THAT
(Ineffable Invisible Interior)
Presence
Whatever you do, wherever you go, wherever you look,
you should have the awareness that
the Self is present there.
Swami Muktananda
Introduction
The word THAT in the title of this project refers to one of the four "Great Statements" from the Upanishads, Tat tvam asi, which means: Thou art That. Though it is a brief teaching, it states the most profound Truth: the individual self and the Supreme Self are identical, One and the same. In the yoga that I practice, the Supreme Self can also be referred to as the supreme Soul, the Atman, the Light of Consciousness. No matter what name is given to that which is ultimately formless, un-knowable and thus un-nameable, it is a creative energy that is supremely free, supremely intelligent, supremely independent; and it is a mystery that creates, pervades, supports and destroys everything in the universe. And, most importantly, Its Presence can be felt when one pays close attention.
Since the early 1970's I have strived to make images that radiate that ineffable, invisible, divine Presence. I have named those images in various ways: Thing-Centered Photographs ~ Makom "Place" Photographs ~ Symbolic Photographs . . . images alive with grace, or Shakti, the heartfelt feeling of the Oneness of Being. I have also made projects that focus on the sacred teachings of yoga--and other traditions--as a way of gaining a deeper awareness and right understanding for myself of THAT, the greatest of all mysteries.
(See my project Photography and Yoga and other Sacred Art Photography Projects.)
The project before you now is a Sacred Art Photography Project. Each of the 24 images functions for me as a symbol, an image pervaded by the divine Presence; and throughout my introductory texts and commentaries on selected images I have included several excerpts from the published teachings of a great modern day saint, Swami Muktananda (1908-1982), the founder of the Siddha Yoga Path.
*
Since the Coronavirus Pandemic was officially identified in New York State and everyone was asked to "STAY HOME" (in early April, 2020) I have been photographing mostly inside our house (including the basement and the attached garage) and in the space around and near our house, including the Meadow which interfaces our back yard. The images have tended to be dark in tonality with little interior glints or glowing areas of light that seem to give the entire image a special kind of luminous presence.
(See these related projects: The Light of Memory, Elegy ~ The Messenger, The Bird, The Angel of Tears)
The collection of photographs in this project is mostly of that kind of imagery, though I have included a few images that are not particularly dark, and there are a few images that were not made inside or near our house. And that's OK because the word Home can be a way of referring to that ineffable, infinite, luminous space of the Heart, the divine Self.
*
My concept of the Symbolic Photograph, which crystallized in 1972 in my MFA written thesis, became reinforced in 1987 after I met Gurumayi Chidvilasananda, experienced her grace and began practicing Siddha Yoga Meditation daily. As I read with great enthusiasm many of the essential yogic texts often referred to on this yogic path, and as I continued meditating each day, I gradually came to the understanding that my Creative Process in photography was itself a form of yogic meditation. And I gradually realized that those images that functioned for me as symbols were indeed alive and radiant with the same feeling of grace that pervades the Siddha Yoga teachings, the yogic scriptures, and Gurumayi's divine presence.
According to those teachings, we all share the same One Self. However, only a True Guru, a Sadguru, one who has achieved the goal of yoga--living in the fully Conscious and continuous awareness of their Union with the Absolute, with God, the divine Self--only such a being can speak with the authority of the Atman. Gurumayi is the very embodiment of grace, the Creative Power of the Universe--otherwise known as Shakti--and as such is empowered to bestow grace and support or guide seekers with her grace, as was her teacher Swami Muktananda.
(Note: when I speak about my photographs I often refer to "the grace of my Creative Process" rather than "Gurumayi's grace" with the understanding that the two are inseparably One and the same. Also, I should explain here, before moving on to the the next section, that only True Sadgurus can enliven the words of mantras with their grace. Such mantras are referred as chaitanya, alive with the Light of Consciousness, the Sadguru's divine Presence. Chaitanaya mantras are one of the traditional ways seekers on the yogic path can be initiated by Sadgurus.)
*
Swami Muktananda traveled throughout the world in the late 1970's giving talks and meditation Intensives. At the end of those programs he would invite questions or comments from those in attendance. The questions and answers were collected and published in a two volume set entitled From the Finite To The Infinite. At one of the programs someone said to Muktananda:
"At times [when I am meditating and repeating my mantra] . . . the mantra takes the form of light . . . Also at times my eyes go to the top of my head and I cannot tell the difference between the inside and the outside."
