Another photo catching the fire of the setting sun on the ocean undulations. Using the cover of an ironwood tree catching the golden blast of the setting sun and a sunset cruise boat. And a mother and child Moorish Idol pair munching on algae or coral.
First sunny afternoon in several days on Kauai. Two young seals resting together. Another great sunset. I am grateful for the beauty all around.
Some really nice sunsets at Poipu Beach in the past week. Lots of visiting monks seals and green sea turtles too. I found one photo especially striking, the one I named ocean lava. I did not see the “lava light” when I was shooting the photo, just the sunset. I did not edit this photo. The sun had just set and the bending light somehow cast red streaks on the ocean surface. dt
Went snorkeling with my brother at Poipu Beach Park. So many fish. One giant school that must have included hundreds of fish. Got one photo of a Moorish Idol before I used up the camera’s memory – forgot to put in a SD memory card. Went back for sunset and it was a nice one. I am blessed to live in a beautiful space.
Had a great conversion on Christmas Day with a dear friend. He talked about an insight he had about the nature of time. It struck a chord in me and inspired a new photo haiku. A short essay letter is below the photo.
Aloha Friend
Very nice talking with you. I sure hope your phone plan doesn’t have a minutes per month limit. I learned lots of stuff talking to you. But one was to listen more deeply, the pause before responding and open to awakened mind before speaking. I was almost going to go doctrinaire Buddhist and warn you about the dangers of nihilism, but you got there on your own. I am so there on your insight into time. Whatever the inspiration, that is the conditioned conceptual nature of time. For Buddhists the ultimate truth is that reality is timeless – no direction, no time. Linearity is a concept, a habit of perception. And there really is just now. The dharma text I am reading now “Magic Dance” by Thinley Norbu says :
“Ordinary mind is always divided by time … obstructed by substance time … Those who remain in clear space sky mind with all elements in equanimity can see all time and space because it is open and unobstructed. They do not have direction or time because they are neither inside substance or outside substance … with practice … all our time habit phenomena ultimately become one time within spaceless space. ”
The Buddhist teaching on emptiness is not about saying that apparent phenomena are nonexistent, just that they are not ultimately as they appear. Same for time. So yes, nothing matters in the sense that no-thing is ultimately substantially existent, unchanging and solid. Yet the energy behind the arising of that no-thing is beyond words wondrous and suffused with infinite compassion and loving kindness. In no-thing everything, all interconnectedly, timelessly one.
That thought inspired a photo haiku. When to look for whales at Makahuena Point. No whales. But coming back to my care the clouds were rolling in over the peak of Haupu. The circle of blue sky bursting through the clouds caught my eye. Not quite polished but a start. May your new year be blessed with wellness, laughter, insight.
From stillness all phenomena of the world of appearances and possibilities arise spontaneously from the ground of being, our essential nature – primordial awareness. These photo galleries are offered up as a resource for stilling the mind and reconnecting with the awakened basic goodness you are. Explore, discover, look deeper : Find stillness then find the energy you truly are.
My aspiration is to share photos I have taken that can aid you in pausing in the moment and just be here and now. When we are fully present we touch the energy of the moment, the energy that is our essential nature. In that moment we are connected to the entire universe, open like the vastness of space. Then a wondrous dance arises – here and now just as it is.
From stillness arising Ceaseless spring of compassion Grateful, I bow down
Peace and aloha
“You live in illusion and in the appearance of things. There is a reality. You are the reality. If you wake up to that reality, you will know that you are nothing, and being nothing, you are everything.”
-Kalu Rinpoche
Click on a thumbmail, then click on the arrow button in the lower right corner of the photo to start a gallery slideshow
Aloha,
This is my first try at a blog for my new website, From Stillness. My aspiration is to share photos I have taken that can aid you in pausing in the moment and just be here and now. When we are fully present we touch the energy of the moment, the energy that is our essential nature. In that moment we are connected to the entire universe, open like the vastness of space. Then a wondrous dance arises – here and now just as it is.
Why the name From Stillness :
