Featured Student – Gloria!

This is the first in a series of posts highlighting the work of my Stitching Buddhas virtual apprentices.

I have the extraordinary fortune of working with an amazing group of creative, spiritually-oriented, growth-hungry, meticulous and awe-inspiring women from around the globe. I do my best to pass on from china to them a bit of what I learned from my teachers in Dharamsala. These women blow me away with what they glean through the web and through our conversations.

I can’t keep them a secret any longer. You have to see what these women produce!

First, allow me to introduce you to Gloria Gates.

Gloria comes from Yorkville, Illinois and joined the Stitching Buddhas program just over a year ago.

Here’s how she found her way to Stitching Buddhas:

Gloria Gates

I have been very lucky in the last few years to meet and become friends with some wonderful Tibetan monks from the Drepung, Gomang, Monastery in India. I have had some very long and in-depth conversations with these very dear friends. One of these friends, Geshe Lobsang Dhondup, talked to me about a friend of his who was a thangka painter. He mentioned that she also teaches thangka painting and drawing, and he gave me her name: Carmen Mensink.

When I looked up her website and saw what a talented thangka painter she was, I so wanted to take a class with her and learn to create these beautiful and meaningful pictures myself. But, alas I am not a painter. And I do not draw very well ether. As I explored her website, I found a page listing people who inspire her. There I found the link to Leslie’s website.

I ordered the Creating Buddhas DVD, and after watching this wonderful and inspirational story, I knew this was what I wanted to do. Although I can not paint, I can sew!

And this is one of the best and most fulfilling things I have ever done. It is creative and spiritual and very helpful to my Buddhist practice.

And I have met a wonderful group of stitching Buddhas here also. Thank you Leslie for teaching this wonderful spiritual sewing course.

The projects that I learned the most from, I would have to say, are the offering bowl and offering clouds. Those two projects taught me so much. I learned to be more patient. And I renewed my rusty skills on lining up appliqué pieces.

And I tried, for the first time, making large and small versions of the same piece. It also taught me more about the deep spiritual meaning of the images of the thangka.

To learn more about the Stitching Buddhas Virtual Apprentice Program click on the “Teaching” tab above.