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Down at the end of the Leslie Street Spit, I found something vaguely ominous.
Mamiya 645 AFD with ZD digital back. 1/350" @ f/3.5, 35mm f/3.5 lens. ISO 200, WB cloudy.
Post in Capture One and Photoshop.
via Tumblr lawrence9gold.tumblr.com/post/107993948912
A T T E N T I O N:P S Y C H O A C T I V E______________________
INSTRUCTION IN THE SOMATIC ABILITY
TO DISSOLVE THE HIDDEN GRIP OF AFFLICTION
OR THE COMPULSION TO BE ANYTHING, IN PARTICULAR
— horse training —
— You’re the horse. | You’re the trainer. — Finding Ourselves Out
First thing: I should know about what I’m talking about. I’m an expert on identity formation, as I’ve been running and reforming this identity for years. One of these days, somebody’s going to find me out and we’ll all end up in show-biz.
In show-biz, to the degree that an actor/ess is free within his/her identity set and free to change, to that degree he or she can play different roles well.
(This could be a clue.)
No one of us has a single identity — and that doesn’t necessarily mean we all have Multiple Personality Disorder. It means that our identity changes (more or less), from moment to moment, and in the circumstances of the moment, as we resonate with our circumstances.
The one thing that persists in some way is the vague idea of “self” — the one to whom this identity purportedly belongs. People rarely talk about that one! (It’s our ‘sacred cow’ self — the one “outside it all” and viewing it all, the one who ostensibly never becomes hamburger, supra-Kosmic or otherwise.)
The expression of self changes, but the owner of it seems somehow the same: the secret identity. The Continuity of Memory.
But behaviors, and the provisional identity of the moment, fluctuate. Which one is the “real” identity? Ha-HAH!!!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~and now, a very important disclaimer:
That doesn’t mean that we’re the political flip-flopper
who flips and who flops with every passing wind
whose words are as passing wind
and whose meaning has no reliable connection to a functional outcome
whose integrity has big gaps, or lots of little gaps
whose principles are weak
whose equilibrium is easily upset
who takes an unstable stand
the dependent
who has too little active capacity to bring order,
who is not yet educated enough
to create forms with integrity,
who has too little capacity to reverse the course of entropy
in his environment and himself
who uses the word, “fight”, instead of “create”
the secret nature of a mediocre nincompoop
in a position of responsibility beyond him
whose primary interest is
to get rich and avoid getting into trouble
to avoid any kind of crisis, lest he flub his response
he, in a position of visibility,
who fears to look like an incompetent
— or worse — have to face consequences.
Maybe it’s what makes him a schlimazl
for whom nothing good ever seems to happen
since he can’t marshal all the forces needed
to make it happen.
or makes him a shlemiele
(closely related to a no-account fool)
not good at much of anything,
fallen back into being a good-for-nothing freeloader,
an imbiber by days
and something of a hapless dimwit at twilight
walking into lampposts
or, alas, maybe he’s just a poor putz —
a person who’s a total loss
uneducated
unperceptive
incomprehending
wrong and insistent.
Maybe he’s a shmoygeh,
or its sillier version, shmegeggie
whatever that is
a slob
a nudnick (dumb-kopf!)
or a no-goodnick in our eyes
but look!
He has a nice suit!
NO! This is a smart person!
a wonderful person!
He cleans up after himself.
He picks up his clothes.
He can read.
He’s nice.
He’s also a clever person, having learned a thing or two.
He knows the difference between
“flip” and “flop”
knows when it’s OK to be flip
and knows when his flippancy has flopped.
Oh, most unflappable one,
I see you keep your equilibrium pretty well —
— most of the time.
You are intelligently mindful of how we are unavoidable affected by each other
and inextricably interconnected,
with everything unified in the present moment,
not as an idea or ideal, but as a perception
of how things actually are,
feeling and observing how we are affected by this moment
in a resonant and moving equilibrium
continuous in moment to moment experience
participating and yet mystified,
faithful in nothing in this life made of change,
in which the currents of our own existence
carry murky, turbulent memories
that shape and color our times.
You sound like a wise man (or woman).
How did that happen?
~~~~~~~~~~
So, when I speak of identity, I’m not speaking of socialization or role. I’m speaking of something much more fundamental, something that explains human behavior, how we get stuck in behavior, and how we may deliberately grow or evolve through an “unhooking” or “unlocking” process.
To the point:Four steps are involved in identity formation:
experience: the emergence of the “present” from the unknown: self, others and things, the momentary and total condition of “now” | Without the gathering and coalescing of attention and aggregations of memory, experience is void, without meaning, without significance, without object, just movements of the unknown
memory : persistence of experience, the experience of “now” (immediate memory), meaning, recognizable events, holding on to experience and experiences, having experience “be in your face”
identification: choosing to stick with a certain experience at any moment : assigning importance, assuming memory (persistence) is reality : taking remembered experiences of self as self and our perception of other things as “the way they really are.” (The Myth of Actuality = “The Myth of the Given”)
perpetuation: intending, inviting, seeking to make more, or refusing, seeking to make less, all motivation, all “go”, all “stop”, all spin, all involvement with, all imagining
The four Stages of Things Becoming a Priority. Obviously, I have to define my terms, so here goes.
EMERGING EXPERIENCE: ” BEING”, BECOMING
(“the One” multiplied by becoming “the Many”)
At every moment, we have a sense of “how things are”. It’s our most obvious sense of the plain-old present.
It consists of our experience of our situation and our sense of ourselves. Most of this sense of experience is submerged in subconsciousness. But we experience it every time we meet a new person and visit a new place. It’s our first impression — which fades with familiarity, into the background.
This first impression, or sense of the moment, is, at first, of “unknown" (yes, I wrote that rightly). Our first impression is of "unknown". Gradually, with enough time and enough exposure, "unknown" fades-in into "something known" — a memory is formed. Until a sufficiently vivid memory is formed, no experience is being had.
The motions of experience inscribe upon memory an ongoing trail, movements of attention from one thing to another.
MEMORY : THE BASIS OF THE MOVEMENT BETWEEN HARMONY AND DIS-HARMONY
We resort to memory as a proxy for (approximation of) actual experience, so we can more easily focus on experiences that have that pattern, and look for what’s changing, moving, happening. It’s beginning from a presumed base of knowledge.
