Geese appear high over us,
pass, and the sky closes. Abandon,
as in love or sleep, holds
them to their way, clear
in the ancient faith: what we need
is here. And we pray, not
for new earth or heaven, but to be
quiet in heart, and in eye,
clear. What we need is here.

~ Wendell Berry: The Wild Geese

Source: The Nonduality Highlights and Poetry Chaikana
Image: Alan Larus

Transcending cynicism and irony

New paintings by Claude Smith

Claude Smith, a native New Yorker, has been committed to the process of painting for nearly fifty years.  Art, and painting in particular, has been a means of examining life, and his place in the world.  On what Smith calls his “path of obscurity”, he has chosen to explore the boundaries of life and death, form and emptiness, and impermanence.  His primary influences are Taoist philosophy, the natural world, Zen calligraphy, jazz, and the music of 20th century composers like Toru Takemitsu, and John Cage.

Smith’s current body of work emerged out of his dialogues with musician and writer, Richard Osborn. Smith was questioning the function of painting in today’s world, positing that photography, film, video, and audio were far more potent mediums for story telling, and for making social and political statements … leaving painting to do, what?  That discussion led Smith to examine the concept of “Joy”, which seems to be well represented in the realms of music, dance, theater, literature, and film, but conspicuously absent in the history of painting.  ”Why is that?  Is it too difficult to access and find a means to express “Joy”?  Is it socially unacceptable?  Not hip enough?  Not cynical or hard-edge enough for today’s culture?, Smith wondered.

Never bound by art-world trends, Smith set sail for what was personally unfamiliar territory, in search of unspeakable joy and a way to authentically communicate his experiences.  The resulting series of paintings are visceral, energetic and joyful expressions of color, rhythm and form.

Gallery MUJO, 548 South Spring St, Los Angeles, Ca.
February 4-29, 2012. Reception: February 18, 5-8 p.m.
http://tinyurl.com/ineffableshow

also see

miró, joy and claude smith

Claude Smith’s website

Claude Smith at the awakened eye website

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When all thoughts
are exhausted

I slip into the woods
and gather
a pile of shepherd’s purse.

Like the little stream
making its way
through the mossy crevices

I, too, quietly
turn clear and transparent.

- Ryokan

Image source

The mind thinks that there is an observer, an independent you, and that is what is doing the observing.

But really there isn’t someone who is observing.

Consciousness is conscious.

Awareness is aware.

Observing is observing.

~ Adyashanti

For more Adyashanti ‘observations’ visit
the awakened eye website
Adyashanti.org

~

In a similar vein:
everything is this Knowing
carse, katz, and the vast view
welcoming the Totality

~

Haiku is an open-eyed engagement with the word and with the world.  It is not so much what paints itself on the retina as what resonates – through one or more of the senses – with the human spirit.  Haiku moments, in all their purity, surprise us when – and only when – we have achieved passive, non-striving awareness.
~ Gabriel Rosenstock
Haiku Enlightenment

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sickle moon -

reaping

emptiness

.

~ Haiku by Gabriel Rosenstock

Please visit the awakened eye website for more of Gabriel’s writing and haiku HERE

Also new on the site –  photo-haiga by Gabriel in creative collusion with photographer Ron Rosenstock

~ image

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Gratitude to Sandra Pawula for sharing this deeply moving video from Louie Schwartzberg on her inspiring blog – http://alwayswellwithin.com

The voice of the older gentleman belongs to Brother David Steindl-Rast: http://www.gratefullness.org

“Please pass on some happiness and joy
by sharing the link with a friend.”

~

Fate Map by Tess Cummins, 1998
7.75 x 9.75 x 4.75 inches
Copper sheet and wire, mahogany

It took a while for my ‘otherness’ within the art world to sink in but eventually it did so, when discussion of formal things was apparently not meant to include that beingness, nor nonlocality, non-duality or encounters with shamanic or mystical awareness.  These were not to be included in the aesthetic conversation.

Eventually I settled with a confidence that the works communicate ALL kinesthetically and that if a viewer allowed the slow unfolding of their content then, perhaps, eventually it would move into their hearts, their minds, and emerge as articulated sound…

~ Tess Cummins

More …

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.

There is no observer.
Experience is self-knowing.
Awareness is not observing experience.
Experience is awareness.
Perceptions are awareness.
They are not happening to someone.
The happening is its own knowing of itself.
Everything is this Knowing.
To the mind it seems there is an observer or receiver of experience.
Everything self-liberates into itself.

~ Jackson Peterson

Image: Dennis Cordell

She was born into
this extraordinary world;
a living planet,
a dancing of millions of interdependent species,
this mystery that grows us;
flowerings of wonderment, reverence and awe.

It’s what we are.
It’s what we’re in.

It’s who we’re with.
It’s where we are,
and . . .
why we are.

~ Tarchin Hearn

This is a short introduction to a new addition to the awakened eye website from eco-poet and Dharma teacher Tarchin Hearn. Please visit the site to read the entire wondrous piece which echoes back to the traditional practice of making one’s own robe (kesa) on ordination.

Artwork by Ueda Kyoko - ’Her Life’ 2010 – Kinushi Silk dyed with red iron oxide, 37.5 x 53 inches

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When thought ceases, so do I.
I die to the molecular world around me: the birds and cars and people and expressways. The trees and buildings and rivers and neon signs.
I am the puzzle piece fitting perfectly into those around me.
Out an airplane window I am an imperceptible dot in a sprawling, seamless mosaic.
In death I awaken to this heavenly perspective at ground level.
~ John Ptacek

www.johnptacek.com

Image source: The Village Web