i lay on the grass today and watched the sky.
i'm so unused to emptiness.
i don't know what to do with it.
- fill it i suppose -
but isn't that the antithesis
of what i should do?
perhaps i should take the message of the sky
and empty myself.
and perhaps i should
allow the clouds that pass overhead
to gather
and disperse
... fall as they may
and simply be
right there
between the richly-veined leaves
scattered with sunshine
music by: morton feldman the rothko chapel
17 comments:
A friend recently gave my father a Meditation manual by a Tibetan teacher. But instead of a sense of peace, the militant teachings of dharma and karma are alarming in nature. What Dad knows, as do I, is that lying on your back, empty of mind, full of heart, is the deepest meditation there is. Add to that, a canopy of tree and sky, and suddenly this being human is quite alright :)
Beautiful - I love what you do. :-)
A lesson from the sky - lessons are all around us when we're willing to learn...
Such gorgeous photos!
not one thing empty there!
i did the same the other day. what a blessing to see from beneath these trees i usually only see the caps of from my bedroom window. they were my neighbour's trees, silver maples. a whole new world beneath. it had been too long since i'd laid like that in our sideyard. our small poplar's leaves fluttered like fish in the wind.
be. be. be.
i laugh. it is work!
xo
erin
shaista - your insight is so encouraging! there are many things that i can't reconcile with myself and one of them is that i don't give myself enough time to be quiet. in every way. steven
susannah - i'm so glad! steven
pauline - well i've been waiting for the lesson. i knew it was there. steven
erin - it's all work - but as with the practical everyday commonaplace form of work, it's not work when you love it. steven
Love Morton Feldman! And I love your gorgeous view of the sky between the leaves.
Emptiness? I find pockets of it here and there, that's about it. Fill the spaces, empty the spaces, fill the spaces. Ah, that is life on earth, eh?
There's a cowboy expression called, "Airing the Lungs"...which is a polite version of yelling. :)
Perhaps lying there beneath the sky, you're merely airing your brain...letting out the bad to let in more good.
Or you could just be having a lazy moment...something we should all take advantage of from time to time.
oh reya, life certainly is like that! steven
wow hope i've not heard that expression before. it makes sense doesn't it!!! i like the idea of airing out my brain. it's so full so much of the time. like my body, it probably wishes i was lazy! steven
I want to dive into that second image and never come back.
tess i've sent you a full-size copy of that image. i hope it crosses the border alright! steven
Beautiful sky photos. So serene and inviting.
Hello, Steven~
Have you even been to the rothko chapel? On my first trip back to Houston after my mother died, I sought it out. There's a shelf of books from many different faith traditions next to the door of the inner chapel. I was moved to select the Tibetan Book of the Dead and I walked in, sat on a meditation cushion, quieted myself, and opened to a random page. I read about instructions to the one who is a companion to the person dying. I was stunned to discover that I had instinctually followed many of those instructions as I held my mother while she took her final breaths. I cannot a imagine a more beautiful gift from the Universe than what I experienced on that day. Listening to the music you selected brought all that back, happily. Please, look upon the leaves and sky as often as possible. It appears to be good for all of us.
Thank you.
hello kathleen - i haven't been to the rothko chapel. i've read about it, seen film of it, pictures of it. i'm feeling a great happiness for you that your experience here took you back to that incredible and good experience which - as you say - was a gift from the universe. steven
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