As we get familiar with anything, we form a memory of it. That memory constitutes our knowing of “how things are”.
Then, the experience of the moment is seen always in terms of existing memories, which grow in a moving, changing pattern. The growing edge of memory is experiencing what is emerging out of the unknown, clothing it in imagination so it may seem known, then forming memories and bridging them with other memories. Impressions form over time about the “realities” of life, colored by memories brought to life by imagination, imagination informed by memory and going beyond.
We form our memories from our experiences of the moving moment of life, the changing harmonics of life. All sensory impressions that go into memory refer to movements and harmonics of life, memories of persons, places and things. Our memories of “the movements and harmonics of life” flavor or dress up all of our sense-impressions of the moment.
A memory of “a movement and a felt harmonic” gets called up every time we recall something and every time we put ourselves in a situation to experience anything familiar. Memory creates expectation.
A way of finding the force of a memory is to notice how much it matters to you.
ASSUMING MEMORIES are REALITY, TRUTH or SELF
We give our memories the status of “truth”, and memories of our own state the status of “self”.
To the degree that something feels, “in your face”, that’s the degree that you take it for truth, for reality, or as self. That’s how solidly set your / my attention is in memory, how solidly fixated, how ingrained, how entranced. That’s how much experience has “got us” by the ….. (ooch!) .
PERPETUATING and/or REFUSING THE EXPERIENCES WE REMEMBER
Persistence and resistance (or intending and refusing) are two forms of the same thing: one is “wanting to make it more” and the other is “wanting to make it less”; the difference, only one of direction; both are “wanting”.
When someone “knows” something, they want (to some degree — strongly or mildly) either to reinforce/assert their knowledge or to minimize/deny it. They want to rely upon it or they want to forbid it. Either way, they want to do that for themselves, for their own sake.
By those acts, they form an attitude, a key part of the ability of identity to express itself, a felt memory.
Once a person has an attitude, they want to impose it upon the world. (Even the idea of “not wanting to impose it on the world” is an attitude.)
That’s the activity of identity, of self-propagation, the genetic imperative that distinguishes itself from others on the basis of memories.
A case in point: Take, for an example, ten year old Jimmy.
experience
Jimmy has never been to a baseball game.
His father comes home with tickets to see the Cardinals.
They go on a Saturday.
At the ballpark, Jimmy takes it all in, eyes open wide.
Dizzy Dean is pitching.
He winds up. There’s the pitch.
Foul ball. Into the stands.
Jimmy catches the ball.
memories
Now, Jimmy has a story to tell the guys in the neighborhood.
What does that do for his social status?
Jimmy likes the attention. He brings the ball to school, he tells the story at Sunday School, around …
The more Jimmy tells the story,
the more he reinforces the memory of it
and his place in it.assuming memories are truth, reality, or self
Jimmy takes credit for catching the foul ball,
lays claim to special status, reason for pride.
casts himself into a self-image that he takes for himself
and shows around.perpetuating what we remember as extended forms of “self”
Soon, Jimmy is a fan.
He’s read up on Dizzy Dean, knows his statistics,
roots for the Cardinals,
feels the glory when they win
feels the humiliation when they lose.
He’s even gotten into a couple of fights over it.
He can’t help himself.
But then, he’s only ten.
That was a long, long time ago.
Now, Jimmy’s a Republican.
another case-in-point:
George enlists in the army.
Goes to war. It’s his patriotic duty.
He’s sent to the front. Wounded.
Now he has a limp. And a medal.
He’s honorably discharged and sent home. He gets special recognition, special privileges. (This was an earlier time.)
He’s sent to an innovative form of therapy that promises he can walk, again. In fact, he’ll lose the limp.
But now, George doesn’t know “who he’d be” without his war wound. He’d seem ordinary. He also can’t imagine walking normally, again. He’s forgotton his “pre-army” state. His wound and his status as a wounded war vet, based in memory and the seeming permanence of his wound, have made him into something else.
The therapy doesn’t work.
He gets into politics. Eventually, he runs for political office.
Now, he gets some mileage out of being a wounded war vet. His wound is his badge of courage. He cherishes the identity of “War Vet”, keeps it low-key on the campaign trail. He imagines that it is some of the basis of the respect with which people treat him, that it’s a “trump card”: On certain topics, no one dares challenge his position.
And, of course, years later, he’s a Republican.
An identity is a standpoint and general ways of operating based on memories of experience, a standpoint that wants to reinforce (or perpetuate) its way of operating in the world.
Everything we know, we want to continue to be “right knowledge”. That’s why people dislike “being wrong” and why “being made wrong” is such a politically incorrect social impropriety. It’s about what “wanting to be right” means — not having to change.
So, first we experience something. And then, as we experience it, we remember it. Then, we assume that memory represents and actually says something reliable about either oneself or something or someone other. We carry all the accumulated memory patterns that form out of the interaction of the world with our memoried self. We act as if life exists in terms of those memory patterns — and so act accordingly — either to perpetuate and reinforce or to refuse or counteract.
That explains how we form behavior patterns, how we get stuck in behavior patterns (egotism, arrogance, “anything goes” or cold-fish authoritarianism), and also how we learn to grow and evolve. It’s a spooky business.
Just as we form innumerable memories from moment to moment, we form innumerable identities for each moment — and hopefully they’re all well interconnected, so we don’t get trapped in one.
The tricky thing about all this is how to avoid getting stuck in the sheer mass and momentum of accumulated memories.
One answer is, to reverse the process. What would happen for Jimmy if he imagined himself going back up the chain of identity formation?
I present The Gold Key Release ( which a New Age Flower Child might call, “The Somatic Crystal Decrystallization Process”, a soul brother: “Da Big, Divine Kosmic Kiss” (mmmWAH!) or, an academic professor, rather stuffily, “A Somatic Faculty”) —- viz:
(NOTE: vizier = one who writes, “viz”.
“Vizier” is Arabic for “wise guy”.)
"Somatic Awakening" is not an "awakening to" or "awakening into"; it’s an awakening as and then an awakening from.
