Twelfth in the series ‘Wild Bonsai’, this tree is thirty-two inches (81cm) in height and perhaps 650 years old.

'Wild Bonsai' is a numbered collection of photos of naturally occurring bristlecones (p. longaeva) generally less than five feet in height (158cm) and - as nearly as I can estimate - between fifty and five-hundred years old - some much older. Most will have sprouted and survived in tiny cracks and crevases or miniature basins of sand and gravel. Shaped by the elements, flourishing tenaciously in the most minimalist of conditions, their lives are measured not in the millennia of more robust bristlecones, but in centuries...often mere decades.

'Duality', the cover photo for this album, is to me a matriarch of sorts and will remain unnumbered as a small token of a deeply intuitive and unapologetic respect that remains as transcendent and mysterious to me as it may seem odd to others. The essay that accompanies 'Duality' could, in many ways, apply as well to any other tree I may post in this series.

A perspective: Housed in the Tokyo Imperial Palace, the fifth oldest living cultivated bonsai in the world is something over 500 years old and is a designated National Treasure of Japan.

*in Explore

Majestic spires of Prague Castle rise like ethereal sentinels, piercing the brooding clouds with a transcendent grace. As sunlight breaks through the stormy sky, a divine spotlight bathes the ancient stone in a golden glow, imbuing the scene with an air of mystique and reverence. Each rooftop holds tales of centuries past, while the verdant embrace of nature frames this architectural marvel in a delicate harmony.

"Worship is transcendent wonder." - Thomas Carlyle

The First Disciple

Brugge is a fabulously rich city, and you may wonder why there is a statue symbolising Hunger (see the weighing scale). This is one of the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, bronze sculptures made by Rick Poot between 1981 and 1987. You would find them between the Groeningemuseum and Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk. The Beyond or the Transcendent is never far away in this city that, nominally at least, is about 80% Catholic. Don't be tempted by all the splendour, these sculptures seem to say, and do not think that wealth and certainty are the same thing - because the Unthinkable is just around the corner. Fuji X100F.

Eighth in the series ‘Wild Bonsai’, this tree is thirty-six inches (91cm) in height and perhaps 300 years old.

'Wild Bonsai' is a numbered collection of photos of naturally occurring bristlecones (p. longaeva) generally less than five feet in height (158cm) and - as nearly as I can estimate - between fifty and five-hundred years old - some much older. Most will have sprouted and survived in tiny cracks and crevases or miniature basins of sand and gravel. Shaped by the elements, flourishing tenaciously in the most minimalist of conditions, their lives are measured not in the millennia of more robust bristlecones, but in centuries...often mere decades.

'Duality', the cover photo for this album, is to me a matriarch of sorts and will remain unnumbered as a small token of a deeply intuitive and unapologetic respect that remains as transcendent and mysterious to me as it may seem odd to others. The essay that accompanies 'Duality' could, in many ways, apply as well to any other tree I may post in this series.

A perspective: Housed in the Tokyo Imperial Palace, the fifth oldest living cultivated bonsai in the world is something over 500 years old and is a designated National Treasure of Japan.

Scanned mixedmedia art: acrylic, watercolor, collage, pencil, graphite, textures, etc. From the Transcendent Worlds Series.

Castroneves’ third Indy 500 victory on May 24, 2009 becoming the first foreign-born three-time winner of the race, which capped an extraordinary 18 months of extreme highs and lows. Life as one of the world’s most transcendent racing drivers came screeching to an abrupt halt when Castroneves was indicted Oct. 2, 2008 on six counts of federal tax evasion and one count of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government. A guilty verdict in the trial would have likely sent Castroneves to prison, and ended his driving career.

In addition to facing up to 35 years in prison, Castroneves also had all of his professional relationships completely severed while facing the charges. Team Penske president Tim Cindric said he went six months without talking to the driver and from the point at which Castroneves was accused he couldn’t have any conversations with him.

Almost as quickly as Castroneves had everything yanked away, his life returned virtually to normal from the moment he was acquitted April 17, 2009. With two minutes remaining in Friday practice on the streets of Long Beach, Cindric was handed a note by a Penske staffer that Castroneves had been cleared on all counts.

Castroneves was rushed from a courtroom in Miami to a Penske jet that flew him to Southern California. He was back in the car by Saturday morning in Long Beach. Castroneves crashed in qualifying but led three laps and finished seventh despite barely sitting in a cockpit for six months.

His May at Indianapolis Motor Speedway went much smoother. Castroneves qualified on pole position for the third time, led a career-best 66 laps and won by 1.982 seconds over Dan Wheldon for his third Indy 500 victory. “To go from where he was, the bottom of the bottom, to win that race a third time, it was one of the coolest days I’ve ever seen.” Cindric said.

Resisting attempts to be directed to the Winners Circle, Castroneves stopped on the fronstretch for his familiar “Spider-Man” fence climb so he could salute fans who supported him during this difficult time.

