When I was sitting down to create a Zentangle, I recalled Thich Nhat Hanh’s sweet idea for recalling the truth of Oneness.  We are all one, and everything is in us.  When you feel Oneness and your part in it, you feel at home and deeply connected.  Unlike social media which serves to make us feel more alone, Oneness connects.

Here’s what he said –

An artist can see the cloud in the piece of paper she’s drawing on.

When you create a Zentangle, first you take a few deep breaths to ground and center, then you place a dot in each corner of the tile, the square of paper.  While you do that, take a moment to see deeply into the paper.  Can you see the cloud?  Can you see the rain, the sunshine?  Can you see the people growing the food to feed the farmers who grew the cotton for the paper?

Play with that…  How far can you extend the connections?

A Chapter from My Book – The Twenty Second Smile

Here’s a chapter from my book – The Twenty Second Smile.  (Note each chapter contains exactly 50 words.)

Buddhist Oatmeal

The astrophysicist said, “If you want to make a grilled cheese sandwich from scratch, first you start with the Big Bang.”  Consider your breakfast.  How many people were involved?  Farmers grow.  Truckers transport. Auto-workers built the truck, others the tires, the roads.  We’re always interdependent with the entire cosmos.  See?

I like to end my chain of connections with the big bang.  When you look deeply, you are interconnected with the whole universe, and you can see it all in your piece of paper.

Play with this and connect to all there is.

Make Zentangles.

May you walk in beauty,

William

P.S. You can see some of my Zentangles on my Instagram page.