It’s “awakening as” what most ordinarily IS,
scanning it with attentiveness,
feeling it, inhabiting it,
enfolding it,
assessing its “charge”: how one feels implicated (i.e., compelled to act),
the force of memory,
detecting imagination in memory,
then awakening from imagining,
releasing the sense of “something there”, feeling it dissolve into the formless root of attention, feeling attention as no-self.
There. Which is Here.
It’s going backward through
the stages of priority
"upstream" of the creative process,
to awaken, undefined, as self-source — the Natural State, the experience of which feels like A Big, Divine Kosmic Kiss, which we may symbolize by the word,
"mmmmWAH!!!"
which is also what it feels like, as we dissolve into the undefined Condition.
See? No? You will.
He feels his position, attitude, standpoint, or whatever he is stuck with or is perpetuating — his knowledge, his chosen identity, his refuge to the immunity of rightness. Whatever it is, it’s a sensation, felt bodily, with a location, size, shape, and intensity in the overall body-sense (kinesthetic body, subtle body, etheric body, dream body). Feel each term. Pretty similar, huh?
It may occur to him that he may have “bought in to something” — assigning the status of “reality” to his memory-shaped-colored perspective in the world: “the truth” or “The Truth”, “oneself” or “the Self”. It may occur to him that, that he does not “have” it, but that it “has” him. That he lives “inside” it and is subject to its limitations, which he takes as a product of Reality and not a product of his way of remembering and seeing things, his perspective. To him, it’s solid, real, and consequential. The mood is, “This is real." or "This matters" (to a greater or lesser degree— but note: If something makes a difference to you, you’ve bought into it and it has you.)
He feels how much of this sense of “solid truth” or “things mattering with consequences” feels like memory and how much of memory feels like imagination. It’s a “feel” thing, not an “answer” that he comes up with. He traces the feeling from the sense of solid truth to memory to imagination.
He imagines the appearance of a scenario that’s developing and has expectations that are informed, in part, by memory, and so his perception is shaped by memory.
Remembering is re-imagining something into our experience. The seeming persistence, the solidity or reality of anything you can put your attention upon is memory. Memory fades unless refreshed by imagining. The denser the memory, the more persistent it is.The way we do it:
We put attention on the feeling of having some experience.
We sense the feeling of experience without words,
as a sensation someplace within us
We feel its size, shape, intensity.
We pump up our ability to sense our somatic state
with “attention maneuvers”.
We sense how much (not “what”) intention we have toward it
We notice how steadying attention solidifies intention.
We feel the whole package as a single, contained force:
the thing we are experiencing
and our intention toward it made solid by attention.
How intention + attention = memory.
Now, we feel how much it matters
in order to bring ourselves into the relationship
and acknowledge how much we are involved.
How much it matters has to do with our relation to the world.
Try it.
We may then own the intensity of the memory
even if we don’t know what the memory is
and we may sift that intensity
for the movements of imagining.
We feel how much it feels like “solid reality”, how much feels like memory, and how much of the memory feels a bit like imagining (or as we like to say, “daydreaming” or “being entranced”).
We feel “remembering” and “imagining” and alternate between them until we can zero in on each equally steadily and equally easily, and so can balance them. What makes it easier to alternate more to one side than the other is that we are more entranced by it. These words make sense with experience, but perhaps not before. Save yourself the brain-fog; instead of “trying to figure it out”, just do it. (Once.)
If you have trouble with this step, deliberately remember something. Feel what remembering feels like. Then imagine something. Feel what imagining feels like.
Now apply those distinctions to your sense of “solid truth”.
Feel the dissolution of his “fix” (or fixation) — the thing he has been perpetuating — as his discovery or sense of “how much of it is imagination” is “the little valve” through which the “air” that has inflated his sense of “solid truth” (and ego) escapes. Simpler if he just does Step 3. (Imagination is easier to let go than “solid truth”.)
He takes a breath, lets go and falls into his identity-less, natural state, at least for the moment. (Don’t do this while driving or try to understand this by reading it. Do the procedure. Do it well at least once.)
He checks the remaining intensity of the feeling. If anything is left, he starts at Step 1.
QUESTION: Would he quit being a Republican?
I ask you.
From here, we go to the first magical process for decrystallizing crystallized identity patterns:
The Gold Key Release
MORE:Other Magic Following Upon the Gold Key ReleaseThe Wish-Fulfilling Gem
Esoteric Somatics and Tibetan BuddhismSEARCH KEYWORDS:(to return to this entry again, later.
caring | | 42
harmony | 85 | 94
memory | | 89
identification | 7 | 148
perpetuation | 78 | 162
copyright 2014 Lawrence Gold
This writing may be reproduced only in its entirety
with accurate attribution of authorship.
Do it for yourself - somatics.com/page7-htm
ifttt.com/images/no_image_card.png via Blogger lawrencegoldsomatics.blogspot.com/2015/01/somatology-ulti...
"Bridge 2"
STRUCTURES is a series of generative art pieces the explores the constructions of our world by taking photographs of man-made and natural structures and placing them into a new structure. This process semi-randomly fragments and rearranges the photographs into a grid of my design. I'll often run the images through this process several times, using various grid structures along the way.
Programs used: Lightroom, Photoshop, Processing
A blind shot. I really wanted to see the vintage wrought iron structure holding up this abandoned railroad bridge. There was a hole in the walkway on this bridge, but I still couldn't see the iron through the hole. So, I lowered my camera through the hole as far as I could reach, pointed it in a direction that I thought might work, and pressed the shutter release. When I heard the focus lock on to something, I took the shot. I didn't expect this.
Michelangelo's God (from the creation of Adam) in the Sistine Chapel. The painting shows the structure of the human brain. For my own views on God, see AnswersAnswers.com/God
10Sep2010
Pond behind our house with box structure for introducing young fish.
camera info: 7D | 17-55mm(ƒ/2.8) | ƒ/4.0 | ISO 100 | 1/1500s
EFESTO responds with style also to the tree higest of Europe!!!! Easy and functional aluminum structures :easy to assemble system thanks to modular composition. This structure protects from atmospheric agents.
*EFESTO , also, remind that even this year will be at PROLIGHT+SOUND (Frankfurt ) which will be held April 4 to 7. Efesto in Hall 3.0 at the stand A30 presents great news!!!*
From Mouri Teien Gardens(毛利庭園). Full blooming!