The Brazilian needed several minutes to compose himself after the win. “When I was still on the victory lap, normally I cry,” he said. “No, actually, I scream to the guys and celebrate. And this time I have no words, I just let it go. It was a very special moment that last, the celebrating lap.”

Better Large-A cold night by the water, but perfect for capturing the right light. Northeastern Florida at its best.

Words (James Watkins)

There are words above all others-

that fix themselves like stars-

bright beacons in the darkness-

heights hidden in the heart.

They alone take awesome stand--

against the tides of life-

in armed array of power-

an army clothed in might.

Like seeds that fall on watered ground-

form fertile flowing fields-

grown gentle- guides in patience pruned

with perfect plural yields.

Established on foundations strong-

bold buildings built to last-

against the rule of raging time-

eternally recast.

Triumphant- time-transcendent-

translucent, touched and twirled-

the truth unbound and glorious-

runs rampant through the world.

To conquer mountain standing tall

across the pilgrimed path.

And bring to birth the vision small-

the unseen to our grasp.

And leaving doubt behind us-

chaff driven by the wind-

each enemy of hope and faith-

unchallenged to an end.

Now standing hard behind us-

there thronged by secret thralls-

authority and mercy meet-

beyond the cloistered walls.

To loose the power petrified,

by fear’s unyielding grip.

Torn from years of solitude-

this single silent trip.

Bought before on battleground-

beyond the mortal veil-

pursued by death- prevailing -

through ancient rights assailed.

Passed from grave to live again-

new formed the narrow path.

Within the reach of every man-

a gateway firm and fast.

Now brought to bear the tidings glad-

entrenched in solid ground-

in waking realms of glory-

a kingdom newly found.

Come taste the bread of heaven-

and drink the wine of life-

with fellowship and faithfulness

in everlasting light.

Where promises now harvested,

join late and early rain-

appearing at the altar bold-

the circumstances plain.

To stand behind each spoken word-

against the darkened lie-

that proudly boasts against us-

before an open sky.

And crushing all resistance-

bring victories large and small-

to every realm of being-

delivered from the fall.

Extending out beyond ourselves-

we yield to greater need-

and find that loss in giving-

makes every word

a seed.

James watkins 7-04

É como me sinto, diante de tanta luz, afetiva, pessoal, transcendente. O tempo, zero, só pingar aqui e voar. Acho que, se continuar assim o meu tempo pra visitar os amigos no Flickr, breve esta página será um deserto. Mas saibam, se acontecer será um deserto com alma, com coração e cheio de saudades de tantos amigos queridos que gostaria de ver com mais calma e atenção. Prometo, assim que as coisas melhorarem eu visitarei a todos mais constantemente... inclusive para o meu próprio prazer porque, de longe, perco fotos espetaculares de todos.

Beijos. Zé Bielzim manda lembranças...

Enlightned.

Is just like I feel now, with so much lights of tenderness and affection by my newborn lil' son. Soon I' ll visit you better. This beggining is a very busy times. Love for all. My little Gabriel are sending best regards , too.

=======================

Paraty, RJ

People of our time are losing the power of celebration. Instead of celebrating we seek to be amused or entertained. Celebration is an active state, an act of expressing reverence or appreciation. To be entertained is a passive state–it is to receive pleasure afforded by an amusing act or a spectacle…. Celebration is a confrontation, giving attention to the transcendent meaning of one’s actions.

-Abraham Joshua Heschel

Taken in Garmish

Thirteenth in the series ‘Wild Bonsai’, this tree is forty-eight inches (1.2m) in height and perhaps 1000 years old.

'Wild Bonsai' is a numbered collection of photos of naturally occurring bristlecones (p. longaeva) generally less than five feet in height (158cm) and - as nearly as I can estimate - between fifty and five-hundred years old - some much older. Most will have sprouted and survived in tiny cracks and crevases or miniature basins of sand and gravel. Shaped by the elements, flourishing tenaciously in the most minimalist of conditions, their lives are measured not in the millennia of more robust bristlecones, but in centuries...often mere decades.

'Duality', the cover photo for this album, is to me a matriarch of sorts and will remain unnumbered as a small token of a deeply intuitive and unapologetic respect that remains as transcendent and mysterious to me as it may seem odd to others. The essay that accompanies 'Duality' could, in many ways, apply as well to any other tree I may post in this series.

A perspective: Housed in the Tokyo Imperial Palace, the fifth oldest living cultivated bonsai in the world is something over 500 years old and is a designated National Treasure of Japan.

*in Explore

“Without a more profound human understanding derived from exploration of the inner ground of human existence, love will tend to be superficial and deceptive.”

-Thomas Merton, “Contemplation in a World of Action,” in Contemplation in a World of Action, 2nd edition (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2000), 154.

