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These two paintings, one on canvas and the other, digital, are from the same spirit. Both represent Chaos and Hope as converging realities where the endgame in the resolution of conflict is always positive and beneficial. Both offer spiritual illumination and wisdom as a path to Peace and Harmony. The path is via equanimity, inherent in coexistence and non-judgment. It is in the understanding that all things influence each other, and that the power of presence and awareness is a universal vital force that is in alignment with Divinity and Goodness. This vital force moves light as well as darkness, life as well as death, goodness as well as evil. Peace comes from knowing which alignment is beneficial in the long term.

Converging Realities – The Emergence of Being
Acrylics on canvas 24″ X 30″
April 2023

In Converging Realities – The Emergence of Being, multiple realities converge, yet coexist in a flattened timeline in a pictorial compositional division of four to one. Dark despair, chaos, and destruction are dominant in the upper square area (4/5) of the painting. Those realities range from old sea battles to modern bombed-out cities; from the mindless exploitation of the earth’s resources underlying the mercurial climatic changes that lead to killer cyclones, flooding, disastrous droughts and burning forests to the excessive unhealthy pollution of our air and waters. They are also in shining glass-towered metropolises that defy the gravity of an unfortunate human disconnect with Nature, and reflect, at the same time, monumental greed oozing from the sullied hands of indulgent individualism and consumerism. Near the centre of this multifaceted world in crisis is a vortex, rotating in an anticlockwise direction, and churning out much death and destruction. We are literally drowning in our own excessive obsession with wealth and privilege.

The bottom fifth of the painting expresses illumination of the human spirit coexisting harmoniously with the other realities, but from a space of deep consciousness. A golden aura radiates from a lone meditator, symbolic of divine presence. A second vortex appears on the left, rotating in a clockwise direction like a light warm breeze gently moving inland. The calm, powerful and radiant energy of this space mollifies the oil polluted river running through it, and allows a white lotus to bloom, symbol of purity, wisdom and resilience.

Phoenix’s Rising – Christina’s Woken
Original digital painting
April 2023

Phoenix’s Rising – Christina’s Woken: In a hypothetical near future, Chaos may seem victorious after defeating Liberty, the allegorical goddess-figure immortalized in Eugene Delacroix’s famous romantic era painting, Liberty Guiding the People, which represented the political upheavals in France during the early 1800s. Here the political upheaval is projected onto the American continent, where ironically, the Statue of Liberty, a gift of the French Republic, stands guard over all of Western Democracy. The potential death and destruction in any eventual civil conflict today are accentuated by some morbid images taken from Théodore Géricault’s The Raft of the Medusa. Another icon, taken from an American artist, Andrew Wyeth’s Christina’s World, symbolic of a traditional American ruralism, reinforces the resilience of the democratic spirit. With Liberty imaginably defeated in the flames of destruction of America’s great metropolis, she spectacularly reincarnates as Phoenix, rising out of the ashes, and bringing hope through light. Phoenix, with her gift to us of a large white lotus flower, symbolic of her wisdom and resilience, represents a not-so-new American ideal, and perhaps, a new democratic world order. She offers testimony and hope to American indigenous peoples, African-American descendants of enslaved people, all immigrants and refugees to America, then and now, from lands across the globe. She shows that perseverance in holding on to one’s dream, commitment to integrity, and sacrifice of immediate and superficial pleasures often follow a long and winding road to self-realization. Like the lotus flower that blossoms out of the mud, those that finally arrive home, understand that the route to get there was the real prize.

This blog is dedicated to my dear deceased friend, Rosie Sapadin, a French holocaust survivor, whose disposition, authenticity and gentleness despite her early challenges and later health issues will always be an inspiration to me; to Tirtzah, and our meditation group in Delray Beach, Florida, who allow me the space to grow and to share my idealism, my love and my conviction that we all can contribute in building a better world, one thought, one word, one action, one relationship and one community at a time.

Blessings,
Andrew
Pax, Lux et Amor

Please feel free to share your comments and your impressions below.
I invite you also to visit the different rooms in my Art Gallery.