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六本木ヒルズ森タワー - 建築グラビア Architecture Gravure
Gallery : photowork.jp/christinayan01/architectural/archives/1918
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Roppongi Hills (六本木ヒルズ)
Architect : Mori Building (設計：森ビル、入江三宅設計事務所).
Constructor : Obayashi Corporation (施工：大林組、鹿島建設).
Completed : March 2003 (竣工：2003年3月).
Structured : Steel Reinforced Concrete (構造：SRC造).
Height : 780ft (高さ：238m),
Floor : 54th (階数：54階).
Floor area : 4,083,914 sq.ft. (延床面積：379,408㎡).
Location : 6-10-1 Roppongi Minato Ward, Tokyo, Japan (所在地：日本国東京都港区六本木6-10-1).
Referenced :
A collaborative project combining photographs and an original music score.
Photography Derek Eyre
Music Paul Barker
I've had this on my list to come back to and shoot ever since I received my Sigma 10-20mm. For those who don't know what this is, it is the entrance to the old Amtrak station located in downtown Pittsburgh. This structure is huge, and even with an ultra wide-angle, it is still hard to capture the entire rotunda. My only complaint...fix those burnt out lights! 3 exposure HDR
Please No Group Invitations or Awards
A stupa (Chorten in Tibetan) (Sanskrit: m.,stūpa "heap") is a mound-like or hemispherical structure containing śarīra "relics", typically the remains of Buddhist monks or nuns, used as a place of meditation.
DESCRIPTION AND HISTORY
Stupas originated as pre-Buddhist tumuli in which śramaṇas were buried in a seated position called chaitya. After the parinirvana of the Buddha, his remains were cremated and the ashes divided and buried under eight mounds with two further mounds encasing the urn and the embers. The earliest archaeological evidence for the presence of Buddhist stupas dates to the late 4th century BCE in India. Buddhist scriptures claim that stupas were built at least a century earlier. It is likely that before this time, stupas were built with non-durable materials such as wood, or even as just burial mounds, little is known about these early stupas, particularly since it has not been possible to identify the original ten monuments. However, some later stupas, such as at Sarnath and Sanchi, seem to be embellishments of earlier mounds. The earliest evidence of monastic stupas dates back to the 2nd century BCE. These are stupas that were built within Buddhist monastic complexes. These stupas replicated older stupas made of wood in stone. Sanchi, Sarnath, Amaravati and Bharhut are examples of stupas that were shaped in stone imitating the previous wooden parts.
The stupa was elaborated as Buddhism spread to other Asian countries becoming, for example, the chörten of Tibet and the pagoda in East Asia. The pagoda has varied forms that also include bell-shaped and pyramidal styles. In the Western context, there is no clear distinction between the stupa and the pagoda. In general, however, "stupa" is used for a Buddhist structure of India or Southeast Asia while "pagoda" refers to a building in East Asia which can be entered and which may be secular in purpose.
Stupas were built in Sri Lanka soon after Devanampiya Tissa of Anuradhapura converted to Buddhism. The first stupa to be built was the Thuparamaya. Later on, many more were built over the years, some like the Jetavanaramaya in Anuradhapura being one of the tallest ancient structures in the world.
NOTABLE STUPAS
The tallest is the Phra Pathommachedi in Nakhon Pathom Province, Thailand, at a height of 127 metres The Swat Valley hosts one of the well-preserved stupa at Shingardar near Ghalegay and another stupa is located near Barikot in Pakistan. In Sri Lanka, the ancient city of Anuradhapura includes some of the tallest, most ancient and best preserved stupas in the world, such as Ruwanwelisaya.
The most elaborate stupa is the 8th century Borobudur monument in Java, Indonesia. The upper rounded terrace with rows of bell-shaped stupas contained buddha images symbolizing Arūpajhāna, the sphere of formlessness. The main stupa itself is empty, symbolizing complete perfection of enlightenment. The main stupa is only the crown part of the monument, while the base is pyramidal structure elaborate with galleries adorned with bas relief of scenes derived from Buddhist text depicted the life of Gautama Buddha. Borobudur's unique and significant architecture has been acknowledge by UNESCO as the largest buddhist monument in the world. It is the world’s largest Buddhist temple, as well as one of the greatest Buddhist monuments in the world.
TYPES OF STUPAS
Built for a variety of reasons, Buddhist stupas are classified based on form and function into five types:
Relic stupa, in which the relics or remains of the Buddha, his disciples and lay saints are interred.
Object stupa, in which the items interred are objects belonged to the Buddha or his disciples such as a begging bowl or robe, or important Buddhist scriptures.
Commemorative stupa, built to commemorate events in the lives of Buddha or his disciples.
Symbolic stupa, to symbolise aspects of Buddhist theology, for example, Borobuddur is considered to be the symbol of "the Three Worlds (dhatu) and the spiritual stages (bhumi) in a Mahayana bodhisattva's character."
Votive stupa, constructed to commemorate visits or to gain spiritual benefits, usually at the site of prominent stupas which are regularly visited.
SYMBOLISM
"The shape of the stupa represents the Buddha, crowned and sitting in meditation posture on a lion throne. His crown is the top of the spire; his head is the square at the spire's base; his body is the vase shape; his legs are the four steps of the lower terrace; and the base is his throne."
FIVE PURIFIED ELEMENTS
Although not described in any Tibetan text on stupa symbolism, the stupa may represent the five purified elements:
The square base represents earth
The hemispherical dome/vase represents water
The conical spire represents fire
The upper lotus parasol and the crescent moon represents air
The sun and the dissolving point represents the element of space
CONSTRUCTION
To build a stupa, transmissions and ceremonies from a Buddhist teacher is necessary. Which kind of Stupa to be constructed in a certain area is decided together with the teacher assisting in the construction. Sometimes the type of stupa chosen is directly connected with events that have taken place in the area.
TREASURY
All stupas contain a treasury filled with various objects. Small clay votive offerings called tsatsas in Tibetan fill a major part of the treasury. Creation of various types of tsatsas is a ceremony itself. Mantras written on paper are rolled into thin rolls, and put into these small clay stupas. Filling the treasury, one layer of Tsa-Tsas are placed, and the empty space between is filled with dry sand. On the new surface appearing, another layer is made, until the entire space of a treasury is full.
