all reasoning is also intuition,
all observation is also invention.
- Milan Kundera (1929 - )
"The tides of time should be able to imprint the passing of the years on an object. The physical decay or natural wear and tear of the materials used does not in the least detract from the visual appeal, rather it adds to it. It is the changes of texture and color that provide the space for the imagination to enter and become more involved with the devolution of the piece. Whereas modern design often uses inorganic materials to defy the natural ageing effects of time, wabi sabi embraces them and seeks to use this transformation as an integral part of the whole. This is not limited to the process of decay, but can also be found at the moment of inception, when life is taking its first fragile steps toward becoming."
- Italo Calvino (1923 - 1985)
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler
- Ramana Maharshi (1879 - 1950)
"In a forest of a hundred thousand trees,
no two leaves are alike.
And no two journeys along
the same path are alike."
- Paulo Coelho (1947 - )
Aleph
- Michael Frame (1951 - )
Geometry of Grief
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832)
- Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862)
- D.T. Suzuki (1870 - 1966)
An Introduction to Zen Buddhism
- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881 - 1955)
Hymn of the Universe
“So I say to you –
This is how to contemplate our
conditioned existence in this fleeting world:
'Like a tiny drop of dew,
or a bubble floating in a stream;
Like a flash of lightning
in a summer cloud,
Or a flickering lamp, an illusion,
a phantom, or a dream.'
'So is all conditioned
existence to be seen.'
Thus spoke Buddha."
- Ansel Adams (1902 - 1984)
Letter to Alfred Stieglitz
Postscript. The purest simplest joy of life is life itself: living, being, breathing, seeing, feeling, sharing, ... But there are preternaturally precious moments when the experience is so all-consuming and so far transcends what words alone are incapable of revealing (though the wisest among us are sometimes able, in Zen-like fashion, to capture glimpses of the deepest truths), that one is simply lost in the Einsteinian awe of it all ("I have nothing but awe when I observe the laws of nature," as quoted in Einstein and the Poet). For me, this happens (alas, far less frequently than I wish) when I become "lost" amidst the "macro and the micro"; when otherwise arbitrary language-driven distinctions among trees and forest and leaves and space and time ... all dissolve and become one and inseparable. A feeling that seems to be also shared by my eldest son, Noah, who is seen here contemplating his own universe of mysteries by the side of a small footpath he and I took this weekend in a local park:
- Paul Bowles (1910 - 1999)
The Spider's House
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 - 1882)
Kavanagh
- Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934 - 2021)
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
Postscript. Sadly, the deeply inspirational Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi passed away on Oct 20, 2021. He joins an (equally sadly) growing number of spiritual/aesthetic mentors of mine that I have never had the pleasure of meeting in person (the last such being John Daido Loori, who passed away in 2009). I have written of applying Csikszentmihalyi's "flow" to photography a number of years ago on this blog (almost exactly 13 years ago, to be precise), but the wisdom and insights he leaves behind are of course timeless. Here is a link to a great TED talk that Csikszentmihalyi gave in 2004. May your soul forever revel in eternal flow, Mihaly!
- Benjamin Hoff (1946 - )
The Tao of Pooh
- Jorge Luis Borges (1899 - 1986)
“Mirrors” in Dreamtigers