Souls Center Prayer Flags

​Thank you for your interest in Souls Center’s Prayer Flags.
Here’s the story of how they came to be.
More than a year ago, I mentioned wanting a logo for Souls Center but didn’t have any idea how to begin such a project. A sangha member, who would prefer to remain anonymous, took up that baton and penciled out the initial design. I loved it immediately. Then I watched myself do nothing with it for months and months. I can't explain it, but one day it was time to dust off the drawing and get it to someone who could really help me. I sent Thom Tran the design along with a photograph I took re-creating the drawing using pebbles I found along a beach in the Olympic peninsula. Thom was able to capture the image perfectly. The logo you see on the website reflects his mastery. Thom is the creator of the Recovery Dharma spreadsheet that lists all the Recovery Dharma meetings all over the world. His commitment to the program is extraordinary.
I had the logo. I was ready to create merchandise. But friends, I couldn’t make another coffee mug and I don’t wear t-shirts as much as you might love one. I wanted something different. Something new. I started thinking about the message I want to send through Souls Center. The prayers that I want to live and breathe and share.

Then it hit me. Prayer Flags! I told Loh, Souls Center tech-master extraordinaire, who elevates all the magic that happens at Souls Center, “I need to find someone who makes prayer flags!” That was all it took. Loh was online searching and found the only custom prayer flag maker in the US.

West Wind Flags, created by France Robinson. Loh told me she took one look at France Robinson and knew I would love her. She was absolutely right. I went to France’s website: westwindcollection.com and fell madly in love with her work. Right after that, I got scared. I’d have to design the flags myself! I had the logo but I didn’t have anything else.
Suddenly my habit energy around fear and doubt started to arise. Namely, when I start thinking I can’t do something or when something seems too difficult and challenging, I walk away. I distract myself. I put the task at the bottom of the list and bury it under a heap of to do’s. This is where creative possibility goes to die. I watched myself initiate this familiar routine and then I paused and told myself gently, “Julia. Sweetheart. You can do this. You will do this! Go do this!” So I went to a design site a friend told me about and started playing with options that matched the drawings I had sketched.
I had been teaching about the 4 Noble Truths in Buddhism
~There is Suffering
~There is a Cause to suffering
~There is an end to suffering
~There is a way to the end of suffering called
          The Noble EightFold Path of Wise Understanding, Wise Intention, Wise Action, Wise Speech,
          Wise Effort,Wise Livelihood, Wise Mindfulness and Wise Concentration
This is the foundation of the Buddhist practice. Anyone venturing into the spiritual practices of Buddhism will encounter these teachings repeatedly.
As much as I respect and honor the tradition, I often found myself hung up on the words. Especially the word suffering. There have been times in my life where I was truly suffering and many other times where I just pissed off or annoyed or uncomfortable in my own skin. I wasn’t suffering in the truest sense of the word but I was still uncomfortable and searching for ways to make myself feel better. It was during these times, the every day mundane aspects of living when I really needed practice. But the traditional 4 Noble Truths and complimentary EightFold Path often landed in my mind and heart as a little too monastic and religious. Language fit for Sunday worship. What I needed was something for everyday.
I re-imagined the 4 Noble Truths for Souls Center prayer flags placing the logo at the center, where we reside in Mystery.
4 Noble Truths
Discomfort Conditions Harmony Practice
There is Discomfort in life. Discomfort is anything that inhibits loving- kindness, compassion, joy, and freedom.
~Being With Discomfort awakens Wholeness.~
There are Conditions, causes, reasons for discomfort. The weather. Unmet expectations. Aches and pains in the body. Conditions are ever present and constantly changing.
~Understanding Conditions encourages openness and flexibility.~
There is Harmony when the positives of my life, what I desire, and the negatives of my life, what I resist or reject, come together.
~Harmony is the alchemy of all Light and Shadow.~
The opportunities and possibilities to explore discomfort, conditions and harmony are infinite with Practice.
~The Practice is an invitation to Be: Curious, Spacious,
Real, Patient, Present, Whole, Kind, and New.~ (the re-imagine Noble Eightfold Path.)
I sent my designs to France. After a lot of emailing, phone calling, virtual hand-holding and loads of laughing, she sent the designs to a family in Nepal. Kuisang and her family are 3rd generation silk screeners and live in a suburb of Kathmandu comprised mostly of Buddhist practitioners. I felt a bit shy about changing the traditional language of a Buddhist Tradition that holds a lot of cultural value and meaning that I will never understand as a white American western woman. I asked France to make sure Kuisang was all right with the project. I was assured repeatedly that they were thrilled.
The whole endeavor was an extraordinary experience of trust and wonder.
​Persistence and care.
May these prayer flags hold your prayers, aspirations and motivations. If you hang them outside, may their goodness partnered with yours ride the winds around the globe touching people with tenderness and joy.

May these prayer flags be symbols of mindfulness calling our attention to the reality that every moment of every day is an opportunity to practice and become the best version of ourselves.

May these prayer flags express the enormous power of co-creation in community.

May these prayer flags be a token of Loving-Kindness, Compassion, Joy and Freedom to all living beings everywhere.
​
Thank you for your support and generosity.
​~Julia
December 2022