Contemplation is crucial to that human thriving and wholeness found in the transcendent intimacy we call God. The gift of contemplation transforms and liberates our heart in a host of ways: (1) contemplation dispels the illusion that we are separate from God; (2) it gives birth to the simple realization that God is the all-loving, groundless ground of being; (3) insofar as we are, we are in God; (4) contemplation liberates us from the illusions that dominate, confuse, and stunt human thriving; (5) it frees us from the illusion that God is an object we lack and therefore need to seek; (6) contemplation liberates us from the seeds of violence in our own heart, especially from our individual and social compulsions to find someone to blame for the ills that befall us—such compulsions do nothing but keep us bent over on ourselves, blind to what constitutes a human.

-An Ocean of Light Contemplation, Transformation, and Liberation, Martin Laird, O.S.A.

Title: Transcendent

Year: 2015

Location:Port Lincoln , Eyre Peninsula,South Australia.

www.imagesbyannclarke.com.au

www.fluidr.com/photos/golden_asha

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500px.com/AnnClarke

Thirty-fifth in the series ‘Wild Bonsai’, this tree is 39 inches (1.0m) in height and perhaps 300 years old. (Yes, that’s her photobombing sister-tree, Wild Bonsai 29, waving at you in the background.)

'Wild Bonsai is a numbered collection of photos of naturally occurring bristlecones (p. longaeva) generally less than five feet in height (1.5m) and - as nearly as I can estimate - between fifty and five-hundred years old - some much older. Most will have sprouted and survived in tiny cracks and crevices or miniature basins of sand and gravel. Shaped by the elements, flourishing tenaciously in the most minimalist of conditions, their lives are measured not in the millennia of more robust bristlecones, but in centuries...often mere decades.

'Duality", the cover photo for this album, is to me a matriarch of sorts and will remain unnumbered as a small token of a deeply intuitive and unapologetic respect that remains as transcendent and mysterious to me as it may seem odd to others. The essay that accompanies 'Duality' could, in many ways, apply as well to any other tree I may post in this series.

A perspective: Housed in the Tokyo Imperial Palace, the fifth oldest living cultivated bonsai in the world is something over 500 years old and is a designated National Treasure of Japan.

The pale purple datura unfurls for the evening. Not being that knowledgable about flower identification, my choice of an f/1.2 aperture on a vintage lens with dream-like rendering was not based on the characteristics of the flower.

The ultrafast and radioactive Nippon Kogaku Auto Nikkor-S 55mm f/1.2 seems appropriate for a beautifully dangerous nightshade flower that can cause delirium and hallucinations. Its shallow depth of field renders it dream-like and blurring out background and foreground.

So might one affected by datura remember it.

Speaking of effects, the plant is much more dangerous than the lens that saw it — though I wouldn't recommend eating any parts of this predecessor of Noct Nikkors either.

Datura plants, I think specifically Datura stramonium here, has been called by many names deemed less scientific: including devil's trumpet, mad apple, devil's weed, and hell's bells because of its effects.

The datura itself of course does not care. It goes about its floral (florid?) business just trying, like so many with deleterious side effects, just trying to survive and not be eaten.

Cows avoid eating it. And one has to assume horse sense keeps horses to less hellish fruits. Those of us with reason, memory, or even perhaps mere instinct see that it is a vine that is generally best enjoyed only visually.

However, humans being what we are, other uses have been found for them: ritualistic, hallucinogenic, and medicinal.

Datura is just trying to survive and not be eaten in the ways that have gotten it here. It is people who have interpreted the plant. What it means in nature is nothing, an assemblage of compounds that has managed to continue assembling compounds similarly. Though is that sufficient evidence of intent? Surely something is beyond the scope of a Flickr description for a photograph of a flower.

Even taking into consideration some of the uncannier aspects of plant consciousness and response to a surprising range of environmental factors, it has not set out to poison people or to send them on hallucinatory trips. It takes a rational mind to find its meaning. How odd that rational minds in seeking out thorn apple are doing so out of desire for irrationality in some form.

The Nearly Noct Nikkor 55mm f/1.2 is also a means of vision. And so in a sense here one amplification of the human sight regards another. This assemblage of compounds has also been used for sight and insight. Though both the ways that it limits and augments human vision, it too seems to offer something in a way transcendent.

And while the debate about radioactive lenses will probably never end on the internet, I would submit that its real danger is that of any means of higher vision: what does it cause you to see?

What fun this was. Take a baking tray full of water. Add plenty of light. Set camera on tripod and point towards water. Grab a soup skimmer and move it about under the area where the lens is pointing. When the time is right...click.

I was like a little kid playing with water in the sink.

Love the results.

Words (James Watkins)

There are words above all others-

that fix themselves like stars-

bright beacons in the darkness-

lights hidden in the heart.

To stand alone like armor

against the tides of life-

in bold array of power-

small armies clothed in might.

As seeds that fall on watered ground-

form fertile flowing fields-

grow gentle guides in patience pruned

with perfect plural yields.

Established on foundations strong-

bold bulwarks built to last-

against the rule of raging time-

eternally recast.

Triumphant- time-transcendent-

translucent, touched and twirled-

the truth unbound and glorious-

runs rampant through the world.

To conquer mountains standing tall

across the pilgrimed path.

