February 16, 2012
A photographer can capture an image in mere seconds with a camera…
But is what we see always the reality of what it is, or do we see things sometimes in more abstract views that make us question reality? (more…)
February 5, 2012
I was first introduced to the teaching of J. Krishnamurti while studying A Course In Miracles, with Tara Singh while living in Los Angeles. Since then I have found great comfort and wisdom from the teaching of J. Krishnamurti…
The center of suffering
When you see a most lovely thing, a beautiful mountain, a beautiful sunset, a ravishing smile, a ravishing face, that fact stuns you, and you are silent; hasn’t it ever happened to you? Then you hug the world in your arms. But that is something from outside which comes to your mind, but I am talking of the mind which is not stunned but which wants to look, to observe. Now, can you observe without all this upsurging of conditioning? To a person in sorrow, I explain in words; sorrow is inevitable, sorrow is the result of fulfillment. When all explanations have completely stopped, then only can you look -which means you are not looking from the center. When you look from a center, your faculties of observation are limited. If I hold to a post and want to be there, there is a strain, there is pain. When I look from the center into suffering, there is suffering. It is the incapacity to observe that creates pain. I cannot observe if I think, function, see from a center- as when I say, ‘I must have no pain, I must find out why I suffer, I must escape.’ When I observe from a center, whether the center is a conclusion, an idea, hope, despair, or anything else, that observation is very restricted, very narrow, very small, and that engenders sorrow. ~~ J. Krishnamurti, The Book of Life
Let go of the suffering, I believe Krishnamurti is saying here. Release it. Sorrow is inevitable, we all go through it. We can’t get past it if we hold it at our center. It’s a hard lesson, but in time we must release the sorrow and suffering and move through it.
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February 1, 2012
This quote caught my eye earlier today…
Nothing in the world is permanent, and we’re foolish when we ask anything to last, but surely we’re still more foolish not to take delight in it while we have it. If change is of the essence of existence one would have thought it only sensible to make it the premise of our philosophy. ~~ W. Somerset Maugham, The Razor’s Edge, 1943
Reflecting on the subject of taking delight in something “while we have it,” I think back to times of great joy. We know instinctively in the midst of sheer joy, that that joy will not last forever, but we still revel in it while it is happening.
And then, is that joy not our solace, when we slip down into a period of the dark nights of soul. It is there, lost in the dark nights of soul, that we reflect deepest sometimes. And that reflection at first can appear messy, like the reflection of the clouds amidst the winter trees in the marshes.
Difficult as the path may seem, it is taking the journey through the dark nights of the soul that clears our hearts and allows us to find strength in the notion that “nothing in the world is permanent.”
(Photo: Reflection In Hellcat Swamp ~~ c. Pamela J. Leavey 2011)
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September 6, 2011
Word Press ate my thoughts… I had rambled about being in the “still” and added a photo and when I hit publish all I had was a title.
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July 23, 2011
- Matt Dunham / AP
The so very troubled and talented Amy Winehouse is dead, at 27.
Amy Winehouse “found worldwide fame with a sassy, hip-hop-inflected take on retro soul, yet became a tabloid fixture as her problems with drugs and alcohol led to a strikingly public career collapse.” She was found dead today in her London apartment, the police said.
Although the cause of death is at this point “unknown,” the news of Winehouse’s death stunned me and made me feel a sense heartbreak that she had most likely lost her battle with drugs and alcohol. (more…)
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May 22, 2011
“The life of a flower is never too brief that we can not capture it’s essence and appreciate its beauty forever.” ~~ Pamela J. Leavey
(Photo: © Pamela J. Leavey 2011)
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