Archive for November, 2007
homage to frederick franck
“The meaning of life is to see.”
Rather than artist, sculptor, writer, or philosopher, Frederick Franck liked to call himself an image-maker. He was a true Renaissance Man, writing books and creating images until his death at 94. His first book – The Zen of Seeing
Many years after that first introduction, I was blessed to attend a 4-day Easter Zen of Seeing retreat with Frederick Franck in Cornwall. Perhaps I’ll write about that in another posting. But here I wish to bow deeply in gratitude to a man who knew what it means to be fully human, and who was able to awaken me to authentic seeing and drawing.
It wasn’t just any old seeing that he referred to in his quote above; he knew what it meant to encounter non-dual awareness. For him it was a direct impulse from heart-seeing to hand-scribbling with no loop through the labeling and categorizing part of the brain. It was seeing without the shadows of conditioning, and marvelling at what turned up on the paper.
Dove
City: -5 degrees
Unkillable Human
Find more info about Frederick Franck here.
seeing without shadows
the awakened eye is the eye that perceives without labeling – we could also call it the innocent eye, or the eye of beginner’s mind.
Many artists and artisans have understood that the practice of drawing and engaging in creative encounters in the visual arts can – by making obvious one’s conditioned reactions – open the mind to another way of seeing, a way that transcends habitual dualistic assumptions.
There have been, and are, many wise teachers who speak of this transcendence of duality as one’s original or true state – a state which we seem compelled to seek and reject simultaneously. Their teachings are sometimes referred to as advaita, which means ‘one without a second’ – or more simply, non-duality. In this context the awakened eye is synonymous with the awakened I; this topic forms the wider agenda of this blog.
This blog – and the website - have been conceived as places where ideas and teachings on this topic put forward by artists, educators, scientists, philosophers, sages and saints, can be accessed. There will also be personal notes from she-who-scribbles, and hopefully plenty of useful links.
The title offers a bow of respect and gratitude to Frederick Franck, a true Renaissance Man, and one of my most influential teachers.
I hope you will find inspiration and encouragement here to support your inquiry, and that you realize that your awakened eye and your vast, open, non-dual understanding are here, this very moment, reading these words…