And bring to birth the vision small-

the unseen to our grasp.

And leaving doubt behind us-

chaff driven by the wind-

each enemy of hope and faith-

unchallenged to an end.

Now standing hard behind us-

there thronged by secret thralls-

authority and mercy meet-

beyond the cloistered walls.

To loose the power petrified,

by fear’s unyielding grip.

Torn from years of solitude-

a single, silent trip.

Bought before on battlegrounds

beyond the mortal veil-

pursued by death- prevailing -

through ancient rights assailed.

Passed from grave to live again-

new formed a narrow path.

Within the reach of every man-

a gateway firm and fast.

Now brought to bear the tidings glad-

entrenched in solid ground-

to waking realms of glory-

a kingdom newly found.

Where promises now harvested,

join late and early rain-

appearing at the altar bold-

the circumstances plain.

To stand behind each spoken word-

against the darkened lie-

that proudly boasts against us-

before an open sky.

And crushing all resistance-

Loose victories large and small-

to every realm of being-

delivered from the fall.

Extending out beyond ourselves

we yield to greater need-

To find that loss, in giving,

Makes every word-a seed.

JHWatkins 7-04

Sixteenth in the series ‘Wild Bonsai’, this tree is sixty inches (1.5m) in height and perhaps 850 years old.

'Wild Bonsai' is a numbered collection of photos of naturally occurring bristlecones (p. longaeva) generally less than five feet in height (158cm) and - as nearly as I can estimate - between fifty and five-hundred years old - some much older. Most will have sprouted and survived in tiny cracks and crevases or miniature basins of sand and gravel. Shaped by the elements, flourishing tenaciously in the most minimalist of conditions, their lives are measured not in the millennia of more robust bristlecones, but in centuries...often mere decades.

'Duality', the cover photo for this album, is to me a matriarch of sorts and will remain unnumbered as a small token of a deeply intuitive and unapologetic respect that remains as transcendent and mysterious to me as it may seem odd to others. The essay that accompanies 'Duality' could, in many ways, apply as well to any other tree I may post in this series.

A perspective: Housed in the Tokyo Imperial Palace, the fifth oldest living cultivated bonsai in the world is something over 500 years old and is a designated National Treasure of Japan

The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics, which states that everything in the universe goes from an ordered state to a disordered state, is also an excellent explanation of the 4th dimension, linear time... you can't go from one state to another without time in between. Time refuses to slow down one tick for any of us… but we can record snippets of it, like this, and light is frozen in time.

We photographers can play with that light, add snap and glow, depth and definition, and make the world our palette. We can take that world within the image and order it and disorder it to our heart’s content… and it becomes art. That “art” can help us see this world in new ways… yet, does that change the reality of this world?

In some ways, time’s incessant march toward disorder can be beautiful… beaches, canyons, deserts, mountains, and valleys are all evidence of earth, weather, and gravity working in concert with thermodynamics… and it’s evident throughout the Universe, because everything in this universe is subject to the laws of nature. Yet, those laws will never relent, and their eventuality can be anything but beautiful. Physicists have determined what that “eventuality” might look like, and it’s downright scary: having exhausted its practical energy, the Universe becomes nothing more than a void of depleted atoms and some scattered photons that hadn’t gotten the message that there was no longer a reason to shed light… there will be no living creature to determine the reality of it.

There are many in this world who feel humanity can reach a place of order according to whatever their proclivity seems to be… but “thermodynamics” doesn’t prove that out, just as events of late in this world seem to point out. Much of that proclivity in this country (and likely with others) comes straight out of the 1970’s in the form of militant autonomy, also known as “hippie” ethic. In other words, many feel they can do or say or be any outrageous thing they choose without the least impunity whatsoever. Even when their inclination is toward an idealistic “peace” and “love” and “good”, if they define that outside of a transcendent source, is any of it truly good? Often, how “peaceful” and “loving” they are when you disagree with them answers that quite evidently... and that's truly not good. That ethic is now known as “progressivism”, which has become a religion unto itself, and though it’s not atheist per se, its name is a contradiction… unless you consider an eventual step toward godlessness as progression. There are consequences to that, and our world is witness to that now. Such determination only proves to me that humanity is inescapably caught in the relentless pull of the black hole of disorder... but doesn’t that assume humanity was once ordered? I believe that, once, it was in a place of order… it was called Eden.

I know from personal experience that any such understanding offends many people, as they don't want God saying "No" to whatever their chosen tendency is... but I have a question for them... have you ever thought that God's "No" can lead to a greater "Yes"? Though they are immutable, the Ten Commandments aren't merely relentless laws... if they were, everyone who's ever lived would be at total enmity with God, as no one can live up to them entirely. They're connected... if you've ever broken one, you've broken them all. Rather, they just prove how lost we are without a Savior. Our only hope in an order that truly matters isn’t in nature, but rather in what lays beyond nature. At best, our hearts are still a long way from the manger that we celebrate in this season… for some, a lot further away than 2,000 years can take them.

