b'[Tom] Sitting in my studio one day, not knowing what toToward the end of that year we went to India, to the ash- When your real, effortless, joyful nature is realized, do with all these stones that completely surrounded me, myram of Ramana Maharshi at the foot of Mount Arunachala.it will not be inconsistent with the ordinary activities of life.eye fixed on one beautiful upright stone, and then on a hor- When I had first read Ramanas work, I was eighteen; that Ramana Maharshiizontal wavelike stone next to it. The horizontal stone had awas the beginning of my spiritual journey. Now, after twenty small natural niche on one side, and I set that on top of theyears of meditation and seven years as a monastic, I had some vertical piece. It fit nicely, but it wasnt stable. So I picked upinsight into who I was and why I was here and the potential a third stone and placed that as a counterweight. The threeof art to convey deep nonverbal meaning.stones fit together in perfect balance and unity.Part of spiritual awakening is the realization that Within a few hours, I made four different sculptures,you are always exactly where youre supposed to be, and stones moving around the studio as if bewitched by theyouve just got to wake up to it. In India I realized that the sorcerers apprentice. The joy of making art immediatelyexperience with stone after Raffertys death had revealed returned, a pure creative response to the material aroundwhere my creative focus was most inspired. I committed me. The experience was pure bliss. Its like youre hungry,to simply follow that passion. Neither Patty nor I knew you walk by a tree, and suddenly a perfectly ripe mangowhere that would lead, but we both saw how much it lifted falls into your hand.me up. I also saw very clearly that our land in Saugerties was, for me, like the Immovable Spot of the Buddha under the Bodhi Tree. Physically, the Immovable Spot is where you stand to realize truth. There is no center other than where you are at any moment. Iflike the Buddha on 6Raffertys Benchthe night he achieved enlightenmentyou can remain in place and not move until you realize the truth, your spot is transformed into Nirvana. After we returned home, I continued to paint. But I no longer thought of myself solely as a painter. My real joy was in composing found stones into sculptures and in building stone landscaping walls around the quarry pond and garden. We settled back into our ranch house, across the pond from Raffertys Bench. We set up a company for my stone work and called it Rafferty Rocks. We didnt yet know that Raffertys death, in turning my attention to the stone onour property, would in turn lead me from the painted canvas to three-dimensional form, where my longstanding A Joyful Discovery spiritual practice found expression in sacred geometry. And [Tom] I made my first found bluestone composition, In thewe certainly had no idea that the center of this Immovable Balance, in 1989. When I discov- Spot would be given form as a spiral house, a few hundred ered the potential for unity in this improbable trio of stones, feet up the hill, on what was then a large, uninviting field of I began a deep and joyful explo- quarry rubble. Raffertys last gift was to put us on the path ration of stone and of form that has lasted for decades. to that possibility.'