Studies IX
~ Lila ~
Seeing Presence--the One, Alone working behind
the Curtain of the Unseen--in the light
and details of everyday life.
~ Lila ~
Seeing Presence--the One, Alone working behind
the Curtain of the Unseen--in the light
and details of everyday life.
The word "Lila" in Sanskrit means "play," "sport," "drama."
In Hinduism the word usually refers to the spontaneous,
effortless relation between the Absolute and
the created, empirical world.
- -
God imagined the idea for the play of this world;
God created the script and God is the director, the actors,
the costumes, the lighting, the very stage itself.
Everything that happens in the universe,
on the world stage, in the light and
details of our everyday life,
is God's Lila.
Most of the photographs in this Studies project were made between mid-April and late June, 2018. During that time daily reports by the media were growing in frequency and intensity regarding Donald Trump and his Administration's "Zero Tolerance" policy. Immigrant family members seeking asylum at the Southern US Boarders were (and still are at the time of this writing) being separated from each other and held--indefinitely--in hot, crowded prison-like internment camps. Heartbreaking, shocking stories of children being separated from their parents have invoked a huge groundswell of outcry from the American public.
My reaction to this news (and new horror stories continue to be unveiled) has made me want to take refuge--all the more--in the Siddha Yoga teachings and practices, and the making of photographs and writing the text for this project. These inner activities have helped me keep some semblance of equipoise (a term used in Siddha Yoga that relates to detachment made possible by certain understandings). But I have also felt the need to do something that might support the victims of our country's inhumane abusive behaviors. I have been striving to find a meaningful balance between the inner work and useful outer actions. Its all so mysterious; the yogic and sufic scriptures that I study are constantly trying to remind us that we are divine characters in God's Lila; that every "scene" of the play is being directed by God from behind "the curtain of the Unseen."
I signed petitions, wrote and made calls to politicians, donated money, created protest posters and participated with my wife Gloria in public actions organized by FamiliesBelongTogether. At the same time I also continued working on this project, which is a visual and textual contemplation on the theme of seeing, "Seeing God in everything and every person, including one's own self."
Making photographs and projects like this one is a way for me to imbibe the teachings, take them inside, absorb their grace and allow that grace to manifest images radiant with that divine transforming energy. Living in the remembrance of the teachings helps me to place my daily life in a dynamic spiritual context of understanding; and this helps protect me from my mind which tends to get fooled by the play and lose track of the Oneness of Being.
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I rediscovered a published talk (from the 1990s) by my Siddha Yoga Meditation Master, Gurumayi Chidvilasananda, in which she included this quote by a great poet-saint named Bholenath:
This universe is Shiva's [God's] own garden, meant for a joyous stroll,
Not for attachment, jealousy, aversion, anxiety, or hostility.
This universe is Shiva's own image,
Meant for his worship . . .
This universe is a mansion containing the mirror of Shiva.
He who looks into it, feeling one with Shiva,
Sees his own images and reflections, sees Shiva everywhere.
Gurumayi concluded her talk with these words:
This world is the family of God. Everything in the world belongs to God, and we belong to Him. If we can have this experience, we'll become free from all kinds of hatred that we cultivate. Go beyond the vrittis. Meditate on the Self. Darshan #106 (a Siddha Yoga monthly publication)
My photography has become for me a form of "meditation-in-action." The Creative Process has given me a means by which I can "see beyond" the vrittis, and live with more focus from inside the heart, inside the awareness that each moment of my life is unfolding within Shiva's Creation, inside Shiva's own Image.
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Most of the photographs in this project (published July 4, 2018) have been influenced by and extend the work published in two previous projects: Studies VIII, published in September, 2016, and my more recent project, The Rising Sun : Prelude To An Exhibition, published in March, 2018.
The Studies VIII project was inspired by a book by William Chittick entitled Sufisim, and particularly his eighth chapter, entitled "Images of Beatitude" which explores some of the earliest writings on Sufism by Baha Walad (d.1231), the father (and spiritual teacher) of the well known Sufi poet, Rumi.
In Chittick's introduction to the chapter, he says that the collection of prose writings in Baha Walad's book, entitled Ma'arif, are "meditations" regarding his "encounters with God" in the "little details of [his] everyday life." Each meditation contains at least one, oftentimes multiple phrases or verses from the Koran, or the hadiths. Thus the meditations are also contemplations of the scriptural teachings as seen within the context of his personal life experiences.
Baha Walad's "encounters" are spontaneous, intuitive Imaginal-epiphanic revelations of grace, and his written meditations regarding these encounters are in the form of direct, intimate dialogues with God. For example, Baha Walad writes about a story in which a shaykh asked him this question: "When will [the people] see God?" Baha Walad then provides the answer by explaining that each thing in the world, and each thing in Paradise (mentioned in the Koran) consists of the state of seeing God:
Each time you see, you find a different taste. . . Mix with Him like milk and honey. Then you will find the sweetness . . . of paradise . . . You will find God. Your felicity is for this door to be opened to you--for you to know that "He is with you wherever you are."
