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When exploring the Gulf Islands, be sure to visit Mayne. It has a little shop of treasures one really can’t explain; with hippie crafts, aromatherapy, and even techno-funk, to Far Eastern, Cambodian, and other mysterious junk! Inside the shop, a Buddha, not cross-legged, but supine; Its’ body hewn from Thailand ironwood; a heavy-as-metal tree, very solid, yet divine. Its’ glance, like a marble statue, focuses upward, as if seeing through a third eye; while presciently converting tourists, to awareness, of what is holiest and high. The carving, scented with the fragrance of patchouli oil, and sandalwood incense, is smooth as polished cedar; and it seems, paradoxically, alive, within its stillness. It’s as if the wooden ribcage moves within itself; breathing in, and breathing out, inhaling, exhaling in metamorphosis, across time’s gulf. Its’ simple wooden frame exudes a mystical sense, providing hermetic bud-like portals, so inviting, so intense, that tourists enter and become soul explorers, who learn at their own expense; that souvenirs like true paths branching from the tree of life, are seldom left to chance. Whether through nirvanas for a price, or other happenstance, the tools of monk and artist often guide us in life through death, to glimpse, seek or find the eternal spirit dance. |
