moore's poems (sometimes under the name Abd al-Hayy Moore) have appeared in such magazines as Zyzzva, the City Lights Review, and The Nation. He has read his poetry to 40,000 people at the United Nations in New York at a rally for the people of Bosnia during that war, and has participated in numerous conferences and conventions at universities (including Bryn Mawr, The University of Chicago and Duke University in 1998, the American University at Cairo, Egypt, in 1999, and the University of Arkansas in the year 2000). His book The Ramadan Sonnets, co-published by Kitab and City Lights Books, appeared in 1996, and his book of poems, The Blind Beekeeper, distributed by Syracuse University Press, in January of 2002. To date (2004), he has over 50 manuscripts of poetry which make up his present body of work.

In March of the year 2000, and October of 2001, Mr. Moore collaborated with the Lotus Music and Dance Studio of New York, performing the poetic narration he wrote for their multicultural dance performance of The New York Ramayana, and recently revived his own theatrical project in The Floating Lotus Magic Puppet Theater, presenting The Mystical Romance of Layla & Majnun with live-action and hand-puppets. He wrote the scenario and poetic narration and directed a collaboration between traditional Mohawk and modern dancers for The Eagle Dance: A Tribute to the Mohawk High Steel Workers, which was to be presented in New York on September 22, 2001, postponed for a performance on March 16, 2002 at the Aaron Davis Hall in Harlem. He has participated in The People’s Poetry Gathering of New York, narrating a cabaret version of The New York Ramayana at the Bowery Poetry Club and participating in a panel on The Poet in The World: Words in Community. He continues to give many public readings during the year, often accompanying himself on specially tuned zithers.

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Paul Heussenstamm

"We are all circles on the great mandala, and by changing the intensity of color, we clarify the fullness of each circle. Every soul is a circle with a unique combination of color and intensity. Each circle contains two individual circles with a delicate membrane between them". This powerful dream voice came through me in 1992 while I was painting in Hawaii. It clearly symbolizes the essence of my work as a painter where soul patterns are colorfully manifested through the ancient symbol of the mandala. Mandala‰ means circle or center and it has literally been around for thousands of years, although not well known here in the West.

The mandala, for me, more than any other teacher in this lifetime, has opened the doorway into the symbolic language of the soul. Once this language is known, once the doorway into the unconscious has been opened, once the dynamism of intuitive pattern reading is understood, then life as it is known changes suddenly and dramatically.

As I began to open up this ancient doorway, I received access to and understanding of a soul language that has powerfully changed my life and the lives of all those who come into contact with this level of intuitive knowing. One of the true gifts of this language is a deep understanding of the patterns, symbols, and currents in Nature and how they relate to my own soul's unfoldment and development. These insights highlight my journey into the potential of full radiance of the soul. As I look into my own soul's pattern. I have come to see the "long body" (a way of seeing the past) of my own soul's unfoldment.

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Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj

Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj, current head of Science of Spirituality/Sawan Kirpal Ruhani Mission, is internationally recognized for his work toward inner and outer peace through spirituality. Born in India and educated as a scientist in the United States, he has a keen understanding of both mysticism and science. His training in both these disciplines has helped him express the age-old mystical teachings in clear, logical language. Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj's talks have been broadcast internationally on radio and television.

His publications include books in many languages and hundreds of articles on spiritual topics. His latest books include:

Spiritual Pearls for Enlightened Living - Radiance Publishers

Silken Thread of the Divine - SK Publications

Inner and Outer Peace Through Meditation - Element Books

Empowering Your Soul Through Meditation - Element Books

His message of unity, peace, and love for all humanity has been acclaimed by enlightened leaders everywhere. Recognizing the transcendent oneness at the heart of all religions, he emphasizes prayer and meditation as the true building blocks for achieving peace.

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H. H. Sri Swami Satchidananda

Sri Gurudev's message emphasized harmony among people of all races and faiths. His motto was: "Truth is One, Paths are Many." He believed that we are all one in Spirit and that throughout history great spiritual masters, such as Buddha, Moses, and Jesus, have come forward to teach the people of the world how to experience this spiritual oneness. After we have found that Spirit within ourselves, we will always recognize it in others. Then, we truly have power to help heal the world. Sri Gurudev exemplified these teachings. His beautiful message is that we, too, can exemplify them.

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Thich Nhat Hanh

One of the best known and most respected Zen masters in the world today, poet, peace and human rights activist, Thich Nhat Hanh has led an extraordinary life. Born in central Vietnam in 1926, Nhat Hanh was ordained a Buddhist monk in 1942, at the age of sixteen. Just eight years later, he co-founded what was to become the foremost center of Buddhist studies in South Vietnam , the An Quang Buddhist Institute.

In 1961, Nhat Hanh came to the United States to study and teach comparative religion at Columbia and Princeton Universities . But in 1963, his monk-colleagues in Vietnam invited him to come home to join them in their work to stop the US-Vietnam war. After returning to Vietnam , he helped lead one of the great nonviolent resistance movements of the century, based entirely on Gandhian principles.

In 1964, along with a group of university professors and students in Vietnam, Thich Nhat Hanh founded the School of Youth for Social Service, called by the American press the "little Peace Corps," in which teams of young people went into the countryside to establish schools and health clinics, and later to rebuild villages that had been bombed. By the time of the fall of Saigon, there were more than 10,000 monks, nuns, and young social workers involved in the work. In the same year, he helped set up what was to become one of the most prestigious publishing houses in Vietnam, La Boi Press. In his books and as editor-in-chief of the official publication of the Unified Buddhist Church, he called for reconciliation between the warring parties in Vietnam, and because of that his writings were censored by both opposing governments.

Thich Nhat Hanh has received recognition for his prolific writings on meditation, mindfulness, and peace. He has published over 85 titles of accessible poems, prose, and prayers, with more than 40 of those works in English. His best-known books include Peace is Every Step , Being Peace , Touching Peace , Call Me by My True Names , Living Buddha, Living Christ , Teachings on Love , and Anger.

Now eighty years old, Thich Nhat Hanh is emerging as one of the great teachers of our time. In the midst of our society's emphasis on speed, efficiency, and material success, Thich Nhat Hanh's ability to walk calmly with peace and awareness and to teach us to do the same has led to his enthusiastic reception in the West. Although his mode of expression is simple, his message reveals the quintessence of the deep understanding of reality that comes from his meditations, his Buddhist training, and his work in the world.

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Barry Koral

Both drawing and writing has been my path in being true to myself... in fulfulling a quest for beauty, creativity and self-realized expression. It has opened me up to a process that has allowed reflection on the wealth of beauty found in nature... to be able to personalize my life experiences. I have been searching since I was 10 years old, and now, at the age of 64, for a style of drawing and writing that I could call my own.