This nearness with God-- "He is with you wherever you are" --is often experienced as a subtle sensation of divine presence, a taste of inner "sweetness," a flowing of sacred-creative energy which moves constantly through all the things of this world, including one's own self.
Baha Walad asks God:
How can they know You if they have not seen You? Without seeing, knowing You is impossible. Those who deny the seeing of You have not known You. . . It seems that unbelief is not to see You . .
Chittick goes into great detail about how "infinite in variety" and with "never-ending joy" Rumi and his father attempt to describe the diversity of forms within which they have "perceived the divine self-disclosure." Chittick then summarizes with this overarching comment: "In truth, God is our ears with which we listen, our eyes with which we see."
Regarding my own Creative Process, the impulse to make a photograph is usually based in the spontaneous, palpable feeling of divine Presence in whatever it is I am seeing. It is grace, or Shiva's divine energy known as Shakti, which makes this intuitive vision possible. Grace opens the"eye of the heart;" grace helps me come into alignment with the creative flow of the universe, the light of Consciousness that gives visible form to God's Lila. And it is grace which transforms a photographic image from functioning merely as a record of outward appearances into an image that functions as a symbol, an image radiant with the creative power of the universe.
Symbols originate in the Imaginal world, a "place" that exists between the inner and the outer worlds; a "place" where the physical world becomes spiritualized, and where the spiritual world becomes materialized, given a visible luminous Imaginal form. A photograph that functions as a symbol transforms the play of the material world into a "door" that "opens" into the Oneness of Being.
For Sufis and yogis, the remembrance of God is one of the most important spiritual practices; it makes God's presence palpably alive within one's self-awareness and in the little details of everyday life. The making a symbolic photograph may be initiated by a conscious or intuitive experience of remembrance. And a symbolic photograph radiantly "alive" with grace can invoke the experience of remembrance in a contemplator of the image.
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Most of the Studies photographs presented in this project were made inside my house, or in its immediate surroundings (in particular, the meadow beyond our back yard), or in the places my everyday life takes me, such as a garden nursery, a concert hall, an airport, my son and daughter-in-law's back deck.
Years ago I would take long walks with my camera looking for things to photograph. However more recently the desire to "go out" photographing has pretty much dissolved; I have instead become willing to wait patiently, and allow images to come spontaneously into my everyday experience. This change in my way of working seems to be due to a greater awareness of grace in my life, and to having become more finely attuned to the will of my Creative Process. My best, most meaningful photographs, those which function for me as symbols, are (for me) "Images of Beatitude," images which needed to be created and contemplated for my own well being and spiritual unfolding.
One of Baha Walad's meditations published in Chittick's book Sufism seems a perfect reflection of how I view my Studies photographs in this project and how I understand and experience my Creative Process. Baha Walad wrote:
Years ago I would take long walks with my camera looking for things to photograph. However more recently the desire to "go out" photographing has pretty much dissolved; I have instead become willing to wait patiently, and allow images to come spontaneously into my everyday experience. This change in my way of working seems to be due to a greater awareness of grace in my life, and to having become more finely attuned to the will of my Creative Process. My best, most meaningful photographs, those which function for me as symbols, are (for me) "Images of Beatitude," images which needed to be created and contemplated for my own well being and spiritual unfolding.
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One of Baha Walad's meditations published in Chittick's book Sufism seems a perfect reflection of how I view my Studies photographs in this project and how I understand and experience my Creative Process. Baha Walad wrote:
. . . I saw that God is working alone behind this curtain of the Unseen. . . Then I saw that the world is like a house that God has brought out. He has sent out my meanings on its inside . . . My substances are like the walls of the house, within which the meanings walk.
The world is sweet for those who find it like Eden. After all, how should I not be happy? God does all my acts. He by Himself makes and gives being to my earth, my air, and all my atoms. Chapter 8, William Chittick's book: Sufism (translations are by Chittick)
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On New Year's Day, 2018, during a Siddha Yoga Meditation program with Gurumayi Chidvilasananda, I experienced interior images of golden light--the light of the rising sun--over a vast body of blue water. The Rising Sun project is a visual and textual meditation about that experience and its synchronous relationship to an exhibition of photographs I was preparing for at the time.
The Golden light of that inner experience has come into the first fifteen Studies photographs in this project. Light often seems to function in my photographs as a palpable vehicle for what Swami Muktananda (Gurumayi's teacher, and founder of the Siddha Yoga Path) calls the light of Consciousness, also known as Shakti, or grace, or Shiva's Creative Power of the Universe, the divine energy flows through everything in the created world.
