Upheld by the simplicities of pleasure

They gain the light, they formlessly entwine

And radiant beyond your widest measure

They fall among the voices and the wine

And you who were bewildered by a meaning

Whose code was broken, crucifix uncrossed

Say goodbye to Alexandra leaving

Then say goodbye to Alexandra lost.

- Leonard Cohen

Whether we are aware of it or not light has played a vital role in the explosion of our cultural identities. To think that light made by fire in small cave was likely what gave birth to a reshaping of storytelling culture. What began as formless flickering shadows were controlled into detailed animations that brought life into the home and allowed an audience to visualize complex and otherwise unworldly scenarios. Although the western world has pushed these seemingly archaic forms of imagery aside in favour of smartphones and television, Asian cultures have been preserving these intimate old-world practices.

"It’s often the gnatcatcher’s twangy, whining call—like a miniature banjo being tuned—that alerts us to its presence. Its song is a sputtering, wheezy, petulant-sounding jumble, punctuated by mews. The blue-gray gnatcatcher has been recorded mimicking other species, a talent not widely appreciated, perhaps because its high, whispery voice is beyond the hearing register of many bird watchers. "

Birdwatchersdigest.com

"C. J. Maynard (1896) immortalized it in this beautiful passage:

I heard a low warbling which sounded like the distant song of some bird I had never heard before. . . . And nothing could be more appropriate to the delicate marking and size of the tiny fairy-like bird than this silvery warble which filled the air with sweet, continuous melody. I was completely surprised, for I never imagined that any bird was capable of producing notes so soft and so low, yet each one given with such distinctness that the ear could catch every part of the wondrous and complicated song. I watched him for some time, but he never ceased singing, save when he sprung into the air to catch some insect.

Other observers and writers, however, do not seem impressed by its beauty. F. H. Allen writes that the song of this species is "scrappy, formless, leisurely, and faint, and is delivered somewhat in the manner of a Vireo while the bird flits about among the branches. [He] found the phrase pirrooeet occurring frequently in it." A. A. Saunders regrets that he cannot describe the song in detail, since his collection of sound records "contains only a few fragments from a single bird. The song is long continued, of greatly varied rapid notes and trills, on a high pitch, and of a squeeky or nasal quality. It is more curious than beautiful."

Birds by Bent

Borobudur, or Barabudur, is a 9th-century Mahayana Buddhist monument near Magelang, Central Java, Indonesia. The monument comprises six square platforms topped by three circular platforms, and is decorated with 2,672 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues.. A main dome, located at the center of the top platform, is surrounded by 72 Buddha statues seated inside perforated stupa.

The monument is both a shrine to the Lord Buddha and a place for Buddhist pilgrimage. The journey for pilgrims begins at the base of the monument and follows a path circumambulating the monument while ascending to the top through the three levels of Buddhist cosmology, namely Kāmadhātu (the world of desire), Rupadhatu (the world of forms) and Arupadhatu (the world of formlessness). During the journey, the monument guides the pilgrims through a system of stairways and corridors with 1,460 narrative relief panels on the walls and the balustrades.

Evidence suggests Borobudur was abandoned following the 14th-century decline of Buddhist and Hindu kingdoms in Java, and the Javanese conversion to Islam. Worldwide knowledge of its existence was sparked in 1814 by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, then the British ruler of Java, who was advised of its location by native Indonesians. Borobudur has since been preserved through several restorations. The largest restoration project was undertaken between 1975 and 1982 by the Indonesian government and UNESCO, following which the monument was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Borobudur is still used for pilgrimage; once a year Buddhists in Indonesia celebrate Vesak at the monument, and Borobudur is Indonesia's single most visited tourist attraction.

Well, Danbo isn't really alone, he's got Mini with him. But Mini's not in focus here. Sorry Mini :<

Appreciation Week - Day 5: Adventures !

