Studio8 - Uniting the Arts

"When a fish swims, it swims on and on, and there is no end to the water. When a bird flies, it flies on and on, and there is no end to the sky. There never was a fish that swam out of the water, or a bird that flew out of the sky. When they need a little water or a little sky, they use just a little; when they need a lot, they use a lot. Thus they use all of it at every moment, and in every place they have perfect freedom." - Dogen [19 January 1200 – 22 September 1253; a Japanese Zen Buddhist teacher]

Freedom... the bottom line of our reason for being. For without freedom what are we but needy egos bound by desire. Freedom to know that which freedom brings is the final freedom one searches for. Free from the shackles of mind that insists upon ego to perform and perform and perform, simple and perfect freedom, like the fish or the bird Dogen speaks of, is beyond the limitations of the act of questioning. The simple observation of that fish and that bird does not necessitate our mind but simply our senses providing the food of knowing to understand that which life simply is... a series of moments unto which each and every living entity performs as they were designed to perform... no reason needed, no excuse necessary, and no further desire to become more than that which life has given. How simple and pure it is... a perfect freedom that is abundant for all.

Life is easy only when we stop trying to make it easy. Complication is the effect of chaos... a life of dis-ease. Perfect freedom requires total trust in the Nature of Existence that has given us life. To do otherwise is to live against ourselves which promotes our isolation from that which gives us what we need. We need acceptance of our Self to accept our existence as a part of all existence. Use existence at every moment, in every place for perfect freedom.


cecil
8.16.09

Picture of the Week:

....concrete can be a beautiful thing....so too the rebar crafted within, wrapped in it's wire and energy of it's creation.....i think of dogen and also of ryokan...the soto school and the tranquilo of acceptance of being....the beatles said it to us..."let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be"....whispering words in the now cecil....

howdy, wired amigo... since i've turned into a madman with a camera lately, i find myself taking pics of damn near anything that stay still long enough to have its picture captured... concrete's a good subject for that, obviously... but it smacks of abstraction when confined within an image.. and i like it... i also have a series of street/sidewalk art that is pretty cool... later i post.

thx for stopping in...

Simple, true. It's amazing how many staunchly religious folk I've known who don't seem to see it like this. I like the Dogen wisdom. Elegant.

loved the titles!

gracias for the stream & images, Cecil!

saludos,

Arcadia

It's amazing how many staunchly religious folk I've known who don't seem to see it like this.

I see those 'staunchly religious folk' as bound by doctrine and unable or unwilling to go any further than the Book. The world they miss....

Thx, Mark.

___

Hola, Veronica! Gracias, otra vez, para su palabras. Me gusta.. mucha, amiga mia.

(Glad you enjoyed the titles, tambien! )

I don't know why we think walking up hill is easier than rolling down....

i can't roll down without first walking up
i can't walk up without first rolling down