It is this creative power, this subtle light--grace--which transforms a photograph into a symbol, an image which merges corresponding images from the "two worlds" (inner and outer, physical and spiritual) into a luminous Imaginal embodiment of Equality-Consciousness, the Unitary Reality, the One, Alone directing the "scene" from behind the curtain of the Unseen. A symbol makes the invisible perceivable.
The Golden light of that inner experience has come into the first fifteen Studies photographs in this project. Light often seems to function in my photographs as a palpable vehicle for what Swami Muktananda (Gurumayi's teacher, and founder of the Siddha Yoga Path) calls the light of Consciousness, also known as Shakti, or grace, or Shiva's Creative Power of the Universe, the divine energy flows through everything in the created world.
It is this creative power, this subtle light--grace--which transforms a photograph into a symbol, an image which merges corresponding images from the "two worlds" (inner and outer, physical and spiritual) into a luminous Imaginal embodiment of Equality-Consciousness, the Unitary Reality, the One, Alone directing the "scene" from behind the curtain of the Unseen. A symbol makes the invisible perceivable.
Swami Muktananda once said:
According to [Kashmir] Shaivisim, both the perceiver and the perceived are made of the same consciousness. . . "The seer becomes the seen; and the seen becomes the seer."
The first aphorism in the Shiva Sutras is, "The Self is Consciousness." The Self is eternal, and so is consciousness. Consciousness is that which illuminates all places, all instants of time, and all things. Consciousness is like the sun, which illuminates others as well as itself. What a glorious, wonderful phenomenon the sun is. It illuminates the whole world and itself; likewise, consciousness reveals all things and all states. The Self never loses awareness. from Vol. V of Satsang with Baba - Questions and answers with Swami Muktananda
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Each morning, before I meditate, I read a teaching by Gurumayi or Baba Muktananda. Just recently, while I was feeling stress and heartache about the suffering being inflicted upon immigrant children and their parents by our US Government, the following words by Swami Muktananda (initiated by a question asked of him by a student) seemed directed straight at me. Here is the question:
"Which is the easiest path for a householder so that
he may forget the worries and miseries
of this world while living in it?"
of this world while living in it?"
And here is Baba's answer:
If a householder wishes to forget the worries and miseries of this world while living in it, he should spiritualize his worldly life. It is your own attitude which is an obstacle, not the world outside. You see the creation of God as world; why don't you see it as God's creation? What matters is one's own attitude, not the outer world.
You should see God in worldly life . . . You should understand that the world has been created by God . . . Then you see the world as good. . . The world has meaning only if you have equality-consciousness, not if your consciousness is differentiated. You should first find happiness within, and then you will also find it in the world. Every particle of this universe is saturated with sweetness; however if your tongue has lost its sense of taste, it may not be able to enjoy the sweetness of life.
All the ancient sages and seers attained bliss while living in the world. The world was created from bliss and for bliss, not for sorrow. Bliss is at its very root; it is meant to be enjoyed. The Upanishads say that the One who is supremely blissful, who is the supreme truth, the greatest of all, thought of becoming many; and He became many for His sheer delight. Whether or not He wept after becoming many only He knows. Therefore you should first find happiness within yourself; then you will be able to see how full of nectar the world is. The trouble with you is that your tongue has lost its sensitivity and your eyes can only see differences. That is why you cannot see life in a proper perspective and find it so distasteful.
The whole world is filled with the great Shakti, the Mother of the universe. One who has found the Lord in his heart will be able to see the glory of God in every particle. . . . First tap the happiness that lies concealed in your own depths, and then see what the world is. . . . If you look at the source of the world, you will find that the whole of it is pervaded by God . . .
Tell me what is meaningless in this world? It all depends on your attitude; change it.
Vol Five, Satsang with Baba - Questions and answers with Swami Muktananda (a Siddha Yoga publication)
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Making photographs has become for me a way to spiritualize my worldly life, to give visual form to the yogic teachings, and the ineffable presence that dwells within everything including my own self. Contemplating my photographs provides me with a way of consciously absorbing the grace that illuminates the images. It is grace which unveils the truth of the Oneness of Being.
With each photograph in this project, I offer my prayers and blessings to the immigrant families who are being abused, to those who are doing the abusing, and to the entire family of God. May the grace that flows through the images and the yogic/sufic teachings included in this project unveil the Truth that we all are equal participants in God's divine Play.
Following the presentation of the photographs I have included some written commentaries regarding the project and selected images. Following the commentaries I have added an Afterword and then a Closing Story.
The Photographs
Part
- I -
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Image #1, Studies IX project: "The Golden Light of Sunset behind the South Meadow and Woods"
Image #2, Studies IX project: "Reflections of the Golden Light of Sunset on the refrigerator door"
Image #3, Studies IX project: "The Golden Light of Sunset playing upon a kitchen cabinet door and knob"
Image #4, Studies IX project: "The Golden Light of Sunrise playing upon a ball inside a box"
Image #5, Studies IX project: "The Golden Light of Sunset playing upon the back deck overlooking the meadow"
Image #6, Studies IX project: "The Golden Light of Sunset illuminating a woman resting her eyes."
