Tuesday, May 17, 2011

It's Not About the Images


While there is perhaps
a province in which the
photograph can tell us
nothing more than what
we see with our own eyes,
there is another in which
it proves to us how
little our eyes
permit us to see.
(1895 - 1965)

"Writing is not about words.
Painting is not about pigments.
Music is not about tones.
As long as photographers
insist that photography
is about photographs,
the art is limited
and self-containing."
(Issue 18, Summer 1997)

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Quiet Mind


"Learn to be silent.
Let your quiet mind
listen and absorb."

“Only in quiet waters things
mirror themselves undistorted.
Only in a quiet mind is
adequate perception
of the world.”
- Hans Margolius

Friday, May 13, 2011

Seeing Is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees


"There is simply no real separation line,
only an intellectual one,
between the object and its time-environment.
They are completely interlocking:
nothing can exist in the world
independent of all the other things in the world."
Artist (1928 - )

Sunday, May 08, 2011

Self-Same Distinctions


"A monk once asked Shao-shan,
'Is there any phrase which
is neither right or wrong?'
Shao-shan answered,
'A piece of white cloud
does not show any ugliness.'"
- Shao-shan's Phrase koan

"Where others dwell,
I do not dwell.
Where others go,
I do not go.
This does not mean to
refuse association with others;
I only want to make
black and white distinct.""
- Pai-yun's Black and White koan

Sunday, May 01, 2011

Nature's Dance


"O body swayed to music,
O brightening glance,
How can we know the dancer
from the dance?"
(1865 - 1939)

"The wild geese do not intend to cast their reflection; the water has no mind to receive their image... the general tendency of the Western mind is to feel that we do not really understand what we cannot represent, what we cannot communicate by linear signs - by thinking. We are like the "wallflower" who cannot learn a dance unless someone draws him a diagram of the steps."

Postscript: fans of Alan Watts will want to check out the new Alan Watts documentary film In The Way, that recently got "kickstarted" on kickstarter.com. Can't wait for the release!

Saturday, April 30, 2011

Stillness


"The practice of true reality
is simply to sit serenely
in silent introspection.
When you have fathomed this,
you cannot be turned around
by external causes
and conditions.
This empty,
wide open mind is subtly
and correctly illuminating."
Buddhist monk
(1091–1157)

"Men cannot see their reflection in running water, but only in still water. Only that which is itself still can still the seekers of stillness...if water derives lucidity from stillness, how much more the faculties of the mind! The mind of the sage, being in repose, becomes the mirror of the universe."
(4th century BCE)

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Eternity

"Underneath the superficial self, which pays attention to this and that, there is another self more really us than I. And the more you become aware of the unknown self — if you become aware of it — the more you realize that it is inseparably connected with everything else that is. You are a function of this total galaxy, bounded by the Milky Way, and this galaxy is a function of all other galaxies. You are that vast thing that you see far, far off with great telescopes. You look and look, and one day you are going to wake up and say, "Why, that's me!" And in knowing that, you know that you never die. You are the eternal thing that comes and goes that appears — now as John Jones, now as Mary Smith, now as Betty Brown — and so it goes, forever and ever and ever."
(1915 - 1973)

“Our theories of the eternal
are as valuable as are
those which a chick
which has not broken
its way through its shell
might form of
the outside world.”
(563-483 B.C.)