Archive for August, 2009
…and colour was god
The earth was the heavens and the heavens the earth. Everything was alive and bursting with colour and colour was god, not the god of man. The hills became transparent, every rock and boulder was without weight, floating in colour and the distant hills were blue, the blue of all the seas and the sky of every clime. The ripening rice fields were intense pink and green, a stretch of immediate attention. And the road that crossed the valley was purple and white, so alive that it was one of the rays that raced across the sky. You were of that light, burning, furious, exploding, without shadow, without root and word. And as the sun went further down, every colour became more violent, more intense and you were completely lost, past all recalling. It was an evening that had no memory.
~ J Krishnamurti
Krishnamurti’s Notebook
Painting by Fritz Raugh
source – Fritz Raugh’s website
closer than close
Is there an eternal part of ourselves? What has lasting meaning? Where do we find certainty? Rather than philosophical discussion, this film explores the possibility of living a life devoted to a search for answers, and the radical possibility that answers exist, closer than we can imagine, within our selves.
“Closer Than Close is a deftly crafted and poignant tale that weaves the stories of a handful of seekers bivouacked at various stages along the spiritual path with the straight-talk wisdom of three extraordinary individuals who have seemingly put an end to seeking. This juxtaposition creates a compelling resonance in which we can see (if the angle of light is just so) that the seekers and those that have stopped seeking are closer than we think. These are real stories of struggle and despair, friendship and hope, but above all, insight. Put this video on your list, better yet put it in your player and see what happens.”
~ John Kain
source – poetry in motion films
Film maker Shawn Nevins works full-time as a naturalist with the Louisville Metro Parks system. His creative endeavors include poetry which has appeared in several publications, co-editing a collection of spiritual essays, poems, and photographs, and a growing interest in photography.
Shawn also has a helpful and informative website which offers “Ratings of spiritual teachers, guidelines for choosing a teacher, reviews of spiritual movies and books, discussion boards, and links to other spiritual sites.” http://www.spiritualteachers.org/
hearing with the eye
How can we hear with the eye and see with the ear? We must first set down ‘the pack’ – the ideas, notions and positions that separate us from reality. We must take off the blinkers that limit our vision, and see for ourselves that originally there are no seams, flaws or gaps between us and the whole phenomenal universe. The 10,000 things are in reality neither sentient nor insentient; the selfish neither sentient nor insentient. Because of this, the teachings of the insentient cannot be perceived by the senses.
John Daido Loori, Male Stone
16 x 20cms
Fujix Print
~ rock and water
ceaselessly
practice together ~
Many people think the teachings of the insentient are similar if not equivalent to the teachings we receive from sentient beings. But hearing the teachings of the insentient is not a matter of ordinary consciousness. How then can they be heard? When body and mind have fallen away, in the stillness that follows, the teachings are intimately manifested in great profusion. Whether we are aware of it or not, they are always taking place. The teachings of the insentient are about intimacy, not words.
~ John Daido Loori, Sensei. From his book “Making Love with Light”
Text and image copyright John Daido Loori.
Find more wisdom and photography from John Daido Loori at the awakened eye website.
awareness cannot be seen or known
That we know this awareness exists means only that we have an idea of awareness.
We do not see that awareness as itself an object, nor can we ever do so.
If we are to know the awareness by itself, first we would have to drop knowing its objects, its reflections in thought, including the ego-thought, and then be it, not see it.
~ Paul Brunton, Notebooks
