Our traveling group was very cohesive and I found it difficult to find the time alone to paint. After a few days of our retreat at Maratika, the remote cave in Nepal which was the final destination of our pilgrimage, I had a free hour. I climbed to the top of the tree-covered mound over the cave. Just as I was beginning to paint, a young Nepali man strolled over to say hello to me. He sat down on the ground beside me and asked to see what I was doing. He could speak enough English to converse and was a very calm and gentle man. He leafed through my drawing tablet, pointing to the shapes and calling out the name for each subject; “mountain,” “bird,” “cloud.” Although I was in a fairly agitated state in my attempt to do some painting, his “interruption” had a calming effect on me. Be the time he left, my hour was up, but at least I had calmed down.
As I was trying to decide whether to play hookey from the group activity which was convening down below, I saw the first “energy body.” It was in the rock next to me. The basic rectangular shape was clearly delineated by heavy cracks, and within it was a network of more delicate lines. I stayed another hour and did my first three rubbings of energy bodies.
On my last night in Kathmandu before departing for Maratika, I had ventured into the marketplace to buy a supply of Nepali paper, a thin but tough paper made of plant fibers. It was exactly what I needed for the rubbings. I used water color crayons to pick up the impression of the rock surfaces on the paper.
When I returned back home to my studio, this first energy body rubbing inspired the painting of “Being.” The symbols in the blue body of the figure were not apparent to me until I started to transcribe them into the painting.