Muktananda responded:
The mantra is divine light, the light of the Self . . . As you repeat
the mantra the eyes move toward the sahasrara, the crown
of the head, and there you see the Blue Pearl . . .
the divine light in the crown chakra.
It is good to discover that the inside and outside are the same.
It is not true that there is one thing inside and something
else outside. Nanakdev used to say that what is inside
is also outside, what is outside is also inside; it is
the same Principle which pervades everything.
From the Finite to the Infinite, Swami Muktananda, Vol. I
It is grace which conjoins the inner and the outer corresponding Imaginal forms in a photograph that is functioning as a Symbol. It is this Oneness of Being that gives a True, living symbol its ineffable divine Presence, its interior radiance, its invisible meaning. Symbols unveil and celebrate the hidden Truth, THAT, which is a feeling that pervades everything in the World.
Muktananda taught:
"God exists in the form of feeling."
"Whatever man feels inside about the Truth,
that is also what he sees outside.
The whole world exists in feeling.
It is your feeling that
is your world . . .
from The Finite to the Infinite, Swami Muktananda, Vol. II
I Welcome you to my photographic "world" of imagery and the yogic teachings I have chosen which shed new light, for me, on the photographs in this project and more generally the whole of my Creative Process. Each of the images below is a gift of grace that is flowing like a luminous river through my Creative Process. After the presentation of the photographs, I invite you to read my commentaries on a selection of the images. I have also concluded the project with an Epilogue.
The Photographs
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Note: I have fine-tuned the images in this project while viewing them in a dark-toned space, using an iMack computer with the Google Chrome browser. The published images in this blog look best to me when I click on the images once, twice. When I click on an image the sharpness and luminosity of the image improves and it becomes surrounded in black space which makes the subtle grays in the image become more apparent. When I click on the image a second time it becomes enlarged. ~ I suggest you try to view the images in this way, if possible.
Image #1 River (our grandchild) walking in undulating water
Image #2 Stone in a shallow river bed
Image #3 Concrete Block with green water hose and puddles
Image #4 Red brick on brown wooden floor boards
Image #5 Garage door curtain, with "House of light" image woven into its fabric
Image #6 Garage, stone on old newspaper
Image #7 Garage, hand rail and wheelbarrow handles
Image #8 Basement, exercise bike
Image #9 Alicia's drawing in remembrance of our beautiful Bella
Image #10 Gloria, in the office on a sunny morning, smiling at the camera
Image #11 Plant reflection in glass
Image #12 Winter Squash
Image #13 Basement, daybed with shop vac cords and hoses
Image #14 Basement, still life on sewing table with electric iron and spray bottle
Image #15 Basement, corner of the ceramic studio
Image #16 Basement, ceramic studio chair and plastic container
Image #17 Basement, piece of foam core board hanging my digital printer
Image #18 Basement, roll of paper towels on ping pong table
Image #19 Bedside lamp
Image #20 Bed, with small pillow
Image #21 Foggy morning mist streaming down our picture window which looks out over the meadow
Image #22 South Meadow view, early foggy morning
Image #23 Office, succulent plant, and golden morning sunlight & shadows dancing on the window shade
Commentary
on selected photographs
____________________________________________
The curtain I photographed, which contains an image of an old house woven into its fabric, covers the window in our garage door which leads out to the back yard and meadow. We placed the curtain over the window to make it difficult for someone to see inside the garage and, at the same time, allow some light inside. The photograph unveils a Truth woven throughout all the yogic scriptures: the Light of Consciousness exists within everyone and every thing in the created world; the same One Self has taken the form of all that exists.
In the yogic tradition known as Vedanta the term Maya is used to identify the divine power which "veils" the True nature of the Self. It is Maya which projects the experiences of the multiplicity of duality, the illusion of our separation from God. Maya is the aspect of the psych known as the ego, the small, separate individual self as opposed to the Supreme Universal Self.
The yogic saints and scriptures tell us that the Heart of every human being is filled with the Light of Consciousness; that the Heart is the "temple," home, or dwelling place of the divine Self. Swami Muktananda taught:
That divine Self is blazing within all of you. It is true
--in the mosque of everyone's heart the Light of
God is shining. That is the abode of God.
The truth is that this whole world is made of light, but we aren't able
to see it because of our inner impurities. Otherwise everything
is full of light. Everything is nothing but light.