So this appreciation week project has just turned into an appreciation week-and-a-half due to some unintended lagging in photo uploading.

I crawled into this hidden bush to take this photo. Being massacred alive by angry bugs while waiting for the pms-ing sun to illuminate this at the right angle wasn't exactly pleasant. But in the end everything turned out well. So I'm happy (:

Moar in comments~

__________

Day 1 - Light

Day 2 - Partnership

Day 3 - Solitude

Day 4 - Formless

Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water. Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup; You put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle; You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.

BRUCE LEE.

Introduction

Almighty God Uses His Word to Save Man - "The Main Purpose of God's Work in the Flesh" (Music Video) www.holyspiritspeaks.org/videos/the-main-purpose-of-gods-...

1. God comes into flesh for the main purpose to make man see God’s practical deeds. He realizes the formless Spirit in the flesh so that man can touch and see Him. In this way, people made complete by Him can be those who live out Him. They are ones who are gained by Him, and ones who are after His heart.

2. If God only spoke utterances from the heavens and didn’t practically come to earth, man would never know God. They would just convey God’s deeds with hollow theories, but would never have God’s words as reality. God comes to earth to set an example and serve as a model for those He will gain. In this way, man can come to know God, touch God, and see God in a practical way. And only in this way can he truly be gained by God. God comes to earth to set an example and serve as a model for those He will gain. In this way, man can come to know God, touch God, and see God in a practical way. And only in this way can he truly be gained by God. And only in this way can he truly be gained by God.

from “You Ought to Know That the Practical God Is God Himself” in The Word Appears in the Flesh

Image Source: The Church of Almighty God

“Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless - like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup, you put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle, you put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.”

- Bruce Lee

A twisted tiny decoration that came attached to the ribbon on a present. Found it while sorting things to toss or donate. Or photograph for #MacroMonday's #twist theme ;)

See? I knew it would come in handy someday! No wonder it seems so difficult to pack.

Nikon D810, Nikkor 105mm f/2.8

1/20 sec; f/3.2; ISO 80

manual exposure, tripod, natural light

Many thanks for looking and for previous fun comments!

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters

The night is something of nature: the opposite of the light, enveloping us and all things. It is not an object (Gegenstand) in the true sense of the word: it does not stand over against us, nor does it stand upon itself. . . . It is invisible and formless. And yet we perceive it; indeed it is much nearer to us than all objects and forms, it is much more closely related to our being. Just as the light causes the things and their visible qualities to stand out, so the night swallows them up and threatens to swallow us up, too. . . . At the same time our own being is not only outwardly threatened by the dangers that are hidden in the night, but it is also inwardly affected by it. The night takes away the use of our senses, it impedes our movements, paralyzes our faculties; it condemns us to solitude and makes us our own selves shadowy and ghostlike. It is a foretaste of death. And this has not only a natural, but also a psychological and spiritual significance. . . . The dark and uncanny night has as its contrast the gentle, magic night, flooded by the soft light of the moon. This night does not swallow up the things but lights up their nocturnal aspect. All that is hard, sharp or crude is now softened and smoothed; features which in the clear daylight never appear are here revealed. . . . The dark night, too, has values of its own. It makes an end of the noise and bustle of the day; it brings quiet and peace. And there is a deep and grateful rest in the peace of the night. (ibid., 211–212).

-THE SCIENCE OF THE CROSS Edith Stein

Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross

Discalced Carmelite The Collected Works of Edith Stein VI Translated by Josephine Koeppel, O.C.D.

Edited by Dr. L. Gelber and Romaeus Leuven, O.C.D.

Psalms inhabit the hills, the air is hallelujah. Hidden harps. Dormant songs.

-Israel: An Echo of Eternity by Abraham Joshua Heschel

Hit the Inner Harbor for 10 minutes of photography before work Saturday; just enough time to grab this shot of the Mather floating museum. This image has been worked over in Photoshop, so call it a lomograph if you like ... or an homage to "Vanilla Sky."