Image #7, Studies IX project: "The Golden Light of the Setting Sun reflected in a window"
Image #8, Studies IX project: "The play of the Golden Light upon the ceiling"
Image #9, Studies IX project: "The Golden Light illuminating window shades, a lamp and a house plant"
Image #10, Studies IX project: "Bouquet of Bleeding Hearts in the Golden ambient Light of the setting Sun"
Image #11, Studies IX project: "The Golden Light of the rising Sun playing upon a wall behind a bench"
Image #12, Studies IX project: "The Golden Light of the Setting Sun playing through curtains upon a bathroom wall"
Image #13, Studies IX project: "The Golden Light of the Rising Sun playing upon a laundry room wall"
Image #14, Studies IX project: "The Golden Light of the Rising Sun playing upon a container of laundry soap"
Image #15, Studies IX project: "The Golden Light of the Setting Sun over the South Meadow and Woods"
Part
- II -
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Image #16, Studies IX project: "Man looking out from within a dark shadow"
Image #17, Studies IX project: "Leaf shadows on a metal plank"
Image #18, Studies IX project: "A Footprint in the snow"
Image #19, Studies IX project: "Street markings"
Image #20, Studies IX project: "Snow, sunlight and shadow on the back deck"
Image #21, Studies IX project: "Gray Clouds at twilight over the North Meadow, pond and Woods"
Image #22, Studies IX project: "Light playing upon the airport floor"
Part
- III -
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Image #23, Studies IX project: "Airport escalators and one hand"
Image #24, Studies IX project: "Tissue box, bananas, cherry tomatoes"
Image #25, Studies IX project: "Four sunshine squash on a black iron table"
Image #26, Studies IX project: "Front porch flowers"
Image #27, Studies IX project: "Front porch pumpkin"
Image #28, Studies IX project: "Red Bird Christmas Ornament on the ledge of a window"
Image #29, Studies IX project: "Piano on a Concert Stage"
Image #30, Studies IX project: "Hand Rail and Steps, Concert Stage"
Image #31, Studies IX project: "Flaming Sunset over the South Meadow and woods"
Part
- IV -
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Image #32, Studies IX project: "Red Line Painted on the Nursery ground."
Image #33, Studies IX project: "Red Crossed Lines painted on the Nursery ground."
Image #34, Studies IX project: "A series of red lines painted on the Nursery ground."
Image #35, Studies IX project: "Bucket, dustpan, rake, red painted lines on the Nursery ground."
Image #36, Studies IX project: "Cinder brick, plastic drop cloth, red painted line on the Nursery ground."
Image #37, Studies IX project: "Flowers and two Nursery wagons "
Part
- V -
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Image #38, Studies IX project: "Sunset over the South Meadow, pond and woods"
Image #39, Studies IX project: "Two stones, a puddle reflection and little green plant at twilight"
Image #40, Studies IX project: "Two windblown ornamental grass leaves playing on the driveway"
Image #41, Studies IX project: "One bent ornamental grass leaf laying on the driveway"
Image #42, Studies IX project: "Bird feeder post, a neighbor's backyard, the meadow"
Image #43, Studies IX project: "Clotheslines, pole, and garden hose in the backyard"
Part
- VI -
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Image #44, Studies IX project: "Child making a chalk drawing upon a painted wooden deck floor"
Image #45, Studies IX project: "Plastic watering can, garden hose, and a painted wooden deck floor"
Image #46, Studies IX project: "Gloria (Grandma) looking at some flowers from the painted wooden deck"
Image #47, Studies IX project: "Back deck Lamp, sliding glass door, green reflections and curtain"
Image #48, Studies IX project: "Garage light with green reflections on its edges"
Image #49, Studies IX project: "Cement block, dryer vent, painted wooden deck floor"
Image #50, Studies IX project: "Plant leaf and stem, edge of pot, painted wooden deck floor"
Image #51, Studies IX project: "Tangle of garden hose and dried leaves on painted wooden deck floor"
Part
- VII -
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Image #52, Studies IX project: "Raindrops and raindrop form on window screen, South Meadow and paths"
Image #53, Studies IX project: "The Golden light of sunset with a dark arching cloud over the South Meadow after a rain"
Image #54, Studies IX project: "Red Clouds at sunset over the South Meadow and woods"
Image #55, Studies IX project: "Red Clouds at sunset over the North Meadow and woods"
Image #56, Studies IX project: "North Meadow, woods and pond in the fading light of dusk"
Image #57, Studies IX project: "Early Morning Blanket of Fog on the South Meadow"
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Commentaries
The soul's understanding is that everything comes from the Presence.