This has been the experience of all the saints: they see a conscious
light all around them. . . . The light we see in a room and think
of as light is not really light; compared to the inner light
it is nothing but darkness. The great sage Shivaji
said that in this very body exists a self-born
brilliant light, which is nothing but God.
From the Finite to the Infinite, Swami Muktananda, Vol. II
*
Someone asked Muktanana: "How can this barrier [this veil] between my mind and my real Self be dispelled?" Muktananda responded:
It is only a thin wall of ignorance, or the ego, which
is standing between you and the Self. If that veil
were to be torn, you would find that neither
you nor the world is there . . .
From the Finite to the Infinite, Swami Muktananda, Vol. II
Immediately after I made the image of the curtain covering our garage door window, I made this photograph. The soft light from the veiled window is falling quietly upon a stone which had been placed upon a piece of newspaper covering an old picnic table. The light seems to be illuminating the stone from within. Or, perhaps this image magically gives us a glimpse of the light that exists inside the stone.
The poet Charles Simac (b. 1938) wrote about the light inside a stone. I found his poem in Robert Bly's wonderful, important book News of the Universe, in the chapter entitled "The Object Poem":
Stone
Go inside a stone.
That would be my way.
Let somebody else become a dove
Or gnash with a tiger’s tooth.
I am happy to be a stone.
From the outside the stone is a riddle:
No one knows how to answer it.
Yet within, it must be cool and quiet
Even though a cow steps on it full weight,
Even though a child throws it in a river;
The stone sinks, slow, unperturbed
To the river bottom
Where the fishes come to knock on it
And listen.
I have seen sparks fly out
When two stones are rubbed,
So perhaps it is not dark inside after all;
Perhaps there is a moon shining
From somewhere, as though behind a hill--
Just enough light to make out
The strange writings, the star-charts
On the inner walls.
Charles Simic
I have had a very strong attraction to isolated, individual stones as subject matter for my photography since the early 1970's. I recently created a blog page dedicated to a collection of my stone photographs made over many years. (click here) Stones were one of my favorite subjects when I began making the Thing-Centered Photographs. The photograph above is particularly interesting to me for the way the textures and tones of the stone and the newspaper so closely resemble each other that they seem about to merge into each other. The nature-cultural interface of the two subjects is another fascinating aspect of the image.
Near the stone's bottom right edge I see in the newspaper graphics a shape that looks like an eye. The "eye" reminded me of another of my most favorite poems from Bly's book News of the Universe. Here are three excerpts from the poem entitled Golden Lines:
"Everything is Intelligent!" And everything moves you.
In that blind wall, look out for the eyes that pierce you;
Often a Holy Thing is living hidden in a dark creature;
and like an eye which is born covered by its lids,
a pure spirit is growing strong under the bark of stones!
Gerald De Nerval, 1854 / trans. R Bly
This strange dark image appears at first to be nearly abstract until my eyes adjust to all its subtleties of tone and texture. The little glints of light reflecting off of the hose and cord surfaces in the foreground provide hints of the presence of a shop vac. In the background I can just make out the bedspread that covers the daybed in our basement bedroom. The pock marks on the surface of the bedspread are the paw prints of our five-year-old cat, Mr. Blue* who is so very curious about everything! We adopted him a few weeks before I took this photograph, when everything was new to him in our house. He walked on every surface, touched and smelled every thing he encountered.
*(Note: We found Mr. Blue in Lolly Pop Farm's Adoption Center, in Rochester, NY. We know only that he was owned by someone who cared for him, and that he was reported as a stray cat during the Pandemic and taken to Lolly Pop Farm. After a period of time, when its previous owner did not show up to re-claim him, the Center put Mr. Blue up for adoption. The Center had given him the name "Arnold;" we renamed him Mr. Blue. He is a very loving fiver-year-old; very athletic and playful, and very easily frightened.)
The image has a dark, mysterious science fiction-like quality, it seems to me. We have wondered why such a wonderful animal became a stray, and what Mr. Blue might have experienced in the world, on his own as a stray. Perhaps the image is in part about that, because of course the meaning of any image can operate on multiple levels simultaneously.
Aren't we all stray cats trying to find our way, trying to understand the mystery of this world and ourselves, looking for "the star charts on the inner walls?" It is the unknown that gives a photographic image (or anything) its symbolic potential, a potential that offers the possibility of some spontaneous, direct revelation of that which is invisible, ineffable, THAT which exists hidden deep within each one of us. The yogic saints say the Heart is a space filled with the light of 10,000 suns; it is an infinite space, greater than all that we know to be the Universe.