"When we return home to 'tell our day,' we are artfully shaping material into story form. … So in a way we all exist in a literary atmosphere, we live and breathe literature, we are all literary artists, we are constantly employing language to make interesting forms of experience, which perhaps originally seemed dull or incoherent. How far reshaping involves offences against truth is a problem any artist must face. A deep motive for making literature or art of any sort is the desire to defeat the formlessness of the world and cheer oneself up by constructing forms out of what might otherwise seem a mass of senseless rubble." -- Iris Murdoch

PLEASE NOTE: This optional philosophy quote -- which I hope does not detract from the image -- has been included only for those who like to encounter a thought-provoking idea attached to a photo and is not meant as an attack on anyone's views, theories or beliefs. This feature is in response to suggestions and requests from some of my most beloved contacts. The quote came from this page on my Web site.

Flowers, more fleeting, more ethereal, and more delicate than the plants out of which they emerged, would become like messengers from another realm, like a bridge between the world of physical forms and the formless.

(( An Extract from A New Earth (tolle) ))

Episode 5 of pingtingTV

Soundtrack: Water Cells by vastlesssmudge

Becoming

The Buddha Project

Curated by Jeanne Grosetti & Robert Thurmer

Wall drawing at Gallery U, Cleveland

2004

Ink, spirograph, fire, wax, incense, rocks, orange, honey

A site specific drawing made directly on the walls of the

gallery. The drawing itself (made with the use of a spirograph,

the 1960's art making device for children) contains thousands

of various small circles representing the Buddha as a formless

form. The first phase of the drawing was completed in four days,

and was continued over a period of 3 months.

At the completion of the show the Buddha was washed away.

Copyright © 2004 David Pohl

HOP | House of Pingting Archives

The swamp of my life was murky

And I could hear the murmur of my blood in my veins,

My life was passing in a deep limbo,

This darkness lighted the sketch of my existence.

The door opened

And she blew into the room with her lantern,

She was an abandoned beauty

And I was expecting her arrival.

She was the formless dream of my life,

A perfume in my eye murmured,

And my veins stopped throbbing.

Every string that pointed at me

Burnt in the lantern’s flame:

Time was not passing in me,

She hung lantern in the air,

She was seeking me in the light,

She crossed every spot in my room

But she couldn’t find me,

A breeze drank the flame of the lantern.

A wind was blowing

And I was placed in a sketch

And I appeared in the pitch darkness of my room.

For whom was I appearing?

She was no more there.

Did she mix with the dark spirit of the room?

I felt a warm perfume moving in my veins.

I felt she was watching me with her lost existence,

And how vainly I was searching the place?

She had been lost in an instant.

Vishnu Sanskrit: विष्णु, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism, and the Supreme Being in its Vaishnavism tradition. Vishnu is the "preserver" in the Hindu trinity (Trimurti) that includes Brahma and Shiva.

In Vaishnavism, Vishnu is identical to the formless metaphysical concept called Brahman, the supreme, the Svayam Bhagavan, who takes various avatars as "the preserver, protector" whenever the world is threatened with evil, chaos, and destructive forces. His avatars most notably include Rama in the Ramayana and Krishna in the Mahabharata. He is also known as Narayana, Jagannath, Vasudeva, Vithoba, and Hari. He is one of the five equivalent deities worshipped in Panchayatana puja of the Smarta Tradition of Hinduism.

In Hindu iconography, Vishnu is usually depicted as having a dark, or pale blue complexion and having four arms. He holds a padma (lotus flower) in his lower left hand, Kaumodaki gada (mace) in his lower right hand, Panchajanya shankha (conch) in his upper left hand and the Sudarshana Chakra (discus) in his upper right hand. A traditional depiction is Vishnu reclining on the coils of the serpent Shesha, accompanied by his consort Lakshmi, as he "dreams the universe into reality"

Explored June 6 #458. Thank you!