I originally published this article on nonviolence many years ago on Facebook Notes. It was subsequently republished by Joanna Haynes on her website Caribbean Inspired …Globally Wired, under the section Men and their Stories. I think it is appropriate and necessary to publish it anew here on my “Peace Blog” given the palpable disquiet over the growing threat to the health of modern democracies provoked by the war in Ukraine and the many other fuming hotspots elsewhere across the planet.

We cannot truly walk the path of nonviolence and hope for durable peace until we come to terms with the violence that is both in us and around us. Violence has become so much part of our daily lives that many of us hardly even notice the insidious impact it has on our physical and mental health, as well as on our spiritual well-being. It is everywhere, in the media, on our streets, in our work places, in our schools, in our homes and sometimes in our intimate relationships. Many of us may or may not be aware of how, when and why we use violence as a means to satisfy our own needs. Some may not recognize that an unease they experience may be a result of violence. All violence is based on some inadequate strategy that is used to satisfy the need to control others. Perhaps it is in raising your voice to intimidate and impose your will; or sulking in order to manipulate compliance; or playing the victim to solicit sympathy or to make someone feel guilt; or in the attitude of the schoolyard bully that finds power through intimidating those he or she perceives as weak.

Whatever its form, an act of violence demonstrates a deficit in the ability to know and to communicate one’s emotional needs. It also shows a lack of respect for the integrity of other beings. It reveals weak self-esteem and limited self-awareness in spite of projected outer appearances. However you look at it, violence rides an immoral “low” road to desolation and chaos. On the contrary, self-restraint, ascends the moral “high” road to self-fulfillment and peace. The energy wasted in trying to control others would be better invested in controlling oneself wherein the dividends are vastly superior at all levels.

Many people have a limited perspective on what violence is and may see it only in its most dramatic manifestations. Violence has many different faces and may appear quite differently in a war zone than it would in a monastery. However, its roots are from the same soil: non-respect of one’s higher nature and the nonrecognition of the other as being part of the same divine consciousness. Our culture’s obsession with the physical world has created an uneasy separation of body, mind and spirit which conceals the unity inherent in universal order. 

When we understand that each one of us is a complex and organized system of cells, intelligent microorganisms and conscious energy; that we are an integral part of that magnificent system we call the universe; that our existence in this present moment occurs at the intersection of micro and macro universes, we will begin to see that all violence is malignant to our spiritual evolution and ultimately to our survival as the human race. I offer you a more holistic definition of violence that infers the element of spiritual unity. 

Violence is any thought, word or action, conscious or subconscious, that does not recognize the just value of a person (including oneself), of an animal or of all living beings including insects, trees and plants.

I consider “the just value of a person” as each living being’s existential right to dignity, integrity and the liberty to achieve his, her or its fullest potential. Consider that the ant and the bee are also systemic beings that function, like us, in a communal system and that they also play a vital role in our survival and that of the planet. From this perspective, animals, intelligent and sentient beings that they are, also possess personhood and like us, have evolved relatively complex communities for their survival. “Just value” also applies to the environment, for which deep respect flourishes from the understanding of the vital role nature plays in maintaining our well-being and our survival, individually and collectively. The endearment inherent in the terms Mother Nature and Mother Earth celebrates a symbolic ‘personhood’ of Nature and thus accords her rights. We cannot follow the path of nonviolence without experiencing the awe, the appreciation and the gratitude that comes from the realization that we are part of a living planet and a conscious universe; that we are part of the divine.

Nonviolence is not just an idea that preaches no violence, but a conscious commitment to follow a spiritual path to peace and self-realization. Where the shadow of violence is moral weakness, the light of nonviolence is spiritual strength. It is here, in the light beyond the shadows that we connect, you and I, united as spiritual brothers and sisters.

Andrew Lue-Shue
originally published in February 2017

Cliquez ici pour la version française du poème

Dear Mom, I wrote you this poem for Mother’s Day 16 years ago, yet the sentiments I expressed is as fresh today as it was then. Today is your 67th Mother’s Day and still counting as you continue to be Mom, not only to me and my siblings, but also to many others who had the luck to have known you. I vividly remember the teenagers and young adults in the neighbourhood on Chacon Street, San Fernando, who hung out at our home; I guess as a young mother, they responded kindly to your gentle nature. There were often kitchen activities and the smell of fresh-baked goodies in our home. I also remember the group physical fitness exercises and the sharing of knitting and crochet patterns. You were already then a role model for many, some of whom were soon to be newly wed. Perhaps this is where your cake baking and cake decorating talents developed. Mom, you were always curious, creative, generous and ready to share and to help others. I have noticed when I meet people who know you, they always speak to me about your kindness and your generosity.

