John Marron “Snoozing Snail” ink on paper, 15” H x 24” W $100.00

Snoozing Snail (dreaming of lightning) Painted on 8/2/18 in Gilah Hirsch’s Venice Beach, Ca studio. on the 100th birthday of Dada Viswani, a non-sectarian Hindu teacher, winner of the UN International U Thant World Peace Award in 1998, to celebrate his established yearly observance, in concert with the Dalai Lama, of a “Moment of Calm”,2 minutes to embrace forgiveness, radical acceptance of the here & now and dreaming of universal world peace. Having met Dada, along with my hatha yoga teacher Prema Spodzdial & 3 hundred other devotees & peacemakers at Town Hall in NYC & at a Palisades Mansion Puja in NJ later in 2015, I was allowed to ask him a single question, as part of a public ceremony or darshan, which was: “What is the difference between instant/fast enlightenment and/or gradual/slow awareness?” Dada said,rather matter of factly, “nothing…no difference”. A sigh from the sangha. I then held up my open palms & asked him to imagine a snail dreaming with antenna tuning jnto the future & whiskers ruminating the past on one hand, and a bolt of lightning striking a mountain snag on the other, explaining that, as a child in Davenport, Iowa, I would chase summer thunderstorms & seek out lightning striking, searing & splitting oaks & elms in VanderVeer Park! With a half smile, he respectfully asked “why?”. “To become enlightened!” Everyone laughed. I think I turned crimson, beaming with warm embarrassment, grateful inspiration & sat down like a fat frog having swallowed the fly of comeuppance but modestly burping up pleasure, mirth & wonderment at what to do with these newly received words of wisdom? Water or fire? Snoozing Snail or Electric Forking Sky? Lucid dream mining or instant ecstatic karmic dancing? Wouldacouldashouldabuddha back in the kindergarten pew or vedic saint wearing bangles to scare away Bengals in the jungle?! Oyster Pearl or Dragon Claw or the very Spiral Shell of the Dark Star Universe itself?!? Coming back to Earth, I began a series of 12 of these sumi-e/black ink half-smiling snails to help me unravel or complexify or resolve this non-quandary moment of Lightning Snails as visual mnemonics of zen practice & letting go of concepts & will probably do more in the future when I get stuck overthinking/overthinging my everyday ordinary kerfuffles. Gliding sublime over slime versus putting your finger in a spinal socket or popping a gummy before zazen? You decide. At a minim, I hope you enjoy a “Moment of Calm”, when you gaze at my lil friend in his golden frame:) & maybe remember Dada or nada or living to be a centenarian!? ;)…..Peace….. Gassho, Un Ryu / John Marron Dr. Fuji Marronzola