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"...the thickset, hairy bumble-bee...covered, like primitive man, with a formless fur,

which rings of copper and cinnabar encircle. They are still half-barbarous: they ravish

the calyces, destroying them if they resist, and push through the satin veils of the

corollas like a cave-bear that might have forced its way into the silken, pearl-bestrewn

tent of a Byzantine princess."

Maeterlinck (1901)

Such delicious prose. No one writes like this anymore :-(

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

© All Rights Reserved. Please do not use this image on websites, blogs or other media without my prior permission.

www.brianwehrung.com

In a certain sense, Adam's sin was a sin arising from inquisitiveness, if such an expression be admissible. Originally, Adam saw contingencies in the aspect of their relationship to God and not as independent entities. Anything that is considered in that relationship is beyond the reach of evil; but the desire to see contingency as it is in itself is a desire to see evil; it is also a desire to see good as something contrary to evil. As a result of this sin of inquisitiveness - Adam wanted to see the "other side" of contingency - Adam himself and the whole world fell into contingency as such; the link with the divine Source was broken and became invisible; the world became suddenly external to Adam, things became opaque and heavy, they became like unintelligible and hostile fragments. This drama is always repeating itself anew, in collective history as well as in the life of individuals.

A meaningless knowledge, a knowledge to which we have no right either by virtue of its nature, or of our capacities, and therefore by virtue of our vocation, is not a knowledge that enriches, but one that impoverishes. Adam had become poor after having acquired knowledge of contingency as such, or of contingency in so far as it limits. We must distrust the fascination which an abyss can exert over us; it is in the nature of cosmic blind-alleys to seduce and to play the vampire; the current of forms does not want us to escape from its hold.

Forms can be snares just as they can be symbols and keys; beauty can chain us to forms, just as it can also be a door opening towards the formless.

Or again, from a slightly different point of view: the sin of Adam consists in effect of having wished to superimpose something on existence, and existence was beatitude; Adam thereby lost this beatitude and was engulfed in the anxious and deceptive turmoil of superfluous things.

Instead of reposing in the immutable purity of Existence, fallen man is drawn into the dance of things that exist, and they, being accidents, are delusive and perishable.

In the Christian cosmos, the Blessed Virgin is the incarnation of this snow-like purity; She is inviolable and merciful like Existence or Substance; God in assuming flesh brought with Him Existence, which is as it were His Throne; He caused it to precede Him and He came into the world by its means. God can enter the world only through virgin Existence.

---

Frithjof Schuon

---

Quoted in: The Essential Frithjof Schuon (edited by Seyyed Hossein Nasr)

I am formless, I am shapeless

A Child's Nightmare –

Poem by Robert Graves (24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985)

^^^^^^^^^^^^

Through long nursery nights he stood

By my bed unwearying,

Loomed gigantic, formless, queer,

Purring in my haunted ear

That same hideous nightmare thing,

Talking, as he lapped my blood,

In a voice cruel and flat,

Saying for ever, "Cat! ... Cat! ... Cat!..."

That one word was all he said,

That one word through all my sleep,

In monotonous mock despair.

Nonsense may be light as air,

But there's Nonsense that can keep

Horror bristling round the head,

When a voice cruel and flat

Says for ever, "Cat! ... Cat! ... Cat!..."

He had faded, he was gone

Years ago with Nursery Land,

When he leapt on me again

From the clank of a night train,

Overpowered me foot and head,

Lapped my blood, while on and on

The old voice cruel and flat

Says for ever, "Cat! ... Cat! ... Cat!..."

Morphia drowsed, again I lay

In a crater by High Wood:

He was there with straddling legs,

Staring eyes as big as eggs,

Purring as he lapped my blood,

His black bulk darkening the day,

With a voice cruel and flat,

"Cat! ... Cat! ... Cat! ... Cat!..." he said, "Cat! ... Cat!..."