That's how we know God, through the awareness that the soul has.
If everyone could know this all the time, everyone would be a
prophet. But that is not the case. Prophets have the
power . . . to dissolve their attention more
completely into the divine. Very few
can do this. . . We are blessed
differently than prophets.
Baha Walad**
Prelude to the Commentaries
I enjoy the tension inherent in a photographic image: its ability to describe the apparent world, and its ability to function as a symbol, an image which unveils profoundly transformative, transcendent, abstract, sacred forms of meaning. What makes the difference between these two ways an image can function is grace.
If I could, every photograph I ever made--and ever will make--would function as a symbol. But it is more than a matter of my desiring or willing. Rather, it's a matter of getting myself "out of the way" and allowing my will to come into alignment with the Will of my Creative Process. Longing (an open-hearted desire for deeper insight) and practice are two absolutely necessary parts of the Creative Process. Since meeting Gurumayi in 1987 my practice of Siddha Yoga and my practice of making photographs have merged into each other. It is Gurumayi's grace which has opened my heart and which illuminates every photograph that functions for me as a symbol.
I like to think of the Studies photographs as exercise pieces which help me move toward a closer, more intimate and conscious awareness of the Presence, the divine Self that pervades everything in this world including my own heart, my own soul. Contemplation is a process, an experience which cannot be put into words; and in that regard, commentary on photographs should not be confused with contemplation.
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An abundance of Meadow Photographs
There are many Meadow photographs in this project. The meadow's space, with its two ponds (and the tapering woods behind it) interfaces with our backyard. I enjoy looking out at the meadow throughout the day through our picture window or from our back deck. I watch the play of light and the changing colors and cloud formations, the movements of the birds, the wind, the trees, the reflections in the ponds . . . Everything is alive and constantly changing. But there is a presence in the things of the natural world, a silence, an interior luminosity that never changes.
In a way, the Meadow images provide the illumination for the other photographs in this project. The Meadow images also provide both emotional and visual segues within the visual flow and sequential development of the entire body of work.
A Meadow photograph (and the meadow itself) offers me a refuge, a resting place, a "breath of fresh air" from the heart-aching stories I hear each day regarding the non-stop barrage of political actions taken by Donald Trump that seems intended to chip away at the sacred nature of the Constitution upon which our country's idea of democracy was founded.
(I give too much attention to Trump. He likes being the "bad boy." His disregard for the natural world, our environment, the health of the entire planet . . . concerns me perhaps as much as his mean-hearted treatment of immigrants, all minorities, and the poor. But I spend too much time on him. I should be using most of that time learning about the real mystery the Sufis call the Friend.)
I believe the Meadow pictures contain a blessing; I can sense this is true in the way my mind stops when I contemplate the images. Through the grace of the images I enter the Imaginal world in which the natural world is pure spirit, Shiva's Garden. The light in the Meadow photographs carries the metaphor for the Light of Consciousness which pervades everything -- both in this world, and in the Imaginal world. In God's divine Play, Trump and his Administration, the immigrants, and the entire planet is radiant with the Light of Consciousness.
The Natural world is so palpably alive with grace; its silence and its beauty have a quieting, healing, purifying affect upon my psyche and soul. The meadow--and the Meadow pictures--remind me, assure me, help me become more aware of the Sacred presence in all aspects of my life. I invite you to see my entire collection of Meadow photographs at this link: The Meadow Photographs 2008 - present.
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The Space Between the Images
The images in this project are separated into seven parts, each part flowing into the next such that there is an overarching unity to the sequential unfolding of the whole collection of images. The relationships between the photographs are extremely important to me; in the space between the images a silent dialogue is ongoing and changing. It can be sensed in the feeling of potentiality that pervades those in-between spaces. I encourage you, as a contemplator, to inhabit not just the individual images, but the space between the images as well. Simply by becoming silent yourself . . . and listening, you can become an active participant in the ongoing conversation between the images.
When contemplating an image that functions as a symbol, what we think, how we interpret, what we might impose upon the images--our memories and associations and informed intellects . . . ultimately, all this is of little consequence in regards to what the images themselves have to say to us. The heart knows infinitely more than the mind. The space between the images is essentially the space of the heart, the space of the Imaginal world. If we could see the images with the eye of the heart, if we could listen to what the images are saying (to each other/to us) with the "ear of the heart," no words would be necessary to grasp the ineffable meanings awaiting us in the grace-full radiance that pervades the images and the space between them.
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Straw, feathers, dust--
little things
but if they go one way,
that's the way the wind goes.
William Stafford
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COMMENTARIES
Part I : The Golden Light of the Rising Sun
The warm interior light of Rising Sun meditation I experienced on New Year's Day, 2018 has entered into each of the fifteen photographs that comprise Part I of this project. Please visit my Rising Sun project.
