South African artist Ricky Lee Gordon, who has been travelling non stop through Europe and Scandinavia, was recently in Finland invited to take part of the second edition of the Upea festival in Vaasa, a city on the west coast of Finland.
Titled “REST IN STILLNESS LIKE SKY MOUNTAIN LAKE”, the new mural was according to the artist, inspired by the Tibetan practice of heart stillness meditation whilst on a recent retreat with highly accomplished meditation teacher Burgs.
As explained by Ricky Lee Gordon, there is a stillness within ourselves that is “unmovable and effortless like a mountain, expansive like the sky and still like the mirror of a lake.”
Over the past few years Buddhist meditation has become an integral part of his life and art practice, something that has made him more aware of his own existence, and allowing him to find peace and ease when confronting the challenges of daily life.
Ricky mentions an important fact in Buddha’s teaching; that suffering is part of life. It is when we realise this, that understanding the root of our suffering through meditation will bring about the secession of that suffering. According to Buddhism, the root of all suffering is attachment (so really hard to avoid!). To avoid suffering, we need to understand what causes suffering and then weeding out these causes from our lives. On one hand we have our ambition and the fact that we, sometimes become slaves of our own desire. But there is also a problem when we deny desire (or deprive ourselves from it) because it is like denying life itself. Of course a problem arises when we are not able to put an end to this desire and another vicious circle arises.
For Ricky meditation has been the way to find happiness, reduce stress, anxiety and negative mind sets, and highlights the importance of his mentor Burgs in this process after spending time in both Sri Lanka and India practicing on retreats and in forest Monasteries. Probably the main reason he wants to share his experience with his followers, and we with our readers.
For more information on Burgs and his retreats www.theartofmeditation.org. And a simple guided introductory meditation on this practice can be found here.
About the artist
Ricky Lee Gordon is a self-taught artist born in Johannesburg South Africa in 1984. Having lived and worked in Cape Town he moved to LA in 2016 to study classical painting. He is well-known for his large-scale murals that can be seen in cities all over the world, from New York to Istanbul and Madagascar to Kathmandu.
Ricky has been inspired by his experiences in meditation and Buddhist Dharma (law of nature) and therefore now his paintings explore the nature of non-duality and interconnectedness focusing on bringing to light relevant social issues and universal truths. His intention with his murals is to create artwork that has a connection to the people and place in which he is painting. (read more).
For more about the artist Website | Instagram
Author: Fran
Founder and editor of Urbanite. Street Art lover who after the finishing her MA thesis on the Mexican and Norwegian muralist movement in the 1920-50s, developed a fascination for street art and graffiti that eventually led to collaborations with different art blogs, including the creation of this one.