When I'm shot through heart and head,

And there's no choice but to die,

The last word I'll hear, no doubt,

Won't be "Charge!" or "Bomb them out!"

Nor the stretcher-bearer's cry,

"Let that body be, he's dead!"

But a voice cruel and flat

Saying for ever, "Cat! ... Cat! ... Cat!"

If you put water in a cup.. it becomes the cup

you put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle.

You put into a tea pot it becomes the teapot..!!

water can flow or it can crash..be water my friend

never let go off your values what ever be the situations are_ Bruce lee

License this photo on Getty Images.

I wanted the viewer to be in a place of a witness of the Impermanence of things. Without having to say or think of anything else, the spiritual has already arisen in you, the awareness that is formless - the formless in you is the aware presence that is aware of the short lived nature of all forms.

(Testing out some old- ish 669 Film with my land camera 210

Tree Veins Suffolk Summers Day)

This is an image from a part of the JC Slaughter Falls in Mount Coot-tha Brisbane.

You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can drip and it can crash. Become like water my friend. - Bruce Lee

there is one sun that runs thru the seconds, minutes, hours, solar and lunar days, the changing seasons of the year

just so, there is but one thread (god/creator) that runs thru all forms, worlds, solar systems and all beings.

unborn, & formless one, God is

hay un sol que recorre los segundos, minutos, horas, días solares y lunares, las estaciones cambiantes del año.

de la misma manera, sólo hay un hilo que recorre todas las formas, mundos, sistemas solares y todos los seres.

Dios no nacido y sin forma, es

from rehiras sahib, a sikh prayer

de rehiras sahib, una oración sikh

in the original writings of the sikhs, there are no capital letters

en los escritos originales de los sikhs, no hay letras mayúsculas

Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way round or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.

Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water my friend. ~ Bruce Lee

Almighty God Uses His Word to Save Man - "The Main Purpose of God’s Work in the Flesh" (Music Video)

www.holyspiritspeaks.org/videos/the-main-purpose-of-gods-...

Introduction

1. God comes into flesh for the main purpose to make man see God’s practical deeds. He realizes the formless Spirit in the flesh so that man can touch and see Him. In this way, people made complete by Him can be those who live out Him. They are ones who are gained by Him, and ones who are after His heart.

2. If God only spoke utterances from the heavens and didn’t practically come to earth, man would never know God. They would just convey God’s deeds with hollow theories, but would never have God’s word as reality. God comes to earth to set an example and serve as a model for those He will gain. In this way, man can come to know God, touch God, and see God in a practical way. And only in this way can he truly be gained by God. God comes to earth to set an example and serve as a model for those He will gain. In this way, man can come to know God, touch God, and see God in a practical way. And only in this way can he truly be gained by God. And only in this way can he truly be gained by God.

from “You Ought to Know That the Practical God Is God Himself” in The Word Appears in the Flesh

.

.

Extending the Airport Runway

The good citizens of the commission

cast their votes

for more of everything.

Very early in the morning

Very rare.

Mary Oliver

in A Thousand Mornings

.

.

.

I wanted the viewer to be in a place of a witness of the Impermanence of things. Without having to say or think of anything else, the spiritual has already arisen in you, the awareness that is formless - the formless in you is the aware presence that is aware of the short lived nature of all forms.

(Testing out some old- ish 669 Film with my land camera 210

Tree Veins Suffolk Summers Day)

I've just finished my first ilford black and white roll with an Olympus Om1 - 35 mm lens. It's been really fun to get used to a manual camera and i'm blessed to have been given an Olympus OM1 to shoot with .

"Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. That water can flow, or it can crash. Be water my friend."