Mom, today I honour you…
for all that you have done to show how deeply you cared about your family, friends and all the other people with whom you developed relationships over your 95 years on this Earth. Your actions have always shown us a devoted wife and mother, a virtuous and respectful person, a patient teacher, a good listener, a good friend and always a good spirit.

You were also a good cook and an excellent chauffeur (except for the time that you let dad’s classic MG Magnette 1958 roll down the steep driveway of our new home into the ravine on the other side of the empty lot in front of the house). You were always on the road: drive dad to work at Pointe-a-Pierre for 7 AM; return home to give us breakfast, then drive us to school; do your grocery shopping; return home to prepare lunch, then drive back to San Fernando, where you parked, near our schools, in Paradise Cemetery, and where we would go on our lunch break to have a hot meal in the car; you then would return home to finish your other chores and then back on the road to pick up Dad, and then us on Harris Promenade. Not to mention the additional trips for our other activities like private tutoring, scout activities and ballet classes, etc.

It is no mystery why you won a Courtesy Car Club (CCC) badge at the club’s dexterity trials. Under Dad’s time as president of the club, you were not only secretary, receptionist, switchboard operator… and literally chief cook and bottle washer, but you also actively participated in all the rallies, driving exercises and social activities. You were and still are a real cheerleader.

Today, for Mother’s Day, I offer you another badge:
The Mom of a Lifetime Award.

Thank you, Mom, for always being there for us and for all the loving things that you have done to ensure that we understand the true value of love. You showed us, by your example, that the currency of happiness is love and self-sacrifice. Today, I pay homage to you as a way to mirror your success. Your own quest for happiness has been more than fruitful and I wish that you profit well of it. I love you forever.

Happy Mother’s Day

With love from all of us:
Your children and children-in-law,
your grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

To speak of peace in this way may seem insensitive to the suffering that many Ukrainians are experiencing at this very moment as their security, their lives, their dreams, their illusions … are being pummelled by the narcissistic actions of a tyrant. I recognize that this way of looking at peace may even be a radical departure from our habitual ways of responding to aggression; a primal defensive reflex of fear and anger through which our very survival could depend. Yet, there is great courage and much wisdom in the notion of Peace as being inherent in the present moment and that we may find it by accepting what is; accepting reality as it presents itself. Yes, one may call it radical acceptance, and we can perceive it in the resolve demonstrated by the Ukrainian people presently under siege. To survive, they have had no choice than to accept the urgency of their reality as it is presenting itself and they are rising up stoically to the challenge of defending themselves. Acceptance is not submission; it is acknowledgement and non-denial, reinforced with discernment and assertiveness. It is grounded in truth, and thus, would resist conspiracy theories and alternative realities.

You may argue that it is pure folly to suggest that we should accept vulnerability in the face of grave danger. I can retort that in the practice of nonviolent communication, an honest acknowledgement of one’s vulnerability can be a powerful and effective tool in disarming the threat of an adversary by appealing to his or her innate compassionate response. But that is not what is suggested by radical acceptance. I admit that radical acceptance is based on a deep spiritual point of view, and could be a difficult concept to grasp, and even more so, to put into action. It requires much effort and due diligence to change a paradigm that is deeply rooted in our primal responses. Byron Katie’s iconic book “Loving What Is” is a highly transformative spiritual psychotherapy about which she rightly calls “The work.”