The number of tsatsas are dependent on the size of both the treasury and tsatsa, since it should be completely filled. For example, the Kalachakra stupa in southern Spain has approximately 14,000 tsatsas within.
Jewellery and other "precious" objects are also placed in the treasury. It is not necessary that the jewelry be expensive, since it is the symbolic value that is important, not the market price. It is believed that the more objects placed into the stupa, the stronger the energy of the Stupa will be.
TREE OF LIVE
A very important element in every Stupa is the Tree of Life. It is a wooden pole covered with gems and thousands of mantras, and placed in the central channel of the stupa. It is placed here during a ceremony or initiation, where the participants hold colorful ribbons connected to the Tree of Life. Together the participants make their most positive and powerful wishes, which are stored in the Tree of Life. In this way the stupa is charged up, and will start to function.
BENEFITS
Building a stupa is considered extremely beneficial, leaving very positive karmic imprints in the mind. Future benefits from this action will result in fortunate rebirths. Fortunate worldly benefits will be the result, such as being born into a rich family, having a beautiful body, a nice voice, and being attractive and bringing joy to others and having a long and happy life, in which one's wishes are fulfilled quickly. On the absolute level, one will also be able to reach enlightenment, the goal of Buddhism, quickly.
Destroying a stupa on the other hand, is considered an extremely negative deed, similar to killing. Such an action is explained to create massive negative karmic imprints, leading to massive future problems. It is said this action will leave the mind in a state of paranoia after death has occurred, leading to totally unfortunate rebirths.
TIBETAN STUPAS
There are eight different kinds of stupas in Tibetan Buddhism, each referring to major events in the Buddha's life.
LOTUS BLOSSOM STUPA
Also known as "Stupa of Heaped Lotuses" or "Birth of the Sugata Stupa," this stupa refers to the birth of Gautama Buddha. "At birth Buddha took seven steps in each of the four directions" (East, South, West and North). In each direction lotuses sprang, symbolizing the brahmavihāras: love, compassion, joy and equanimity. The four steps of the basis of this stupa is circular, and it is decorated with lotus-petal designs. Occasionally, seven heaped lotus steps are constructed. These refer to the seven first steps of the Buddha.
ENLIGHTENMENT STUPA
Also known as the Stupa of the Conquest of Mara. This stupa symbolizes the 35-year-old Buddha's attainment of enlightenment under the bodhi tree in Bodh Gaya, where he conquered worldly temptations and attacks manifesting in the form of Mara.
STUPA OF MANY DOORS
Also known as the Stupa of Many Gates. After reaching enlightenment, the Buddha taught his first students in a deer-park near Sarnath. The series of doors on each side of the steps represent the first teachings: the Four Noble Truths, the Six Pāramitās, the Noble Eightfold Path and the Twelve Nidānas.
STUPA OF DESCENT FROM THE GOD REALM
At 42 years of age, Buddha spent a summer retreat in the Tuṣita Heaven where his mother had taken rebirth. In order to repay her kindness he taught the dharma to her reincarnation. Local inhabitants built a stupa like this in Sankassa in order to commemorate this event. This stupa is characterized by having a central projection at each side containing a triple ladder or steps.
STUPA OF GREAT MIRACLES
Also known as Stupa of Conquest of the Tirthikas. This stupa refers to various miracles performed by the Buddha when he was 50 years old. Legend claims that he overpowered maras and heretics by engaging them in intellectual arguments and also by performing miracles. This stupa was raised by the Lichavi kingdom to commemorate the event.
STUPA OF RECONCILIATION
This stupa commemorates the Buddha's resolution of a dispute among the sangha. A stupa in this design was built in the kingdom of Magadha, where the reconciliation occurred. It has four octagonal steps with equal sides.
STUPA OF COMPLETE VICTORY
This stupa commemorates Buddha's successful prolonging of his life by three months. It has only three steps, which are circular and unadorned.
STUPA OF NIRVANA
This stupa refers to the death of the Buddha, when he was 80 years old. It symbolizes the Buddha's complete absorption into the highest state of mind. It is bell-shaped and usually not ornamented.
KALACHAKRA STUPA
A ninth kind of stupa exists, the Kalachakra stupa. Its symbolism is not connected to events in the Buddha's life, but instead to the symbolism of the Kalachakra Tantra, created to protect against negative energies.
SWAT DISTRICT
Swat District is a small place with large number of ancient Stupas.
WIKIPEDIA
Architect: Fernando Higueras, 1977
Landscape, pools & murals: César Manrique
One of the most notable contributions of César Manrique to the appearance of Lanzarote besides the built work is the absence of some of the most common (and bland) signs of mass tourism, including oversized seafront hotel complexes. Manriques idea was to “harness” the expanding tourist industry in the 70’s, and build accommodations and infrastructure only in a native way and to a limited extend – thus turning Lanzarote into an exclusive destination rather than compete with the other Canaries on a mass-market basis. His strategy was somewhat successful at the time (although constantly challenged, and after his death in 1996 mostly not upheld), and as result the scale of the tourist industry’s impact on Lanzarote feels less overwhelming than nearby examples such as Tenerife.
One of the exceptions built in Manriques lifetime was the large five-star Hotel Las Salinas (now Meliá Salinas) near Costa Teguise, by the Spanish architect Fernando Higueras, whom Manrique hat met in the early 60’s in Madrid. Designed as a structurally bold concrete frame with organic references, the hotel could nevertheless easily have become yet another cruise ship-sized block simply occupying the Teguise seafront, but the cleverness of Higueras’ sweeping lines and stacking slabs has been successfully coupled with an indoor and outdoor landscape designed by Manrique, who also delivered a series of mural reliefs that contribute greatly to the feel of the interior.
The jungle-like internal water gardens occupy the greatest part of the groundfloor of the pyramidically stacked levels, and even drop a floor, thus allowing daylight into the lower (staff) levels and concluding the water’s course with a small waterfall. Partly indoor and partly outdoor, this grand atrium is the main attraction of the design and is today referred to as a “botanical cathedral”. In the bar and reception areas, Manrique’s cubist bas-reliefs in plaster and volcanic stone are a perfect complement to Higueras’ almost sci-fi reminiscent structures – overshadowing the otherwise pretty poor and standard fit-out of the interiors.