Within the Great Tree

That is my Life

Sing two birds of note:

One flits around from branch to branch

Sometimes joyously intoxicated

Sometimes devastatingly morose

It seems to stretch with every sound

Towards that other Bird

Waiting there in the higher branches

The illuminated- immovable One

That lives in a dimension beyond

The world of the five senses

Singing with such sweetness

Such profoundness

Bringing forth the essence

Of all that is possible

In the Universe of Music

This mysterious Songbird

Enraptures the aching one

Exudes an invitation

To experience more than the tree

As if every note

Contained the essence of Eternity

The immortal seed of Creation

The ecstasy of abundant Peace

The fixed point of Meditation

The wellspring of all Songs

The sacred Source

Reverberating Asupiciously

from Absolute Silence

©Ganga Fondan, 2016

The Ancients of the Vedic culture used to describe the soul and the Great Soul as two birds singing within each of us. Every soul is enmeshed with earthly life and experiences a restlessness and is ever in contact with another bird which represents the Great Oness within which sings its Divine inspirations straight from Source and sings the Music which shows the soul its true Home. More and more I feel this to be true within my Heart and whenever I forget, the soul gets agitated and needs to listen and look up to its Divine Essence again.

有相 无相之间。

On the left is Arupadhatu (the formless world) with circular platforms, and on the right is Rupadhatu (the world of forms) with square platforms.

More in Indonesia Set.

ᴸᶤᶠᵉ ᵃᶰᵈ ᵈᵉᵃᵗʰ ᵃʳᵉ ᵒᶠ ˢᵘᵖʳᵉᵐᵉ ᶤᵐᵖᵒʳᵗᵃᶰᶜᵉˑ ᵀᶤᵐᵉ ˢʷᶤᶠᵗˡʸ ᵖᵃˢˢᵉˢ ᵇʸ ᵃᶰᵈ ᵒᵖᵖᵒʳᵗᵘᶰᶤᵗʸ ᶤˢ ˡᵒˢᵗˑ ᴱᵃᶜʰ ᵒᶠ ᵘˢ ˢʰᵒᵘˡᵈ ˢᵗʳᶤᵛᵉ ᵗᵒ ᵃʷᵃᵏᵉᶰˑ ᴬʷᵃᵏᵉᶰˑ ᵀᵃᵏᵉ ʰᵉᵉᵈ˒ ᵈᵒ ᶰᵒᵗ ˢᵠᵘᵃᶰᵈᵉʳ ʸᵒᵘʳ ˡᶤᶠᵉˑ

---

水 Sui or mizu, meaning "Water", represents the fluid, flowing, formless things in the world. Outside of the obvious example of rivers and the lake, plants are also categorized under sui, as they adapt to their environment, growing and changing according to the direction of the sun and the changing seasons. Blood and other bodily fluids are represented by sui, as are mental or emotional tendencies towards adaptation and change. Sui can be associated with emotion, defensiveness, adaptability, flexibility, suppleness, and magnetism.

I used to be a professor of (Christian) theology. However, when it comes to all things divine and spiritual, I have become poor again. I do not know, have, and perhaps will, anything. As Meister Eckhart around 1300 used to say, such things are formless and I have become what I was, before I was born. And in this condition, all sacred images, visual or textual, do no longer help. Fuji X-E3, window light.

"Empty your minds, be formless. Shapeless like water" - Bruce Lee.

I finished word around 5pm. I had to hurry cause the sun was already setting and i didn't had ideas for today's photo. To make the story short i sweat a lot for all the running i did looking for something to shoot, and in that time one button of my pantsthat hold the straps broke. It was fun tho. And luckily the image turned out fine.

-------------------------------------

"Vacía tu mente, que no tenga forma... como el agua" - Bruce Lee

Hoy pude desocuparme a las 5pm y tuve que apresurarme porque ya estaba oscureciendo y no tenía idea aún de qué hacer para la foto de hoy.

En resumen sudé como loco de tanto correr buscando algo que fotografiar. Tanto que el botón trasero de mi pantalón que sostenía los tirantes se descosió.