This photograph invokes the remembrance of the great Italian still life painter Giorgio Morandi (1890-1961) to whom I paid hommage with several projects, including The Letter which preceded this project. In Morandi's later period he frequently played perceptual games with the spaces between the objects in his paintings. In this image, which was made in Gloria's sewing room (which also serves as our basement bedroom) I was initially struck by the glints of light reflected off the upright electric iron, and the rectangular shape of light reflecting off of the sewing machine table's shinny wooden surface. Later, as I was preparing the image for inclusion on this blog page, I noticed the way the spray bottle next to the iron occupied a very strange, ambiguous, shadowy space. The bottle seems to exist somewhere between the iron and a dark object behind the bottle, but I cannot tell if the bottle is sitting next to the iron or further behind the iron. The spray bottle, in this image, has become more of a felt presence than a seeable object.
This felt reality belongs to what Henry Corbin calls the Imaginal World, an intermediary world, one that exists between the inner and outer worlds. The Imaginal World is the Place of Origin of True, living Symbols.
The upright iron reminds me of stories Swami Muktananda told about his worship of an ancient Shiva lingam that was inside a temple near Ganeshpuri, India where his teacher was living. Following a meditation program, someone asked Muktananda about his experience with the lingam because he too had been having spontaneous visions of a lingam in his meditations.
Muktananda responded to the question by saying he stopped worshiping the stone lingam because his teacher Bhagavan Nityantnanda told him to "worship the inner lingam" instead. Then Muktananda added:
Keep watching [the lingham] until it disappears. The [yogic] scriptures
say that the true Shiva lingam is inside and that the outer one
is a symbol. The true lingam is inside the heart and it
is called the jyotirlingam, the lingam of light.
God [Shiva] has no lingam; He has no form, no shape, no gesture.
He is nothing but Consciousness. We perform outer worship
so that we can attain the inner worship.
No matter what you worship, what bears fruit
is your faith, your feeling, and nothing
else. . . In the Panchadashi it is said
that everything is God. God
pervades everything.
From the Finite to the Infinite, Swami Muktananda, Vol. I
*
These kinds of yogic teachings, which I encountered early in my practice of Siddha Yoga Meditation, affected my photography tremendously. As I progressed in my yogic practices my Creative Process in photography became in some ways a form of "outer worship" that eventually led me to more spontaneous perceptions in which I saw outward things inwardly. This lead to a more bountiful flow of revelatory (symbolic) photographs, images within which I feel the presence of grace, the divine Self.
Now, grace has pretty much taken over my Creative Process, and the making of photographs has become more consistently a vital form of meditation for me. I have learned to stop thinking so much, to get my mind--my ego--out of the way, so that the grace of my Creative Process can do what It needs to do.
This photograph belongs to a category of images I refer to as MAKOM, which means "the Place" (where the ineffable essence of life--the divine Self--is present). I made the photograph early in the morning, before sunrise, when fog had settled down over the meadow behind our house. The South pond is hidden in this image by the tall plants, the mist and the early morning darkness. Beyond the meadow the long stretch of dark woods reveals the thinning of the fog as it begins its slow ascent from earth to sky.
The lighter tones in the center of the image--which stretch across the entire space between the two edges of the photograph--and which has the sensuous smooth appearance of a human body silently sleeping, is a very heavy, thick layer of fog that was lying closest to the meadow's surface.
I love Taoist landscape painting, and some of my meadow photographs bear some resemblance to that wonderful imagery. And some of my photography also addresses space in an abstract way similar to the paintings of Barnett Newman. I learned of the MAKOM concept when I was studying Newman's painting. It is closely related to the concept of THAT. For an elaboration on all this I invite you to visit my two blog projects: MAKOM : "the Place" and The Great Image Has No Form.
Image #10
Image #23
I love the way this (#23) image, of dancing light and shadows upon the surface of the window shade, follows the dark foggy Meadow image and concludes the series of photographs in the project. The warm golden light is a welcome, unexpected surprise following the series of dark, nearly black & white images that have preceded it. We have had many foggy mornings this summer and fall, often with clear skies above which seem to be patiently waiting for the sun to rise and burn off the clouds of mist lying close to the earth.
