“Water, if you don’t stir it, will become clear;
The mind, left unaltered, will find its own natural peace.”
~ Buddha
Spring is here! Last night, for the first time in months, I almost needed to turn on the fan. So still, so calm this morning. My photographs were just as much about reflections as they were about the sunrise this morning. Again, making it hard to chose just one photo, each moment being beautiful. I took 39 photographs in all. I finally chose this one, as it best reflects the stillness.
“Flow is a highly focused state of relaxation concentration that obliterates all else out of consciousness. It is the state of self-actualization or transcendental behavior that is euphoric.”
~ Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in his book ‘Flow’
The rising of the sun was quite dramatic this morning. The multi-layered clouds made for a dreamy, pink sky. And when the sun did finally make it’s appearance, it held a very warm -and reassuring – glow.
Today, I have to admit that I am tired. Not tired in the physical sense, but tired mentally. I’ve had enough experience over the years to know that it is time for a break. I’ve been pushing myself a bit too hard, or maybe just enough, but now it’s time to ease up a bit. Work has begun to feel ‘out of the flow’. So I was again thinking about Michael Jordon, and his gracious ability to push himself with a seeming effortlessness.
This Facebook post by ‘Buddha Heart’, a quote by the master of silence, Adyashanti, caused me to became angry last evening. It prompted much contemplation into the nature of reality and ‘enlightenment’ and finding a quick and easy place to note my streaming thoughts (after many cocktails I might add) was not easy … The dialogue will remain etched in my mind for contemplation for some time … And caused me to reach for Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras this morning ….
“You don’t make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved.”
~ Ansel Adams
What a brilliant sunrise this morning. I was up late last night, contemplating the nature of things … I could have used a set of blinders to watch the many changing shades and dimensions of both the sun and my mind today LOL. There was a lot of duplicity in what was caught on film in this sunrise, not just in this particular photo, but in others too.
This beautiful display appeared just as I was speaking with a friend about a dream she had about her father, and a birthday card that he gave her many years ago …. He drew himself as a stick figure, on a rainbow, thanking her for her beautiful, resilient and relentless spirit … On carrying others forward into the light, and showing the way towards happiness. I will always think of my friend and her father whenever I see a rainbow, a bridge, connecting us in this physical realm with that which we carry in our hearts … Much love, my friend, Bridge … Thank you and your dad for sharing this with me …
“Happiness is not so much in having, as it is in sharing.
We make a living by what we get,
but we make a life by what we give.”
~ Norman MacEwan
Since I began photographing the sunrise this year, outside of when my friend Bridgette came to visit, today was the first day that I actually heard one of my villa guests join me uptop, and share in the beauty.
But there was this tiny little part of me that wanted to say ‘mine’.
A few weekends ago, I listened to a Zencast about the Buddha’s teaching on the 3 Characteristics or Marks of Existence. These three facts of existence are Not-Self, Impermanence and Suffering.
“Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life – think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success. This is the way great spiritual giants are produced.”
~ Swami Vivekananda
Hello Monday! I’m feeling energized from a restful Sunday, and ready to get back at it. I ran across the above quote by Swami V last week, and it really stuck with me.
