Thoughts!
Creativity is our birthright. It is an integral part of being human, as basic as walking, talking and thinking.
John Daido Loori
Stopping and Seeing
Wei-tse (d. 1348)
“Calmness and insight develop through stilling thoughts: the mind of the buddhas manifests therein.” This saying seems to refer to cessation and observation, or stopping and seeing.
The ocean of nature to which all things alike return is essentially united, quiet, always clear and calm. When it is stirred by the influences of conditions, then billows of consciousness and waves of emotion well up in ten thousand ways. If not for stopping, there is no way to clarify its clarity and calm its calmness.
The cosmos of reality completely manifesting unity is always evident and always clear when views are gone and things disappear. As soon as it is obscured by the dust of behavioural and intellectual obstructions, then the fog of confusion and clouds of delusion coalesce into myriad forms. If not for seeing, there is no way to bring to light its evident clarity.
“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few”
― Shunryu Suzuki
"When gifts are given to me through my camera, I accept them graciously." - Minor White
"…in a way—nobody sees a flower—really—it is so small—we haven’t time—and to see takes time like to have a friend takes time." -Georgia O'Keeffe
"The quieter you become, the more you can hear."
It's all about the light!
It's all about the light.
'It's all about the natural light'
For the past few years I've been posting photos with the 'It's all about the light' caption. Sporadically, so people wouldn't get overwhelmed or bored by them, since in photography, as in other mediums, it is all about the light.
Today, it struck me... the light I am expressing is not manufactured in a darkroom or on a computer...it is natural light.
It's fine that manufactured light is creating some wonderful images, however, that is not the light that fascinates me.
'It's all about the natural light'...You know...the light that Mother Nature provides for you to see.
"We are all constantly in the midst of light. We are surrounded, bathed, and nourished by it. This miracle we call light can transform. It can teach, reveal, evoke, and heal. It speaks in many voices. We tend to see light as something that makes form visible, but light reveals much more. It reveals us. In the subtle, soft undulations of a snowscape illuminated by an overcast sky, in the raw presence of a backlighted, towering, ancient oak, both subject and photographer are revealed. Light makes visible the invisible. It can show us love where there seems to be only a rotting log or a solitary rock perched on a ledge. Sometimes the subject is illuminated by light, sometimes the subject is illumination itself. Then the subject itself glows; there are no shadows."... From the book..'Making Love with Light',
Contemplating Nature with Words and Photographs
By John Daido Loori