i see your hand like this and so i wonder of the nature of what we might hold. plainly, nothing. we can hold nothing, but just as this light comes to you, so do other transient and incorporeal experiences, people, love. we stay warm in the light.
Sunyata:in Buddhist philosophy, the voidness that constitutes ultimate reality; sunyata is seen not as a negation of existence but rather as the undifferentiation out of which all apparent entities, distinctions, and dualities arise. ~~ dictionary.com
This is what I found on Dharmata : Dharmata is the naked, unconditioned truth, the nature of reality, or the true nature of phenomenal existence.
“There is no emptiness without appearance, and there is no appearance without emptiness. That is what we call the interdependent nature.” ~Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche
Back in High School I loved reading about Buddism :)))
as i was just talking with erin about him, a line from one of Cohen's songs comes to my mind: There is a crack in everything/ That's how the light gets in. of course, one could say that there is a crack in us too, no matter how many walls we build around ourselves - but one could also say that we ourselves, our existence, is the crack through which light enters the world, the need and possibility for grace, because the world in itself doesn't need and know light as grace, simply doesn't 'know'...
as such emptiness is empty, empty even of emptiness.
it occurs to me that erin recently told me that she feels too light in the light, as if she might float away. i think one has to have a sense of humor about dissolving in the light. ohhh, i just hate darkness is all!
The way I wish I could lead my life... this picture. I don't succeed, but the path is the thing. This photo just captured me.
(Thank you for your words on my blog as well. A great deal of what I paint brings a moment, a past emotion, a season TO me as I work. I had never thought of it that way.)
erin: it is one of those paradoxes that untie opposites, as we have discussed often -- just as the most intense being is close to extinction, so we hold everything, the closer our approach to holding nothing, so the light warms us as it erases is, so we hold love when we hold death ...
Liz: i could almost be a buddhist, except that i can't want the eliminating of suffering by eliminating desire ... i agree that desire causes suffering -- but i want desire ... and i'm not even sure that i want to eliminate suffering, either ...
Roxana: perhaps that is our role in the world, to know the light, since nothing else can ... perhaps it is only through this knowledge that grace becomes grace ...
Jeannette: no, i don't succeed, either ... does anyone? the path is all, but it doesn't exist ... the true goal of zen is, at the end of study and meditation, with luck, to live as if one had never heard of zen ... i can't even manage that ..
(i'm glad the comment at reinvented voices seemed worth something -- it seems to me that your paintings are very much about time (but then everything seems to be about time to me:-))
Oh James ! This photo says so much to me but my words will never be enough to tell you what this photo means to me.
ReplyDeletei see your hand like this and so i wonder of the nature of what we might hold. plainly, nothing. we can hold nothing, but just as this light comes to you, so do other transient and incorporeal experiences, people, love. we stay warm in the light.
ReplyDeletexo
erin
Empty, and not empty! Full of glowing air.
ReplyDelete("Polve" should definitely mean "dust"---as in "To pulverize.")
Sunyata:in Buddhist philosophy, the voidness that constitutes ultimate reality; sunyata is seen not as a negation of existence but rather as the undifferentiation out of which all apparent entities, distinctions, and dualities arise. ~~ dictionary.com
ReplyDeleteThis is what I found on Dharmata : Dharmata is the naked, unconditioned truth, the nature of reality, or the true nature of phenomenal existence.
“There is no emptiness without appearance, and there is no appearance without emptiness. That is what we call the interdependent nature.” ~Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche
Back in High School I loved reading about Buddism :)))
I can't help but see the Father's hand here, "For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts" Khalil Gibran. Beautiful picture.
ReplyDeleteas i was just talking with erin about him, a line from one of Cohen's songs comes to my mind: There is a crack in everything/ That's how the light gets in.
ReplyDeleteof course, one could say that there is a crack in us too, no matter how many walls we build around ourselves - but one could also say that we ourselves, our existence, is the crack through which light enters the world, the need and possibility for grace, because the world in itself doesn't need and know light as grace, simply doesn't 'know'...
as such emptiness is empty,
ReplyDeleteempty even of emptiness.
it occurs to me that erin recently told me that she feels too light in the light, as if she might float away.
i think one has to have a sense of humor about dissolving in the light.
ohhh, i just hate darkness is all!
The way I wish I could lead my life... this picture. I don't succeed, but the path is the thing. This photo just captured me.
ReplyDelete(Thank you for your words on my blog as well. A great deal of what I paint brings a moment, a past emotion, a season TO me as I work. I had never thought of it that way.)
erin: it is one of those paradoxes that untie opposites, as we have discussed often -- just as the most intense being is close to extinction, so we hold everything, the closer our approach to holding nothing, so the light warms us as it erases is, so we hold love when we hold death ...
ReplyDeleteHannah: filled with emptiness, emptied of fullness ...
ReplyDeleteLiz: i could almost be a buddhist, except that i can't want the eliminating of suffering by eliminating desire ... i agree that desire causes suffering -- but i want desire ... and i'm not even sure that i want to eliminate suffering, either ...
ReplyDeleteMarion: as if all hands are images of the one hand ...
ReplyDeleteRoxana: perhaps that is our role in the world, to know the light, since nothing else can ... perhaps it is only through this knowledge that grace becomes grace ...
ReplyDeleteAndreas: i would tell you that light doesn't exist without the darkness, but you know that (and is it true, anyway?) .. it isn't a comfort ...
ReplyDeleteat least you will have longer days in the summer than the rest of us ... that is some sort of revenge on the darkness, i hope ...
Jeannette: no, i don't succeed, either ... does anyone? the path is all, but it doesn't exist ... the true goal of zen is, at the end of study and meditation, with luck, to live as if one had never heard of zen ... i can't even manage that ..
ReplyDelete(i'm glad the comment at reinvented voices seemed worth something -- it seems to me that your paintings are very much about time (but then everything seems to be about time to me:-))