Where the church and culture diverge, it's culture that must change. In many ways, however, the church is becoming the culture it's here to address. The 2nd Chapter of Revelation points out something that I find not just interesting, but also relevant to this age… are you sensitive to this too?... “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:

These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first.”

For those who may not understand, "the love you had at first" is not some noble idealistic notion to fix mankind... it comes as the One whose birth we celebrate in this season. Perhaps it’s time to get back to that “first love”, as the answers we all seek for a hurting world are there and there alone.

First in the series ‘Wild Bonsai’, this tree is twenty-one inches (53cm) in height and perhaps 600 years old.

The photo album 'Wild Bonsai' is a randomly posted, numbered collection of naturally occurring miniature bristlecones generally less than five feet (1.5m) in height and - as nearly as I can estimate - between fifty and five-hundred years old. Most will have sprouted and survived in tiny cracks and crevases or ephemeral basins of sand and gravel. Shaped by the elements, flourishing tenaciously in the most minimalist of conditions, their lives are measured not in the millennia of the larger bristlecones, but in centuries...often in mere decades.

'Duality’, the cover photo for this album is a token matriarch of sorts and will remain unnumbered in acknowledgement of a deeply intuitive and unapologetic respect that remains as mysterious and transcendent to me as it may seem odd to others. The essay that accompanies 'Duality' could, in many ways, apply as well to any other tree I may post in this series.

(A perspective: Housed in the Tokyo Imperial Palace, the fifth oldest living cultivated bonsai in the world is something over 500 years old and is a designated National Treasure of Japan.)

'Wild Bonsai' Album

Jesus ressuscitou de verdade?

A Igreja não tem dúvida em afirmar que a Ressurreição de Jesus foi um evento histórico e transcendente. S. Paulo escrevia aos Coríntios pelo ano de 56: “Eu vos transmiti… o que eu mesmo recebi: Cristo morreu por nossos pecados, segundo as Escrituras. Foi sepultado, ressuscitado ao terceiro dia, segundo as Escrituras. Apareceu a Cefas, e depois aos Doze” (1Cor 15,3-4). O apóstolo fala aqui da viva tradição da Ressurreição, que ficou conhecendo.

O primeiro acontecimento da manhã do Domingo de Páscoa foi a descoberta do sepulcro vazio (cf. Mc 16, 1-8). Ele foi a base de toda a ação e pregação dos Apóstolos e foi muito bem registrada por eles. São João afirma: “O que vimos, ouvimos e as nossas mãos apalparam isto atestamos” (1 Jo 1,1-2). Jesus ressuscitado apareceu a Madalena (Jo 20, 19-23); aos discípulos de Emaús (Lc 24,13-25), aos Apóstolos no Cenáculo, com Tomé ausente (Jo 20,19-23); e depois, com Tomé presente (Jo 20,24-29); no Lago de Genezaré (Jo 21,1-24); no Monte na Galiléia (Mt 28,16-20); segundo S. Paulo “apareceu a mais de 500 pessoas” (1 Cor 15,6) e a Tiago (1 Cor 15,7).

Toda a pregação dos Discípulos estava centrada na Ressurreição de Jesus. Diante do Sinédrio Pedro dá testemunho da Ressurreição de Jesus (At 4,8-12). Em At 5,30-32 repete. Na casa do centurião romano Cornélio (At 10,34-43), Pedro faz uma síntese do plano de Deus, apresentando a morte e a ressurreição de Jesus como ponto central. S. Paulo em Antioquia da Pisídia faz o mesmo (At 13,17-41).

A primeira experiência dos Apóstolos com Jesus ressuscitado, foi marcante e inesquecível: “Jesus se apresentou no meio dos Apóstolos e disse: “A paz esteja convosco!” Tomados de espanto e temor, imaginavam ver um espírito. Mas ele disse: “Por que estais perturbados e por que surgem tais dúvidas em vossos corações? Vede minhas mãos e meus pés: sou eu! “Apalpai-me e entendei que um espírito não tem carne nem ossos, como estais vendo que eu tenho”. Dizendo isto, mostrou-lhes as mãos e os pés. E, como, por causa da alegria, não podiam acreditar ainda e permaneciam surpresos, disse-lhes: “Tendes o que comer?” Apresentaram-lhe um pedaço de peixe assado. Tomou-o então e comeu-o diante deles”. (Lc 24, 34ss)

Os Apóstolos não acreditavam a principio na Ressurreição do Mestre. Amedrontados, julgavam ver um fantasma, Jesus pede que o apalpem e verifiquem que tem carne e ossos. Nada disto foi uma alucinação, nem miragem, nem delírio, nem mentira, e nem fraude dos Apóstolos, pessoas muito realistas que duvidaram a principio da Ressurreição do Mestre. A custo se convenceram. O próprio Cristo teve que falar a Tomé: “Apalpai e vede: os fantasmas não têm carne e osso como me vedes possuir” (Lc 24,39). Os discípulos de Emaús estavam decepcionados porque “nós esperávamos que fosse Ele quem restaurasse Israel” (Lc 24, 21).