Al final encontré al regadera y la foto de hoy terminó saliendo bien. La verdad fue un día bastante divertido y productivo.

© All Rights Reserved. Please do not use this image on websites, blogs or other media without my prior permission.

www.brianwehrung.com

08.08.2020

High Speed Flash Photography

Composite of two shots to create this final image.

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Bruce Lee ...... “ I said empty your mind … be formless … shapeless like water … now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup … you put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle … put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot … water can flow … water can crash … be water, my friend.”

.

.

To purchase my images, please visit andrewjktan.picfair.com

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To view more of my photography insights , please visit www.facebook.com/mentorgraphy

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To view my varied portfolio & photography blog, please visit www.mentorgraphy.com

"I am out of bed at two-fifteen in the morning, when the night is darkest and most silent...I find myself in the primordial lostness of night, solitude, forest, peace, a mind awake in the dark, looking for a light...A light appears, and in the light an ikon. There is now in the large darkess a small room of radiance with psalms in it. The psalms grow up silently by themselves without effort like plants in this light which is favorable to them. The plants hold themselves up on stems which have a single consistency, that of mercy, or rather great mercy. Magna Misericordia. In the formlessness of night and silence a word then pronounces itself: Mercy."

"Blood, lies, fire, hate, the opening of the grave, void. Mercy, great mercy."

-Thomas Merton, (Day of a Stranger, p.43,45; photo of Ikon from Merton's hermitage, p.42)

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day. ~~~

Nikon D300s / Nikkor 18-55mm (18mm)

25 Second Exposure / f/3.5 / ISO 400

Topaz Adjust / Picasa 3

All busy in the sunlight

The flecks did float and dance,

And I was tumbled up with them

In formless circumstance.

Leonard Cohen, “Love Itself”

"Don't get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water. Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water. Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup; You put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle; You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend." Bruce Lee.

Torc Waterfall, located a few kilometers away from Killarney, in County Kerry, is one of the most impressive cascades in Ireland. Although the car park is only a few minutes away from the main waterfall, the short path to reach it immediately introduces us into a magic forest, that is more reminiscent of tropical areas of our planet than of these latitudes of northern Europe.

When we reached the waterfall, we could not hide our astonishment. It had rained a lot in the days before our visit to Killarney, so the cascade appeared before us in all its splendor. The water was falling hardly and soon I knew that reaching the next level of the waterfall, which has a whirlpool and from which I intended to photograph, was going to be an almost impossible task. Still I decided to try it, I took my shoes off (I did not have water boots in Ireland yet) and I went barefoot into the water. Its icy temperature invited to think it better, but still I decided to continue. Step by step, I advanced very carefully through the slippery terrain, my tripod and my camera in one hand, and the rest of my body as support. When I had almost reached the next level, there came a point where advancing more would have gone from a certain recklessness to absolute foolishness. Therefore, I decided to take some photos from that place and return to the starting point.

In the end, this photo that I took from the place where my girlfriend had waited patiently while I was inside the waterfall, has turned out to be my favorite, since in it you can appreciate all the power of its water, and it will always remind me that for some minutes I was part of it.

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"No te establezcas en una forma, adáptala y construye la tuya propia, y déjala crecer, sé como el agua. Vacía tu mente, sé amorfo, moldeable, como el agua. Si pones agua en una taza se convierte en la taza. Si pones agua en una botella se convierte en la botella. Si la pones en una tetera se convierte en la tetera. El agua puede fluir o puede chocar. Sé agua, amigo mío". Bruce Lee.

La cascada de Torc, situada a pocos kilómetros de Killarney, en el Condado de Kerry, es una de las más impresionantes de Irlanda. A pesar de que el aparcamiento se encuentra a escasos minutos de la cascada principal, el corto sendero para llegar hasta ella nos introduce inmediatamente en un mágico bosque, que recuerda más a zonas tropicales de nuestro planeta que a estas latitudes del Norte de Europa.