Outside, Manrique’s contribution has been to design a playful mix of natural and artificial elements in the grand “poolscape” occupying most of the seafront, with lava rocks and small islands turning the pools into something to explore rather than swim laps, and taking the previous pool designs, such as the ones found in the Jameos del Agua or in his own house, to the next level.
After battling a massive structure fire the day before Thomaston Volunteers received a call for a structure fire in the Branch Road Condos. A fast attack by the first due engine brought a quick knockdown to the exterior fire that was spreading into the attic spaces of the condo and it's attached garage
This is Gerry Leone's favorite town on his HO scale Bona Vista Railroad. He feels it captures the look of a typical midwestern town.
The antique store and bakery were built as part of Gerry's "Master Builder - Structures" certificate in the NMRA Achievement Program, as were the bridges in the foreground.
Gerry is our guest on Episode 32.
Shot for the new group I joined last week, Strobist Sundays. The theme this week is shadows.
This is a model of the organic structure of CH3-CH2-OH, better known as Ethanol. The black balls are carbon, the white hydrogen, and the red oxygen.
Lighting: In this shot, I used a single 430EX II at 1/64, high camera right with a 10" DIY cardboard snoot, hence the selective lighting (not vignetting). Fired with PT-04 IS ebay triggers.
Flickr Explore #129 - December 7, 2009!
Thanks everyone!
LARGEST #SoftPlay Centre in the World - designed manufactured & installed by #Iplayco - Commercial Play Structures Playground Equipment
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... but you don't have to come back in.
The motto of the U.S. Life Saving Service, established by Congress in 1878.
In 1915 President Woodrow Wilson signed into law an act which merged the Life Saving Service with the Revenue Cutter Service, forming the U.S. Coast Guard.
This structure, in Elberta, Michigan, was built in 1887. It was one of two stations on Lake Michigan at that time.
Per Wikipedia:
"The Merchants' National Bank (1914) building is a historic commercial building located at 833 Fourth Avenue in Grinnell, Iowa.
It is one of a series of small banks designed by Louis Sullivan in the Midwest between 1909 and 1919. All of the banks are built of brick and for the Grinnell structure he employed various shades of brick, ranging in color from blue-black to golden brown, giving it an overall reddish brown appearance.
It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1976 for its architecture.
Built in 1914, Merchants' National Bank had its grand opening on January 1, 1915, along with the Purdue State Bank in Indiana, also designed by Sullivan.
Structurally the building is a rectangular box, with a magnificent main facade and a windowed side facade.
Although this building is smaller than either his Owatonna or Cedar Rapids banks, it appears just as monumental. This is due largely to the oversized cartouche that surrounds a circular window on the Fourth Street facade.
Light is introduced into the interior by a series of stained glass windows that alternate with structural posts down the side of the building and through the colored glass skylight that comprises much of the ceiling.
While the bank housed the structure and its location, the small town of Grinnell did not warrant national attention. Yet the unveiling of the Louis Sullivan building was given national coverage in the architectural press of the day. The Merchants' Bank was thus featured in an eleven-page spread in The Western Architect's February 1916 edition.
As he did in his banks in Cedar Rapids and Sidney, Ohio, Sullivan used lions, or at least a grotesque, winged version of a lion, as figurative decoration. This creature is one of the very few figurative elements that can be found in the architect's designs.
Some of the plans and even the designs of the ornament were done by Sullivan's draftsman Parker N. Berry, who was shortly thereafter to fall victim to the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic.
In the 1970s or early 1980s, a city beautification project sponsored the planting of several trees in front of the bank. Gebhard calls this an "unbelievable decision" for the growing plants would obscure more and more of the amazing facade. These plantings can be easily seen in the gallery pictures, taken in 1985. These trees were removed as of 2013.
In 2007, the city remodeled its downtown sidewalks and streets so the intersections of the square had the "Jewelbox" appearance to them. The city also put Planters at the four corners of the crossings which have the "Jewelbox" engraved in them.
The building now houses a Wells Fargo Bank branch."
DSC_1049 V1
The roots of Mission San Francisco de la Espada trace back to 1690 as Spain expanded its empire and the Roman Catholic church proselytised the native inhabitants known today as Coahuiltecan Indians. Disease, drought, fire, and the war between France and Spain forced closure or destruction and relocation of various iterations of the mission. This structure was started in March 1731. It is the southern-most of the San Antonio missions. Prior to the Alamo battle, James Bowie and William Travis fought the Mexican Army from these buildings.
New Leaf Structured Settlements
3700 Koppers Street Suite #143
Baltimore MD 21227
(410) 538-2752
1-800-517-7671
Study for a Print
Collage
By Jose Gomez
James W. Palmer Gallery
"Structure and Texture"
Thursday September 29 - Sunday October 16, 2011
Artist Reception Thursday October 6, 5-7PM
An exhibit by the artists in the LongReach Arts cooperative
Mildred Cohen, Staats Fasoldt, Stacie Flint, Susan Fowler-Gallagher, Jose Gomez, Claudia Gorman, Rob Greene, Trina Greene, Robert Hastings, Carol Loizides, Basha Maryanska, Sherrill Meyers-Nilson, Ellen Metzger O’Shea, Carol Pepper-Cooper, Elisa Pritzker, Nancy Scott, Elayne Seaman, Michelle Squires, Marlene Wiedenbaum
And there was I thinking that I had caught up with the shots I had taken over the summer. But then I remembered the glass. The glass of Canterbury Cathedral.
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Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, Kent, is one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in England and forms part of a World Heritage Site. It is the cathedral of the Archbishop of Canterbury, leader of the Church of England and symbolic leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion; the archbishop, being suitably occupied with national and international matters, delegates the most of his functions as diocesan bishop to the Bishop suffragan of Dover. Its formal title is the Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Christ at Canterbury.
Founded in 597, the cathedral was completely rebuilt from 1070 to 1077. The east end was greatly enlarged at the beginning of the twelfth century, and largely rebuilt in the Gothic style following a fire in 1174, with significant eastward extensions to accommodate the flow of pilgrims visiting the shrine of Thomas Becket, the archbishop who was murdered in the cathedral in 1170. The Norman nave and transepts survived until the late fourteenth century, when they were demolished to make way for the present structures.