Earlier in this project I included another image of the same office space, with the succulent plant and lace curtained window (Image #10). In that image the shade had been pulled open, and in the foreground a dark shadow-like form appears to have just turned to me and my camera. My wife Gloria was smiling when I took the photograph, but because my exposure was set for the background light, her face has become hidden in darkness. Her presence nonetheless is very strong in the image. Can you feel her looking out at you from inside the image?
Both photographs are pervaded with a palpable feeling. Though the drawn shade in image #23 prevents me from seeing the outside world, the light is joyfully, pulsatingly welcoming me as if to prepare me to meet the day with enthusiasm. Who knows what the new day will bring? This same feeling of enthusiasm exists in me when I make a photograph spontaneously, without thought. After the exposure is made I can hardly wait to see what miracle the grace of my Creative Process has given me.
Swami Muktananda once said:
The mind has such great power that it can create another world
within this very creation. In the Bhagavad Gita the Lord said,
"This entire world and all the creatures in it are nothing
but products of My own mind." It is very true. The
cosmic mind pervades everything and every-
where, and the same mind exists within us.
This entire universe has arisen from the "no-thought" of God,
from the supreme "no-thought." So if you too were to be
without thought, from your "no-thought" something
would arise. ~ As soon as there is no thought
behind your will, no desire behind it, your
will becomes very strong. Then miracles
happen of themselves.
From the Finite to the Infinite, Swami Muktananda, Vol. II
Epilogue
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Epilogue Image, #24 Two birds flying in blue space and golden lightLove is not an object that you can show. Man can talk about anything
and everything; however, he can never speak about love because
there is no language for it, there is no tongue for it. Love
is indescribable; you can't catch it with words. It is
free from desires, free from qualities. Love is not
something that is given or taken. In a very
subtle way it springs forth within.
It is true, the Kingdom of God is within. Whoever saw anything
saw it inside his heart, not outside. Only after seeing That
inside his heart was he able to see That outside too.
In the heart God dwells; this is the real shrine of God.
The light of God is shimmering here, it is
scintillating and vibrating all the
time. Through meditation you
can find this. It is there to
find; it is completely
yours.
From the Finite to the Infinite, Swami Muktananda, Vol. II
I have been wanting to use this photograph for some time now; and I had found the quote by Swami Muktananda about Love long before I had made the final selection of images for this project. I promised myself I would find some way of including these words about Love in the project, and then I remembered this photograph. When I saw them together I felt: At last, I have found the perfect Place for both of them: together!
The ecstatic feeling of the image seems to me the perfect visual metaphor for the wonder of life, the mystery of the Creative Process, and the ineffable, transformative, magical feeling of Love which belies Muktananda's words, every aspect of existence, and all the photographs in this project--images which were made with the kind of seeing that springs spontaneously through the inner Eye of the Heart.
The blue color I have used for Muktananda's words is similar to the blue in the photograph. I have used this particular blue color whenever I have quoted the words of saints, regardless of the traditions they have come from. (See my project Illuminations.) The blue color relates to Muktananda's visionary experience of the scintillating light of The Blue Pearl which he wrote about so beautifully, so passionately in his spiritual autobiography, The Play of Consciousness.
Muktananda's visionary experience of the Blue Pearl, which occurred while in deep meditation, was pervaded by blue light radiant with divine energy, divine Love. His meditation experience was the fruit, the fulfillment of his many years of seeking the Truth through a very disciplined approach to his yogic practices and his complete devotion and service to his guru, Bhagavan Nityananda. In Muktananda's experience of The Blue Pearl he realized that he and the Atman, the Light of divine Consciousness, were One. After that experience, after his experience of THAT, every moment of his life, every action, every word he spoke came from within that most profound transcendent of all Places: the Oneness of Being; total immersion in the Self; the feeling of divine Love.
In the heart God dwells. ~ The light of God
is shimmering here, it is scintillating
and vibrating all the time. Through
meditation you can find this.
It is there to find; it is
completely yours.
*
Postscript
________________________________
It has taken you lifetimes to come into the presence of
your own inner Self in the form of the Guru.
Now that you have arrived, take great care to be present.
from Resonate with Silence
a publication of the SYDA Foundation
This project was announced on my blog's
Welcome Page October 30, 2021
Related Project Links:
Welcome Page to The Departing Landscape blog, which includes the complete hyperlinked listing of my online photography projects dating from the most recent to those dating back to the 1960's. You will also find on the Welcome Page my resume, contact information . . . and much more.
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