Art as Invocation

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What a blessing it has been to display my art at Boulder Shamhbala Center, a place graced over the years by so many realized beings — those whose message of spontaneous awareness have woven through our hearts year after year.

I remember standing at the foot of our stairs on Cascade Street and presenting Rinpoche with a calligraphy I’d brushed that said True Heart in Chinese characters. It was 1980 and I’d practiced for months, and finally assembled a character properly.
He smiled broadly — more animated toward me than usual. “You have done this before,” he said, delighted.

Something in me exhaled. I’d found a language I could speak with him. At last I had a place to channel my chi and a meditative way to do it. My art had no discipline before — I painted like a mad woman. Now I had brush, ink, and twelve strokes.

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MARLOW BROOKS, calligrapher, writer, teacher, and Five Element Plant Spirit Healer, began her study of Asian calligraphy in 1980 and over the years collaborated in shows with Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Kobun Otogawa Roshi, Shibata Sensei, Tenzin Wangyal, and others. Since 1997, she has taught Chinese Medicine at Naropa University and conducts private classes worldwide in Asian calligraphy and Plant Spirit Healing. Marlow’s work has appeared over the years in international exhibitions throughout Asia and North America, and was a featured artist in a CCTV documentary on Chinese Calligraphy aired throughout China, Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan. Marlow has published three books; The Way Through, Words of the Heart, and Singing Our Hearts Song: A Guide To The Five Elements and Plant Spirit Healing.