Christianity had started to become powerful in the Roman Empire around the third century. Following the conversion of Augustine of Hippo in the 4th century, the influence of Christianity grew steadily .[2] The cathedral's first archbishop was Augustine of Canterbury, previously abbot of St. Andrew's Benedictine Abbey in Rome. He was sent by Pope Gregory the Great in 596 as a missionary to the Anglo-Saxons. Augustine founded the cathedral in 597 and dedicated it to Jesus Christ, the Holy Saviour.[3]
Augustine also founded the Abbey of St. Peter and Paul outside the city walls. This was later rededicated to St. Augustine himself and was for many centuries the burial place of the successive archbishops. The abbey is part of the World Heritage Site of Canterbury, along with the cathedral and the ancient Church of St Martin.
Bede recorded that Augustine reused a former Roman church. The oldest remains found during excavations beneath the present nave in 1993 were, however, parts of the foundations of an Anglo-Saxon building, which had been constructed across a Roman road.[5][6] They indicate that the original church consisted of a nave, possibly with a narthex, and side-chapels to the north and south. A smaller subsidiary building was found to the south-west of these foundations.[6] During the ninth or tenth century this church was replaced by a larger structure (49 m. by 23 m.) with a squared west end. It appears to have had a square central tower.[6] The eleventh century chronicler Eadmer, who had known the Saxon cathedral as a boy, wrote that, in its arrangement, it resembled St Peter's in Rome, indicating that it was of basilican form, with an eastern apse.[7]
During the reforms of Dunstan, archbishop from 960 until his death in 988,[8] a Benedictine abbey named Christ Church Priory was added to the cathedral. But the formal establishment as a monastery seems to date only to c.997 and the community only became fully monastic from Lanfranc's time onwards (with monastic constitutions addressed by him to prior Henry). Dunstan was buried on the south side of the high altar.
The cathedral was badly damaged during Danish raids on Canterbury in 1011. The Archbishop, Alphege, was taken hostage by the raiders and eventually killed at Greenwich on 19 April 1012, the first of Canterbury's five martyred archbishops. After this a western apse was added as an oratory of St. Mary, probably during the archbishopric of Lyfing (1013–1020) or Aethelnoth (1020–1038).
The 1993 excavations revealed that the new western apse was polygonal, and flanked by hexagonal towers, forming a westwork. It housed the archbishop's throne, with the altar of St Mary just to the east. At about the same time that the westwork was built, the arcade walls were strengthened and towers added to the eastern corners of the church.
The cathedral was destroyed by fire in 1067, a year after the Norman Conquest. Rebuilding began in 1070 under the first Norman archbishop, Lanfranc (1070–77). He cleared the ruins and reconstructed the cathedral to a design based closely on that of the Abbey of St. Etienne in Caen, where he had previously been abbot, using stone brought from France.[9] The new church, its central axis about 5m south of that of its predecessor,[6] was a cruciform building, with an aisled nave of nine bays, a pair of towers at the west end, aiseless transepts with apsidal chapels, a low crossing tower, and a short choir ending in three apses. It was dedicated in 1077.[10]
The Norman cathedral, after its expansion by Ernulf and Conrad.
Under Lanfranc's successor Anselm, who was twice exiled from England, the responsibility for the rebuilding or improvement of the cathedral's fabric was largely left in the hands of the priors.[11] Following the election of Prior Ernulf in 1096, Lanfranc's inadequate east end was demolished, and replaced with an eastern arm 198 feet long, doubling the length of the cathedral. It was raised above a large and elaborately decorated crypt. Ernulf was succeeded in 1107 by Conrad, who completed the work by 1126.[12] The new choir took the form of a complete church in itself, with its own transepts; the east end was semicircular in plan, with three chapels opening off an ambulatory.[12] A free standing campanile was built on a mound in the cathedral precinct in about 1160.[13]
As with many Romanesque church buildings, the interior of the choir was richly embellished.[14] William of Malmesbury wrote: "Nothing like it could be seen in England either for the light of its glass windows, the gleaming of its marble pavements, or the many-coloured paintings which led the eyes to the panelled ceiling above."[14]
Though named after the sixth century founding archbishop, The Chair of St. Augustine, the ceremonial enthronement chair of the Archbishop of Canterbury, may date from the Norman period. Its first recorded use is in 1205.
Martyrdom of Thomas Becket
Image of Thomas Becket from a stained glass window
The 12th-century choir
A pivotal moment in the history of the cathedral was the murder of the archbishop, Thomas Becket, in the north-west transept (also known as the Martyrdom) on Tuesday, 29 December 1170, by knights of King Henry II. The king had frequent conflicts with the strong-willed Becket and is said to have exclaimed in frustration, "Who will rid me of this turbulent priest?" The knights took it literally and murdered Becket in his own cathedral. Becket was the second of four Archbishops of Canterbury who were murdered (see also Alphege).
The posthumous veneration of Becket made the cathedral a place of pilgrimage. This brought both the need to expand the cathedral and the wealth that made it possible.
Rebuilding of the choir
Tomb of the Black Prince
In September 1174 the choir was severely damaged by fire, necessitating a major reconstruction,[15] the progress of which was recorded in detail by a monk named Gervase.[16] The crypt survived the fire intact,[17] and it was found possible to retain the outer walls of the choir, which were increased in height by 12 feet (3.7 m) in the course of the rebuilding, but with the round-headed form of their windows left unchanged.[18] Everything else was replaced in the new Gothic style, with pointed arches, rib vaulting and flying buttresses. The limestone used was imported from Caen in Normandy, and Purbeck marble was used for the shafting. The choir was back in use by 1180 and in that year the remains of St Dunstan and St Alphege were moved there from the crypt.[19]
The master-mason appointed to rebuild the choir was a Frenchman, William of Sens. Following his injury in a fall from the scaffolding in 1179 he was replaced by one of his former assistants, known as "William the Englishman".