Part II : Black and White
The photograph which begins Part II (Image #16) contains only black and white tonalities. It's a startling image for me: I feel the man's presence inside the shadow; it's looking out at me--looking back at me as it passes out of the light.
I began making black and white photographs shortly after my father's death in 1955, when I was ten years old; it was not until 1988 that I first began to make color photographs seriously. (See my first color project, River Songs.) The black and white tonalities suit this set of images, though if you look closely, color is subtly present in several of the photographs.
Part III : Red
Each of the images in the Part III sequence (#23-31) contain the color red. And the presence of red extends into the Part IV sequence of images as well.
Regarding Image #28, Red Bird Christmas Ornament, and the image following it--Piano on a concert stage: there is an obvious relationship between the form of the bird and the form of the piano; and the color red is a dominant presence in both images. I don't know what these relationships mean. Some things just can't be explained, nor do they need to be. Presence is enough if one can tune into the images--and the space between the images--and imbibe the pervading grace.
Part IV : The Nursery Earth Markings
I made the images in Part IV (#32-37) during a brief visit to a nursery last spring with Gloria (she's a serious gardener). The light of the setting sun was scraping the earth's surface; the colors were popping out in magical ways. The red painted lines on the earth seemed to me like a secret language, visual hints pointing toward cryptic meanings beyond my grasp.
Image #32
I have added commentary on this Part IV, #32 image (on July 18, two weeks after the initial publication of this project) because of a book I have just read by Coleman Barks entitled Rumi : Soul Fury ~ Rumi and Shams Tabriz On Friendship. In addition to Bark's translation of selected poems from the collection known as the Quatrains of Rumi, the book also includes several of Barks' translations of the sayings of Shams Tabrize, Rumi's mysterious Friend and spiritual teacher. The book is about their Sufic-mystical relationship and the creations and teachings that sprang from it.
The Saying #71 of Shams Tabriz mentions the mystery of the Alif, the first letter in the Arabic alphabet. Here is Coleman Barks' translation of the Saying:
Of all the divine mysteries, we have been given only an alif,
a single stroke down.
Everything else is meant to explain that one stroke.
We talk a bout what's written on the tablet, on the earth,
on the heart, but tell me about that alif,
and I'll explain the rest of the alphabet.
The intellect is so weak and inept.
What's most real is in that alif,
which we do not yet understand.
Of course there is an interesting visual correspondence between the vertical line drawn on the earth in the #32 photograph, the image of the Alif above, and the text: "that one stroke . . . what's written on the [Emerald] Tablet, on the earth, on the heart . . . "
Samer Akkach, author of the remarkable book Cosmology and Architecture in Premodern Islam (available free online as a .pdf) devotes quite a lot of attention to the alif, its relationship to the entire Arabic alphabet and its mythic relationship to Sufic ideology regarding Creation. Each or the 28 Arabic letters has great symbolic significance, and the Alif, a straight vertical line, represents the ineffable divine mystery, the Origin of all the letters, and the entire created world. Akkach writes:
Islamic mythology provides many interesting narratives on the creation of
the alif. The “Jawahir” says that God first created the Pen from a green emerald
and the Tablet from white light and then ordered the Pen to inscribe onto the
Tablet the destiny, or his knowledge, of the created world. Upon this divine
order a “drop” (nuqta, “point”) fell from the nib of the Pen. It overflowed inscribing
a line standing upright. When God saw this he decided to make it the
first letter of his exalted name Allah. The alif thus became the origin of all the
letters just as God’s generosity was the source of all existents.(153) Al- Alawi
overlays the same narrative with a poetic imagery: “Indeed the Alif is none
other than the Point itself which is an eye that wept or a drop that gushed forth
and which in its downpour was named Alif.” (pg. 101)
I would also point out here that the vertical red line seems also to function as an arrow which directs our vision to a single, isolated red painted stone, a stone perhaps upon which a "drop" of red paint fell as if destined to be That from which all else was created.
Part V
This brief sequence (Images #38-43) begins with nocturnal-like imagery and then abruptly leaps into the full light of day and bright colors. Abundant formal motifs echo each other within the images. The sequence is a complete world in itself . . . and yet formal motifs in the last image segues into the first image of Part VI.
Part VI The Painted Wood Deck
The eight photographs in Part VI (Images #44-51) were made in perhaps ten minutes in the soft fading light of early evening. The colors popping out against the darker tones of the painted wood deck floor attracted my attention. The tonal depth and rich textured surface of the brown painted wood had a sensuous quality as well. It provided the perfect surface for my grand daughter to draw upon with colored chalk.