Com os Apóstolos aconteceu o processo exatamente inverso do que se dá com os visionários. Estes, no começo, ficam muito convencidos e são entusiastas, e pouco a pouco começam a duvidar da visão. Já com os discípulos de Jesus, ao contrário, no princípio duvidam. Não crêem em seguida na Ressurreição. Tomé duvida de tudo e de todos e quer tocar o corpo de Cristo ressuscitado. Assim eram aqueles homens: simples, concretos, realistas. A maioria era pescador, não eram nem visionários nem místicos. Um grupo de pessoas abatidas, aterrorizadas após a morte de Jesus. Nunca chegariam por eles mesmos a um auto-convencimento da Ressurreição de Jesus. Na verdade, renderam-se a uma experiência concreta e inequívoca. Impressiona também o fato de que os Evangelhos narram que as primeiras pessoas que viram Cristo ressuscitado são as mulheres que correram ao sepulcro. Isto é uma mostra clara da historicidade da Ressurreição de Jesus; pois as mulheres, na sociedade judaica da época, eram consideradas testemunhas sem credibilidade já que não podiam apresentar-se ante um tribunal. Ora, se os Apóstolos, como afirmam alguns, queriam inventar uma nova religião, por que, então, teriam escolhido testemunhas tão pouco confiáveis pelos judeus? Se os evangelistas estivessem preocupados em “provar” ao mundo a Ressurreição de Jesus, jamais teriam colocado mulheres como testemunhas.

Os chefes dos judeus tomaram consciência do significado da Ressurreição de Jesus, e, por isso, resolveram apaga-la: deram aos soldados uma vultosa quantia de dinheiro para negá-la (Mt 28, 12-15). A ressurreição corporal de Jesus era professada tranqüilamente pela Igreja nascente, sem que os judeus ou outros adversários a pudessem apontar como fraude ou alucinação.

Eles não tinham disposições psicológicas para “inventar” a notícia da ressurreição de Jesus ou para forjar tal evento. Eles ainda estavam impregnados das concepções de um messianismo nacionalista e político, e caíram quando viram o Mestre preso e aparentemente fracassado; fugiram para não ser presos eles mesmos (Cf. Mt 26, 31s); Pedro renegou o Senhor (cf. Mt 26, 33-35). O conceito de um Deus morto e ressuscitado na carne humana era totalmente alheio à mentalidade dos judeus.

E a pregação dos Apóstolos era severamente controlada pelos judeus, de tal modo que qualquer mentira deles seria imediatamente denunciada pelos membros do Sinédrio (tribunal dos judeus). Se a ressurreição de Jesus, pregada pelos Apóstolos não fosse real, se fosse fraude, os judeus a teriam desmentido, mas eles nunca puderam fazer isto.

Jesus morreu de verdade, inclusive com o lado perfurado pela lança do soldado. É ridícula a teoria de que Jesus estivesse apenas adormecido na Cruz. Os vinte longos séculos do Cristianismo, repletos de êxito e de glória, foram baseados na verdade da Ressurreição de Jesus. Afirmar que o Cristianismo nasceu e cresceu em cima de uma mentira e fraude seria supor um milagre ainda maior do que a própria Ressurreição do Senhor.

Será que em nome de uma fantasia, de um mito, de uma miragem, milhares de fiéis enfrentariam a morte diante da perseguição romana? É claro que não. Será que em nome de um mito, multidões iriam para o deserto para viver uma vida de penitência e oração? Será que em nome de um mito, durante já dois mil anos, multidões de homens e mulheres abdicaram de construir família para servir ao Senhor ressuscitado? Será que uma alucinação poderia transformar o mundo? Será que uma fantasia poderia fazer esta Igreja sobreviver por 2000 anos, vencendo todas as perseguições (Império Romano, heresias, nazismo, comunismo, racionalismo, positivismo, iluminismo, ateísmo, etc.)? Será que uma alucinação poderia ser a base da religião que hoje tem mais adeptos no mundo (2 bilhões de cristãos)? Será que uma alucinação poderia ter salvado e construído a civilização ocidental depois da queda de Roma? Isto mostra que o testemunho dos Apóstolos sobre a Ressurreição de Jesus era convincente e arrastava, como hoje.

Na verdade, a grandeza do Cristianismo requer uma base mais sólida do que a fraude ou a debilidade mental. É muito mais lógico crer na Ressurreição de Jesus do que explicar a potência do Cristianismo por uma fantasia de gente desonesta ou alucinada. Como pode uma fantasia atravessar dois mil anos de história, com 266 Papas, 21 Concilios Ecumênicos, e hoje com cerca de 4 mil bispos e 416 mil sacerdotes? E não se trata de gente ignorante ou alienada; muito ao contrário, são universitários, mestres, doutores.

Prof. Felipe Aquino

Data Publicação: 24/03/2008

The little bird leaves the nest...