The shrine in the Trinity Chapel was placed directly above Becket's original tomb in the crypt. A marble plinth, raised on columns, supported what an early visitor, Walter of Coventry, described as "a coffin wonderfully wrought of gold and silver, and marvellously adorned with precious gems".[22] Other accounts make clear that the gold was laid over a wooden chest, which in turn contained an iron-bound box holding Becket's remains.[23] Further votive treasures were added to the adornments of the chest over the years, while others were placed on pedestals or beams nearby, or attached to hanging drapery.[24] For much of the time the chest (or "ferotory") was kept concealed by a wooden cover, which would be theatrically raised by ropes once a crowd of pilgrims had gathered.[21][23] Erasmus, who visited in 1512–4, recorded that, once the cover was raised, "the Prior ... pointed out each jewel, telling its name in French, its value, and the name of its donor; for the principal of them were offerings sent by sovereign princes."[25]
The income from pilgrims (such as those portrayed in Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales) who visited Becket's shrine, which was regarded as a place of healing, largely paid for the subsequent rebuilding of the cathedral and its associated buildings. This revenue included the profits from the sale of pilgrim badges depicting Becket, his martyrdom, or his shrine.
The shrine was removed in 1538. Henry VIII summoned the dead saint to court to face charges of treason. Having failed to appear, he was found guilty in his absence and the treasures of his shrine were confiscated, carried away in two coffers and twenty-six carts.
Monastic buildings
Cloisters
A bird's-eye view of the cathedral and its monastic buildings, made in about 1165[27] and known as the "waterworks plan" is preserved in the Eadwine Psalter in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge.[28] It shows that Canterbury employed the same general principles of arrangement common to all Benedictine monasteries, although, unusually, the cloister and monastic buildings were to the north, rather than the south of the church. There was a separate chapter-house.[27]
The buildings formed separate groups around the church. Adjoining it, on the north side, stood the cloister and the buildings devoted to the monastic life. To the east and west of these were those devoted to the exercise of hospitality. To the north a large open court divided the monastic buildings from menial ones, such as the stables, granaries, barn, bakehouse, brew house and laundries, inhabited by the lay servants of the establishment. At the greatest possible distance from the church, beyond the precinct of the monastery, was the eleemosynary department. The almonry for the relief of the poor, with a great hall annexed, formed the paupers' hospitium.
The group of buildings devoted to monastic life included two cloisters. The great cloister was surrounded by the buildings essentially connected with the daily life of the monks,-- the church to the south, with the refectory placed as always on the side opposite, the dormitory, raised on a vaulted undercroft, and the chapter-house adjacent, and the lodgings of the cellarer, responsible for providing both monks and guests with food, to the west. A passage under the dormitory lead eastwards to the smaller or infirmary cloister, appropriated to sick and infirm monks.[27]
The hall and chapel of the infirmary extended east of this cloister, resembling in form and arrangement the nave and chancel of an aisled church. Beneath the dormitory, overlooking the green court or herbarium, lay the "pisalis" or "calefactory," the common room of the monks. At its north-east corner access was given from the dormitory to the necessarium, a building in the form of a Norman hall, 145 ft (44 m) long by 25 broad (44.2 m × 7.6 m), containing fifty-five seats. It was constructed with careful regard to hygiene, with a stream of water running through it from end to end.[27]
A second smaller dormitory for the conventual officers ran from east to west. Close to the refectory, but outside the cloisters, were the domestic offices connected with it: to the north, the kitchen, 47 ft (14 m) square (200 m2), with a pyramidal roof, and the kitchen court; to the west, the butteries, pantries, etc. The infirmary had a small kitchen of its own. Opposite the refectory door in the cloister were two lavatories, where the monks washed before and after eating.
[27]
Priors of Christ Church Priory included John of Sittingbourne (elected 1222, previously a monk of the priory) and William Chillenden, (elected 1264, previously monk and treasurer of the priory).[29] The monastery was granted the right to elect their own prior if the seat was vacant by the pope, and — from Gregory IX onwards — the right to a free election (though with the archbishop overseeing their choice). Monks of the priory have included Æthelric I, Æthelric II, Walter d'Eynsham, Reginald fitz Jocelin (admitted as a confrater shortly before his death), Nigel de Longchamps and Ernulf. The monks often put forward candidates for Archbishop of Canterbury, either from among their number or outside, since the archbishop was nominally their abbot, but this could lead to clashes with the king and/or pope should they put forward a different man — examples are the elections of Baldwin of Forde and Thomas Cobham.
Early in the fourteenth century, Prior Eastry erected a stone choir screen and rebuilt the chapter house, and his successor, Prior Oxenden inserted a large five-light window into St Anselm's chapel. [30]
The cathedral was seriously damaged by an earthquake of 1382, losing its bells and campanile.
From the late fourteenth century the nave and transepts were rebuilt, on the Norman foundations in the Perpendicular style under the direction of the noted master mason Henry Yevele.[31] In contrast to the contemporary rebuilding of the nave at Winchester, where much of the existing fabric was retained and remodelled, the piers were entirely removed, and replaced with less bulky Gothic ones, and the old aisle walls completely taken down except for a low "plinth" left on the south side. [32][6] More Norman fabric was retained in the transepts, especially in the east walls,[32] and the old apsidal chapels were not replaced until the mid-15th century.[30] The arches of the new nave arcade were exceptionally high in proportion to the clerestory.[30] The new transepts, aisles and nave were roofed with lierne vaults, enriched with bosses. Most of the work was done during the priorate of Thomas Chillenden (1391–1411): Chillenden also built a new choir screen at the east end of the nave, into which Eastry's existing screen was incorporated.[30] The Norman stone floor of the nave, however survived until its replacement in 1786.
From 1396 the cloisters were repaired and remodelled by Yevele's pupil Stephen Lote who added the lierne vaulting. It was during this period that the wagon-vaulting of the chapter house was created.
A shortage of money, and the priority given to the rebuilding of the cloisters and chapter-house meant that the rebuilding of the west towers was neglected. The south-west tower was not replaced until 1458, and the Norman north-west tower survived until 1834, when it was replaced by a replica of its Perpendicular companion.[30]
In about 1430 the south transept apse was removed to make way for a chapel, founded by Lady Margaret Holland and dedicated to St Michael and All Angels. The north transept apse was replaced by a Lady Chapel, built in 1448–55.[30]
The 235-foot crossing tower was begun in 1433, although preparations had already been made during Chillenden's priorate, when the piers had been reinforced. Further strengthening was found necessary around the beginning of the sixteenth century, when buttressing arches were added under the southern and western tower arches. The tower is often known as the "Angel Steeple", after a gilded angel that once stood on one of its pinnacles.