Once I began photographing I entered into a stunningly alive picture-making trance-like creative Flow. Such moments of intense seeing come and go without warning. I love those moments in which I become aligned with the flow of my Creative Process. However, I can't make them happen; I can only be prepared for when these magical openings of the "eye of the heart" arrive. In those bright sustained seemingly timeless moments of intuitive and yet conscious creative activity, I become more fully aware of the fact that I am not the One making the photographs. I merely facilitate the process. Though I feel inside the Presence as I'm photographing, I can only surrender to Its direction, enjoy the ride, and wait to see the results of what was nothing but pure impulse at the moment of exposure.
Part VII "Black Light"
The project's visual sequence concludes with six meadow images (#52-57). In five of the six images the meadow itself has been reduced to a black space. But these spaces are alive with presence, the Light of Consciousness. What's happening in the sky, it's light, seems to give the black space a kind of luminous presence. The Sufis speak about Black Light, which is associated with the mystery of the Midnight Sun, and other related terms such as Night of Light and Luminous Blackness. (click here)
The first photograph (Image #52) is different than the other four. It gives us an inside view of the meadow through a screened window covered with raindrops. A raindrop shape has formed on the screen providing a detail view of two meadow paths in the background. The rounded bottom of the raindrop form intersects--auspiciously--the meadow path in the foreground.
Three of the other meadow images share in the theme of the setting sun. The sun's presence is dissolving behind and below the horizon line of the woods; the day is coming to its end just as the project is coming to its end. Warm light turns to red; red to orange; orange to nearly all blue. The pond in the North Meadow, catching the fading light of dusk (Image #56) has become an eye, perhaps that of a bird--a metaphor for spirit. Everything emerges from spirit, from mystery, from presence, and everything dissolves back into presence; and in the space between, presence keeps an eye on you and me and all the other created things in God's Lila.
In the very last image (#57) the meadow is still asleep, covered with a low blanket of fog in the all pervading light of early morning. The blue sky is luminous with its own internal light, awaiting the Golden Light of the Rising Sun.
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About "Straight Photographs"
All of the photographs in this project are "straight photographs." The term became relevant to me when I first started making "symmetrical photographs" in 2011 for my "An Imaginary Book" project, a project which then initiated a rapidly growing series of projects I have collected together under the thematic title Sacred Art Photography Projects. If you want to know what I have say about "straight photographs" Click here; the essay also explains how I construct symmetrical photographs, using "straight photographs" as their source image.
A "straight" photograph that functions as a symbol is anything but straight. The radiance of grace that transforms a photographic image into a symbol also transforms the very notion of anything "linear." Symbolic photographs celebrate, announce with joy, the Roundness of Being, Unitary Reality.
Gaston Bachelard writes about Intimate Space and the Roundness of Being in his book The Poetics of Space. His idea of intimacy comes close to what the Sufis refer to as nearness. Bachelard says any space inhabited with intimacy is the "center of all space." The concept "center of all space" invokes for me the ideas of the "roundness of being" and the "Oneness of Being."
The contemplation of symbolic images is an experience of inhabiting Imaginal space with the most profound sense of intimacy. Symbolic images are indeed intimate spaces, visual doorways into the space of the heart, the dwelling place of the divine Self. Truly speaking, there is nothing that is not round; there is nothing that is not One, because God Alone dwells within all things as those things.
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A Sacred Art Project
It has become quite obvious to me that this Studies project must be included in my collection of Sacred Art projects. That's an interesting, important development in my Creative Process. I have made several projects over the years which I have been identified for inclusion in multiple thematic project collections. However, lately I have have been experiencing the growing feeling that the distinctions I've been making between the Sacred Art projects and all the "other" projects is dissolving . . . into "the Oneness of Being."
Afterword
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I have been working hard at seeing Presence in the form of Donald Trump (and his administration), their words and their actions. But it's been very difficult for me. The Creator is doing a good job of hiding behind the "curtain of the Unseen." I have so much more work to do. It's quite a show Trump and his like-minded associates are putting on out there for all the world to see. Trump seems to thrive on the negative attention he gets from us. His treatments of immigrants and minorities and the poor, and his environmental policies as well, are nothing short of being crimes against humanity.
I thought, well, perhaps Trump is unknowingly serving a higher purpose, one that I can't quite see yet, but can imagine. Perhaps the disruptive and mean-hearted ways of the present majority of US policy makers and Supreme Court "Justices" are intended to awaken the hearts of people. It's possible this country, which has been so divided in the past thirty years, will be compelled to pull together once again if only out of fear and heartache, if only as a means of survival. It appears that the recent heart-and-soul reactions so many people have been expressing publicly regarding the separation of immigrant children from their families could be the beginnings of turning awareness back to the sacred foundation upon which democracy was originally constructed.
God works in strange ways. I must try harder to see behind the "mask" that Trump is presenting. Isn't it oftentimes the aching heart which opens? Life has a way of leading us to the things we need to learn, experience, which then moves us into an expanded vision, a more compassionate heart, right understanding.