Our primal reaction to a dangerous threat is fear which triggers our inherent survival toolkit of fight, flight, freeze. After all, this has allowed us to survive as an intelligent species up to now. However, fear is the antithesis of Peace, and even as a strong vibrational energy, it is still, by far, less powerful than that of peace. Although fear triggers an alert to dangers that may help us prepare an adequate defence, it could also reduce our capacity to fight by provoking an inefficient panic response. However, if it is modulated by calm presence, moral resolve and a strong will, it may give us a defensive edge in challenging an adversary, as in the story of David and Goliath. Of course, flight is always an option and the sudden flow of adrenaline may well give us superhuman speed, but in some instances we may not be able to outrun the danger. Freeze may work too, but your fear-induced heartbeat may not fool a cunning fox. Then again, the wisdom to choose the best course of action in the moment comes from peaceful presence or mindfulness. As long as a defence strategy stays within moral and ethical boundaries, it has a moral argument and the power of peace will be in its favour.

The capacity to remain in calm presence and to act with moral clarity comes through spiritual connection from the heart-space, the abode of Peace. The foundation of the heart-space is built from gratitude, joy, loving kindness, compassion, understanding and universal love. To have ready access to this connection, we must cultivate its building blocks in our daily lives. This is the foundational teaching of every religion on Earth. Peace doesn’t disappear behind the dark clouds of chaos and turbulence; it always shines through to the calm mind and the pure heart.

As you have seen, fear is a necessary survival tool; it is an emotion that instructs us about imminent dangers and prepares us to act in defence. However, as it is often the case in our busy modern lives, a state of constant fear is a serious affliction that depletes our vital energy and leaves us on a spiral of suffering and depression. Peace, on the other hand, is not an emotion, but an elevated state of consciousness. Its energy field is extremely powerful and it is impervious to the sapless energy of negative judgments. However, these judgments, usually born out of fear and ignorance, will block the path to peace and leave us more vulnerable. Negative judgments bring negative energy into our reality and weaken us. Also, Peace is not a passive phenomenon; its energy is not generated from brute force, but it radiates quietly with cosmic power.

This powerful vibrational state of Peace is sourced in the energy field of life itself, which some call God, some Light, and others, Consciousness; it is this all-powerful and intelligent energy field that manifests everything that exists in the universe. It is a universal creative platform from where we all came and to where we will eventually return. We can see it expressed in the magnificent glow of the lotus bloom that evolved from murky mud beds of a stagnant pond. We can see it expressed in the same way in the tiger and the elephant, in the dolphin and the shark, in the eagle and the dove. It is also why we can perceive it in the sunrise and the sunset, in the forest and in the sea. Peace can equally find its expression in art as in war. It is up to us, as individuals, to understand how our personal life choices, through our thoughts, our words and our actions, influence our world and create our reality.

Peace is who we are at our essence, if we let it be.

May peace reign in the hearts of the people of Ukraine…
and also find a path to the hearts of tyrants.

Andrew Lue-Shue
February 2022

In memory of the 2nd anniversary of the passing away of our dad,
Neville Lue Shue on January 26, 2020.

The substance of this poem presented itself to me three mornings ago while I was semi-awake in my bed. Some of it was almost word for word, but mostly it was a sentiment of presence like a faint whisper from someone yet unseen. I awoke in a particularly peaceful mood and proceeded to give form to my inspiration, knowing intuitively that it would serve my expression to Dad’s memory today. In this presentation, I added one of the black and white photos from his photography work in the earlier days of my childhood. A time from when I hold deep memories of him working in his darkroom, the smell of the chemicals and the magic of images appearing on film in the red light. I remember him giving me a Kodak Brownie camera when I was about 7 years old and then an old Twin Lens Rolleiflex camera by age 10. Dad eventually gave up photography and concentrated on camera repairs as a sideline. Although I never took up photography on a professional scale, I have always dabbled in it and once bought myself a second-hand Ricoh camera at university from a professional photographer. That camera served me very well to take slides of my artwork, much of which I have now digitized. I have also photographed some of dad’s old prints and digitized some of his own slides.

The camera captures much more than images on the other side of the lens, it also captures the thoughts and the spirit of the photographer. Today, I can perceive Dad’s loving spirit in the many photos that he took of Mom, my younger sister, Deborah and I. I am deeply grateful for all those photographs that documented a time from our past and help us remember how he expressed his love; a love that never dies. I share some of these photos here as testimony of Dad’s devotion to his family. Dad, although these photos are frozen in time, through your own eyes then, we can see you again today. Today, your family raises a toast to you in heaven. Know that you too are beloved.