The Zen Monk

i like the one about the Zen monk who lives outside a poor village. 

One day a Zen monk walks into the village and there's great jubilation.

He inquires into what's happening and the villagers tell him that they've acquired a new horse; a symbol of wealth and status at the time. They tell him how great it is that they have this horse and all he does is shrug his shoulders:

"we'll see..."

He comes back a few days later and a group of the villagers have crowded around an injured boy. The zen monk finds out that the boy was riding the new horse, fell off and broke his leg. The villagers shakes their heads, worried and tell him how terrible this is. He shrugs:

"we'll see..."

A few weeks later the monk returns to the village; this time there is great commotion...a war has broken out between the territories. All the male villagers must go and fight, except for the boy with the broken leg, which has not yet healed. 'Isn't it wonderful that he broke his leg...now his life has been spared', exclaim the villagers. The monk smiles and shrugs:

"we'll see..."

Dharma bums....

The term 'Dharma' or 'Dhamma' is a Buddhist term referring to the evolutionary impulse of the universe. I like this definition because the implication is that it is actually impossible to not live your Dharma.

You can  slow down your evolution but...you can't actually stop it.

It is the dharma of an apple seed to grow into an apple tree, a stream to find the quickest most efficient path to the river and in turn the river to the sea. Nature is perfect this way; she lives her Dharma without hesitation or thought of reward.

All of us know friends (or even see it within ourselves) that seem to be making choices that compound their suffering; poor choices or clinging to resentment and guilt. The beautiful truth is that this is all part of their evolution, that even in all the pain they/we cause ourselves, we are constantly evolving... sort of like the saying that even falling on your face is forward motion.

I like the river analogy. Think of your own spiritual evolution as a really really strong river. Even when we swim against it up stream, fighting and screaming, we are still moving closer and closer to the sea; its just that we're slowing ourselves down. We can even cling to the banks out of fear but again we know that one day the river will swell and we'll be forced to make a choice:

Let go and embrace the flow or be ripped violently away. 

The fact is...we must evolve, that is our dharma. Some people wake up one morning and say to themselves; "I'm not happy and I'm going to change it,' some people need that car accident that almost kills them before they wake up...everyone is different, but everyone evolves. 

Evolution is not a choice; making a dance out of it is.

Embrace your evolutionary river. 

Let go of the branches that line the banks.

Grab a rubber tube, some shades and a beer/margarita/herbal tea 

Wave to people you pass.

Smile.

Meditation and Creativity

So most people that know me personally will attest to my strong belief in the power of meditation as a tool to enhancing creativity (among other great things) in one's life. By creativity I'm not really referring to an 'artistic' creativity (though it certainly applies) but rather towards one's everyday choices.

Lets look at it this way. Its estimated that we have 80,000 or so thoughts a day, 79,990 of those thoughts are the same thoughts you had yesterday. Our thoughts, in quantum physics terms, are collapsing possibility wave-functions that travel along probability amplitudes, these amplitudes are the well worn grooves in our minds, formed through patterning, memory and experience. 

The Buddha taught that suffering arises through ignorance. Specifically the ignorance surrounding the true nature of our localized reality...that everything is impermanent and in constant flux. He also taught that as a result we suffer for two major reasons:

1. Our strong desire for that which gives us pleasure 

2. Our avoidance of that which causes pain

The problem is with the above is that that which gives us pleasure will eventually leave us eg: nice cars get stolen, houses burn down, loved ones die etc...Through the constant repetition of actions that enforce the above two experiences we create our karma, the definition of our experience.

So meditation, the act of conscious stillness, is a way of interrupting these constantly collapsing wave function possibilities (thoughts) and beginning the process of re-patterning. This is where creativity comes in.

Anything that is certain in your life is inherently uncreative, simply because it is known. Creativity is born of uncertainty and a meditative practice can help us gain familiarity with the innate discomfort of uncertainty. 

Human beings naturally dislike that which is uncertain because uncertainty threatens the fragile 'ego-mind' state. The soul, or "atman' as the Vedic scriptures (or "holy spirit' if yer Christian) refer to it it, is eternal and therefore does not suffer the fate of the ego. Meditation can help us move beyond the limits of the ego and into the constant creative realm of the soul. As an artist, this is where you want to be.  

Becoming comfortable with uncertainty has helped me immeasurably as a photographer. It means that I don't have to control everything, I can let the unknown unfold gracefully and when that happens, its magic...that perfect moment that you'd never dreamed could or would be possible.

I certainly give my meditation practice immeasurable credit when it comes to the success I've had as a photographer and I believe that silent inner exploration will heal the world. 

Give it a try....

Photo Exhibit at the Whip!

thanks for taking the time to visit. I finally decided to get off my butt and create a blog/news section to my site. Its been kinda busy lately but I figured i had some time to get this thing going.

so anyways, for those of you who may not know, I have a photo show happening at the Whip Gallery and Restaurant from July 2nd to Aug 2nd addy is basically 200 block east 6th @ Main street in vancouver. We'll have an opening reception on the 3rd of July starting about 7pm. Come one, come all, it'll be great fun and lots of food!

here's the flyer for the show. The working title is "Inspired Portraiture" but that will probably change.