This entire world is "the family of God," a Oneness of Being. May we all, with grace, "Go beyond the vrittis" and become free from the hatred that has become cultivated within us.
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We weep to be cleansed. Let that crying and the love of God be enough.
There is always a back and forth from laughter to tears. . . . When laughter happens we know we're inside the presence. . . Then [we] turn quiet and sad. The sense of being wrapped in presence diminishes.
Only one who breaths the dhikr without letup never loses the joy:
There is no reality but You (in-breath)--
There is only You (out-breath).
Those beings are very rare.**
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A great depth comes when one gets separated from the Friend. Only then is a human being tragically alive. . . Unless you have spent time in the garden with your beloved and then been pulled apart, your life will not have passion or vivid depth . . .
Everything has an opposite. When you love one thing, you hate the reverse. Another truth is that with any situation there is always a better one just above it. This proceeds upward until it reaches the divine, which is all around you but you do not see it. Expand your vision and you will. . . . Sit and beg to see God. Plead like the prophets. It is your birthright to be shown and see the divine.**
**Note: The translations of these two meditations--and the one at the beginning of the Commentary section--are by Coleman Barks & John Moyne from their 2009 publication The Drowned Book: Ecstatic and Earthy Reflections of Bahauddin, The Father of Rumi. I highly recommend the book; it is a valuable addition to Chittick's translations of Baha Walad's meditations in his book Sufism, published in 2000.
A Closing Story
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On June 30, 2018 Gloria and I joined around 300 participants in Geneva, NY to protest the Trump Administration's abusive treatment of immigrant families in the United States, and more particularly those families who were stopped by US officials as they were seeking asylum on the Southern Boarders and held indefinitely and separated with in prison-like chained-link caged encampments.
Young children were torn away from their mother's breast while nursing and separated from their families; over 3,000 of these children have been moved to unidentified places in the United States, and their locations have either been lost or hidden or in some cases records of their displacements may have never been kept.
More than 750 rallies organized by FamiliesBelongTogether took place on June 30, 2018 throughout the United States. Reportedly "hundreds of thousands" participated in the rallies; in Washington DC, an estimated 35,000 people rallied together near the White House, and 10,000 walked together across the Brooklyn Bridge.
Young children were torn away from their mother's breast while nursing and separated from their families; over 3,000 of these children have been moved to unidentified places in the United States, and their locations have either been lost or hidden or in some cases records of their displacements may have never been kept.
More than 750 rallies organized by FamiliesBelongTogether took place on June 30, 2018 throughout the United States. Reportedly "hundreds of thousands" participated in the rallies; in Washington DC, an estimated 35,000 people rallied together near the White House, and 10,000 walked together across the Brooklyn Bridge.
Our rally in Geneva, which represented the Finger Lakes Region of NY State, met at 10am on the shores of Seneca Lake, between Geneva's new Visitor's Center and the Entrance to Seneca Lake State Park.
A small stage, equipped with a mic and amplifiers, had been set up in front of the Lake for those speaking; the rest of us in attendance gathered in the shade under several large protective trees. It was already quite hot (it would reach 95 degrees F by noon) but the morning breeze coming off the lake felt cool and refreshing.
A small stage, equipped with a mic and amplifiers, had been set up in front of the Lake for those speaking; the rest of us in attendance gathered in the shade under several large protective trees. It was already quite hot (it would reach 95 degrees F by noon) but the morning breeze coming off the lake felt cool and refreshing.
As the speakers walked on stage and offered their prayers, shared their stories, presented their lists of suggestions as to how we could help the momentum move forward to help immigrants in our country and those seeking asylum . . . at some point I looked beyond the stage and the speakers and noticed the mesmerizing play of light upon the choppy waves of the Lake. Further in the distance a mist was slowly rising above the water unveiling little sail boats that had been launched from the shores of the State Park just north and east of us.
As I sat looking upon this magical scene, enjoying the sensuous breezes wafting about me, I began fading into a kind of meditative revery in which I experienced Presence in the beauty all about me, and a sense of peacefulness in the moment . . . Then my attention was abruptly shifted back to the stage by the sound of a woman's quivering voice. An immigrant mother was telling her heartbreaking stories--through a translator--of being separated from family members and friends after coming to the United Stated in their quest for an opportunity to work and share in a safer and better life. There was a tremendous outpouring of grief and anger, fear and anxiety in her voice, in the words she spoke, and the crowd responded with palpable compassion and the desire to help and be supportive.
In this poignant moment, as I was experiencing this mix of beauty and emotions--anger, sadness, fear and love--I was trying to embrace the divine mystery of it all, the Lila. Baha Walad said that deep in our hearts we know, without understanding it, that existence comes from nonexistence. "In that moment there is no room for why or how."
Sit and beg to see God. Plead like the prophets.
It is your birthright to be shown and see the divine.
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This project was posted on my Welcome Page
on July 4, 2018.
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