Second in the series ‘Wild Bonsai’, this tree is twenty-four inches (61cm) in height and perhaps 200 years old.

'Wild Bonsai' is a numbered collection of photos of naturally occurring bristlecones generally less than five feet (1.5m) in height and - as nearly as I can estimate - between fifty and five-hundred years old. Most will have sprouted and survived in tiny cracks and crevases or miniature basins of sand and gravel. Shaped by the elements, flourishing tenaciously in the most minimalist of conditions, their lives are measured not in millennia, but in centuries...often mere decades.

'Duality’, the cover photo for the accompanying album, is to me a matriarch of sorts and will remain unnumbered as a small token of a deeply intuitive and unapologetic respect that remains as transcendent and mysterious to me as it may seem odd to others. The essay that accompanies 'Duality' could, in many ways, apply as well to any other tree I may post in this series.

A perspective: Housed in the Tokyo Imperial Palace, the fifth oldest living cultivated bonsai in the world is something over 500 years old and is a designated National Treasure of Japan.

'Wild Bonsai' Album

For Ivan Barlafante nature is an endless field for study. What interests him are those aspects of reailty that lead to ideas about concepts of truth and transcendence. So on the one hand his works make use of the tangible universe of things and of concrete knowledge while, on the other hand, there is always a potent and elusive vibration. In “Il Bosco” “ the trunks continue to be trees while steel is a mirror which, by reflecting the light, draws together heaven and earth, the extra terrestrial and the terrestrial, the transcendent and reality”.

Dreamlike = psychedelic, shadowy, hazy, nightmarish, surreal, imaginary, unreal, illusory, ghostly.

I had the best fun creating this picture. Smoke and lights - all the good stuff. Yes, Dreamlike.

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. H D Thoreau

Ninth in the series ‘Wild Bonsai’, this tree is twelve inches (30cm) in height and perhaps 100 years old.

'Wild Bonsai' is a numbered collection of photos of naturally occurring bristlecones (p. longaeva) generally less than five feet in height (158cm) and - as nearly as I can estimate - between fifty and five-hundred years old - some much older. Most will have sprouted and survived in tiny cracks and crevases or miniature basins of sand and gravel. Shaped by the elements, flourishing tenaciously in the most minimalist of conditions, their lives are measured not in the millennia of more robust bristlecones, but in centuries...often mere decades.

'Duality', the cover photo for this album, is to me a matriarch of sorts and will remain unnumbered as a small token of a deeply intuitive and unapologetic respect that remains as transcendent and mysterious to me as it may seem odd to others. The essay that accompanies 'Duality' could, in many ways, apply as well to any other tree I may post in this series.

A perspective: Housed in the Tokyo Imperial Palace, the fifth oldest living cultivated bonsai in the world is something over 500 years old and is a designated National Treasure of Japan.

Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area near Las Vegas

Everyone who spends time in wild country must surely have had at least one of these transcendent experiences where the extravagant beauty of a place so overloads your senses that you actually enter an altered state of consciousness.

This structure dates from the time of the creation of the Rocky Mountains, when the entire Southwest underwent enormous compression from the west; the limestone came from somewhere to the west and was pushed over the top of the sandstone.

The limestone is about 150 million years older than the sandstone of Red Rocks. We are talking here of many cubic miles of rock essentially, a whole mountain range - being torn from its roots and being shoved as a coherent unit miles to the east until it rode up and over the back of the sandstone mountains.

Alhambra and Generalife palaces and enclosures, the gardens and cultivated spaces, elements of adornment, perfection, symbolism, follow each other in every corner of the monument, providing a transcendent component, in the territory and in time, to the landscape of this place. The Sierra Nevada Mountains in the background with the 1st Winter cover of snow.

Transcendent moments at the Kamera Klub with Rhojen and moving soundtrack by DJ Dox.

Oh, wert thou then the constant wind,--

To wake my echoes, and to play

The measures of thy own soul out

Upon my chords, for aye and aye!

Wert thou the flower, the leaf, the cloud,

The ray of a transcendent sun!

Casting thy splendour in my deeps,

And flaming grandly on and on...

Mathilde Blind

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I'm really enjoying this process. This is the handle hinge of a blue transparent plastic bucket (i.e. the entire bucket is made from blue transparent plastic, including the handle). I used lights inside and outside the bucket, to create shadows, etc. HMM 😀

Twentieth in the series ‘Wild Bonsai’, this tree is thirty-six inches (0.91m) in height and perhaps 400 years old. (At my age, it's sometimes really hard to not get sentimental about a lot of things, but I sense a little 'tough love' in that first stone;))

'Wild Bonsai' is a numbered collection of photos of naturally occurring bristlecones (p. longaeva) generally less than five feet in height (1.6m) and - as nearly as I can estimate - between fifty and five-hundred years old - some much older. Most will have sprouted and survived in tiny cracks and crevases or miniature basins of sand and gravel. Shaped by the elements, flourishing tenaciously in the most minimalist of conditions, their lives are measured not in the millennia of more robust bristlecones, but in centuries...often mere decades.

