Week #9

Winter Evening

Silently and serenely one forgets all words.

Clearly and vividly, it appears before you.

When one realizes it, it is vast and without edges.

Hongzhi Zhengjue

 I was finding it difficult this week to schedule in the time and space I needed with my camera. I was also feeling a bit at odds with myself over what I'm looking for out of my photography. 

Yearning for some wise words, I picked up John Daido Loori's book, The Zen of Creativity, Cultivating Your Artistic Life. I have read this book before and thought that it might have a pearl of wisdom that could guide me to some insight about my slump. Right there in the introduction were the wise words and the gentle reminder I needed to hear. Loori talks about the great Zen Master D.T. Suzuki's views on the arts of Zen. Suzuki says the most interesting aspect of the arts of Zen is that they don't exist for the sole purpose of creating a work of art, but they are rather a method for opening the creative process. They comprise the means of training the mind and of living our lives. 

It is this very practice that I use my camera for - a way to bring my eyes and heart together and stand in the present moment. 

Here is a link to  John Daido Loori speaking about his photography and creative process.

With gratitude.