Cuando nos encontramos frente a ella, no pudimos disimular nuestro asombro. Había llovido mucho en los días previos a nuestra visita a Killarney, por lo que la cascada apareció ante nosotros con todo su esplendor. El agua caía con fuerza y pronto supe que alcanzar el siguiente nivel de la cascada, que cuenta con un remolino y desde el que pretendía fotografiar, iba a ser una tarea casi imposible. Aún así decidí intentarlo, me quité los zapatos (no disponía aún de botas de agua en Irlanda) y entré descalzo en el agua. Su gélida temperatura invitaba a pensárselo mejor, pero aún así decidí continuar. Paso a paso, fui avanzando con mucho cuidado por el resbaladizo terreno, mi trípode y mi cámara en una mano, y el resto de mi cuerpo como apoyo. Cuando casi había alcanzado el siguiente nivel, llegó un punto en el que avanzar más hubiera pasado de cierta temeridad a insensatez absoluta. Por ello, decidí realizar unas fotos desde aquel lugar y volver al punto de partida.

Al final, esta foto que hice desde el lugar en el que mi novia me había esperado pacientemente mientras yo estaba dentro de la cascada, ha resultado ser mi favorita, ya que en ella se puede apreciar todo el poder de su agua, y siempre me recordará que durante algunos minutos fui parte de ella.

A rainy, formless gloom was settling in as I drove past the local beach early this evening. These blokes were well kitted out for the conditions though and it struck me how the scene could have been plucked from pretty well any time since european settlement. Sure the gear's a lot more refined now but in essence it's still a hook on a string on a stick, enveloped in optimism, irrespective of conditions. Stayers. I've played quite a bit with the NIK sliders to try and draw out this perception.

+4 nei commenti

[...] un senso come di vuoto che prende una sera con l'odore degli elefanti dopo la pioggia e della cenere di sandalo che raffredda nei bracieri; una vertigine che fa tremare i fiumi e le montagne istoriati sulla fulva groppa dei planisferi [...] è il momento disperato in cui si scopre che quest'impero che ci era sembrato la somma di tutte le meraviglie è uno sfacelo senza fine nè forma che la sua corruzione è troppo incancrenita perchè il nostro scettro possa mettervi riparo, che il trionfo sui sovrani avversari ci ha fatto eredi della loro lunga rovina.

(Italo Calvino - Le città invisibili)

[...] There is a sense of emptiness that comes over us at evening, with the odor of the elephants after the rain and the sandalwood ashes growing cold in the braziers, a dizziness that makes rivers and mountains tremble on the fallow curves of the planispheres where they are portrayed [...] It is the desperate moment when we discover that this empire, which had seemed to us the sum of all wonders, is an endless, formless ruin, that corruption's gangrene has spread too far to be healed by our scepter, that the triumph over enemy sovereigns has made us the heirs of their long undoing.

Some might say that's a frequent state of mind for me--oars shipped, drifting in the fog, only the vaguest of notion of where exactly I might be.

When the fog settles in on the river, there a peaceful silence, a softness to the light. You feel like you're in a soft, cozy room, the ripply carpet on the floor, and soft draperies melting into the ivory walls.

At any moment, the comforting illusion of that comfy "River Room" could shatter with the speed of a monster tugboat pushing a barge through the corner wall. But the muffled sound and gentle light create a dreamlike, meditative mood.

Meditation is not a practice of getting, but one of allowing. The river, the flowing current--thoughts swim in random eddies, and the meandering mind clicks back into "right now" as an old buddy materializes through the mist.

It's a magical moment. After it's over, the feeling stays with you, and you remember what that great teacher had to say about meditation--the one whose name started with a "B". (no, not Buddha, Bruce Lee!)--

“Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless - like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup, you put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle, you put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.”

In my Room

youtu.be/La4U2yzeafE?si=9Ln3OP6tU6nwA_OK

A Formless Path