'Duality', the cover photo for this album, is to me a matriarch of sorts and will remain unnumbered as a small token of a deeply intuitive and unapologetic respect that remains as transcendent and mysterious to me as it may seem odd to others. The essay that accompanies 'Duality' could, in many ways, apply as well to any other tree I may post in this series.

A perspective: Housed in the Tokyo Imperial Palace, the fifth oldest living cultivated bonsai in the world is something over 500 years old and is a designated National Treasure of Japan.

original painting by: Bill Rogers

inspired by R.A. Lafferty's The Transcendent Tigers

See all

Sometimes it takes quite a few elements to inspire a transcendent sense of elegance, such as: a dialogue between light and shadow, the solitude of the incoming darkness in contrast with the reassuring warmth of the last sunrays, plus, why not, a harsh and solemn environment.

In its simplicity, this is what the mountain can also offer (among many other things) when the light and the moment are the right ones.

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©Roberto Bertero, All Rights Reserved. This image is not available for use on websites, blogs or other media without the explicit written permission of the photographer.

The fate of Donald Crowhurst.

Who will you find in every lifetime? This is the last photo I took at Burning Man in 2018. You probably won’t believe me, but I had a transcendent vision of this four nights prior, two days before I even discovered this place. If I were to try to describe either what I saw or how I was in a state to envision it, you would probably think I am crazy. But I told my roommates the next morning what I saw, and then I emailed them this photo a few days later and they were like HOLY CRAP. If I ever meet you in person, I can try to describe the whole experience. I’m not sure I can, but I know it was real.

(Sculpture by Michael Benisty)

There are times ... not many necessarily, but there are times ... Times when you feel so alive, transcendent, part of the world, above the world ...

“Since being in the transcendent dimension is not at stake, the sense of one’s own problematic nature is relativized and defused, and one does away with the metaphysical angst that the existentialist’ man, having a different internal constitution, feels, and indeed is bound to feel.” J. Evola

The Beatrice who confronts Dante is the personification of Divine Wisdom, that transcendent understanding that can illuminate the human mind and lead it to God. As such, she will be Dante’s guide and teacher on the journey up through the heavens. But she is also and emphatically Beatrice Portinari, formerly of Via del Corso in the sestiere of San Piero Maggiore in Florence.

--R. W. B. Lewis, Dante; A Life

Divine Detonation

Digital Abstract by Gregory Scott

An eruption of celestial energy tears through the void—this is no ordinary explosion, but a transcendent ignition, where divinity expresses itself through chaos. Divine Detonation channels the violent beauty of a star's birth, a god’s fury, or the moment of creation itself. Jagged bursts of incandescent gold, violet, and crimson swirl through black infinity, as if the universe were caught mid-exhale—raw, electrified, and alive.

Gregory Scott captures not just a visual moment, but an event beyond comprehension: the split-second when the sacred collides with the elemental. This work invites viewers to witness power in its most primal and spiritual form—a cosmic baptism by fire. It is destruction, yes—but also transformation, renewal, and awe.

---GSP

I Bite Through It by Oneohtrix Point Never

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Archaeological excavations carried out in Basilicata, near Anglona and near Policoro, have brought to light numerous works currently kept in the National Archaeological Museum of Siritide, ascertaining the existence of settlements dating back to the 3000 B.C. the inhabitants of these areas were called Enotri, in particular however the inhabitants of the area between the rivers Sinni and Agri, were called cones. Since the VIII century B.C., on the Ionic coast, by the hand of the

Greeks from Ionia, were founded the city of Siris, Heraclea, Metaponto and Pandosia. Siris is believed founded at the beginning of the VII century B.C. by the peoples of the Epirus, destroyed from Sibari and Crotone in the VI century B.C., from its ruins rose Heraclea between 443 b.c. and 430 B.C. in the IX century the city is mentioned under the name of Polychorium and in 1126 in an act of donation to the monastery of coal, it displays the current name of Policoro. Pandosia, that bordered with Heraclea, is considered the most ancient pagan city of Siritide. Founded of Enotri before 1000 b.C., was very rich and important thanks to the fertility of the soil and the strategic location. Until the middle of the XIX century was a center populated and important, guardian of traditions and the thruster of culture.

The Rabatana became a tourist destination especially for track of the poet Albino Pierro, which has made the Rabatana the source of inspiration of his poetry. In Rabatana you can retrace the narrow streets of the ruins of the primordial core and visit the remains of the ancient houses, often only one compartment on the ground floor. Pandosia was destroyed between the 81 BC and 72 BC by Lucius Cornelius Silla Roman general. From the ruins of Pandosia arose, shortly before the Christian era, Anglona town once flourishing. In 410 the Visigoths of Alaric I sacked and semidistrussero Anglona. To check the surrounding territory built a castle on a hill halfway between the Agri and Sinni rivers. The surviving residents of the city of Anglona took refuge around the castle giving rise to Rabatana, first village populated by Tursi.