[This essay was originally posted to "The Third Tale," a blog on Weebly. In transferring it I have updated and made corrections where necessary.]
The Dhammapada is a widely-quoted collection of sayings of the Buddha. I read selections (almost) every day, and have learned some by heart.
[This essay was originally posted to "The Third Tale," a blog on Weebly. In transferring it I have updated and made corrections where necessary.]
Post-divorce and pre-Japan was a wandering time (as mentioned in my post about Robert Urich). And the wandering place that meant the most was the Four Corners area, especially New Mexico.
[This essay was originally posted to "The Third Tale," a blog on Weebly. In transferring it I have updated and made corrections where necessary.]
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| Robert took "alone time" whenever he could. He knew the value of working on oneself. |
It's been 10 years since my friend Robert Urich died, and I'm just now beginning to feel I can write about him.
Calling Robert and Heather "friends" sounds so lame: in Hollywood, someone once said, a friend is "someone you've heard of."
These two have been so much more than that.
[This essay was originally posted to "The Third Tale," a blog on Weebly. In transferring it I have updated and made corrections where necessary.]
Twenty-plus years ago, Edie Brickell (who is also Mrs. Paul Simon--did you know?) sang in "What I am":
I'm not aware of too many things,
but I know what I know if you know what I mean.
Philosophy is the talk on a cereal box.
Religion is the smile on a dog. (complete lyrics)
[This essay was originally posted to "The Third Tale," a blog on Weebly. In transferring it I have updated and made corrections where necessary.]
You never know what another person is going through.
Lila and I have often discussed this recently: how a friend who lives far away can suddenly pronounce herself "cancer free," when you had no idea; how you can spend a day in drudgery with someone, only to find out later it was his birthday.
It makes you realize how important it is to be kind, to create the least trouble for someone as possible, because you never know which straw will break the camel's back.
This is something I need to get better at.
[This essay was originally posted to "The Third Tale," a blog on Weebly. In transferring it I have updated and made corrections where necessary.]
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; What is essential is invisible to the eye."
Every picture is biographical.
Back in 1996, I was living in Santa Fe. My then-girlfriend and I were out for a drive through La Cienega and (as usual) we were bickering about something.
As the argument escalated, I suddenly spotted this church up ahead, and the tombstone practically jumped out at me. I took the shot through the windshield.
We made up.
Categories: Bio, Photography, Quotations, Spirituality, The West
[This essay was originally posted to "The Third Tale," a blog on Weebly. In transferring it I have updated and made corrections where necessary.]
This photo was originally a slide shot around 1995. I made a Polaroid neg from it in a slide copier in, maybe, 2001; in I shot that neg onto digital and filed it away.
Today I pulled out that digital shot, inverted the neg in PhotoShop, tweaked it, "hand colored" it (in PS, with the mouse), ran a filter on the background, and voila! Two hours I'll never get back! (But I'm mighty pleased with the result.)
Categories: Art, Photography
[This essay was originally posted to "The Third Tale," a blog on Weebly. In transferring it I have updated and made corrections where necessary.]
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| Thanks to Jack Liu for the picture |
In December of 2001 I returned to the U.S. after nearly five years of living in Japan. Having delved deeply into Buddhism there, I was surprised and delighted to learn that there was a Buddhist university in my hometown, on the very street where my father and his brothers had built a house for my grandparents in the late '40s.
Hsi Lai University (as it was then called, now University of the West) seemed like the perfect place for me to study.
[This essay was originally posted to "The Third Tale," a blog on Weebly. In transferring it I have updated and made corrections where necessary.]
I used to do a lot of exploring around California and the West. I once took a girlfriend and her son to Bodie and did some in-camera double exposures. Here's a manipulation of one of them.
Comment(s):
Miles McClain:
I spent a short time as a professional photographer. As you might imagine I enjoy your photographs. Miles
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My Reply:
Thanks, Miles. I started shooting at age 14, when my uncle (a weekend wedding photographer) taught me how to use his home darkroom. Since then I've shot almost every kind of film, and practiced alternative printing processes (using Polaroid materials, cyanotypes, etc.) Made a living selling "art photography" in parks etc. for a season, too. This shot was done with my uncle's old SpeedGraphic 4x5. Thank gods I can do most of that digitally now, but I still can't wait to get a darkroom set up once we relocate to the Philippines! I've got tens of thousands of shots, digital and film (mostly transparencies) to play with.
Categories: Art, Bio, Photography, The West
[This essay was originally posted to "The Third Tale," a blog on Weebly. In transferring it I have updated and made corrections where necessary.]
<-- The Quartered Circle, symbol of my "new religion"
Nearly 20 years ago I wrote a book (never published, like ALL my books so far) that encapsulated my spiritual point of view at the time.
As I look back on it, it's much more theistic than my current worldview, but much of it is still foundational to who I am today.
At the end of that book, I published a sort of a "manifesto" for a community that would gather to work out the principles in the book--in short, a "church."
[This essay was originally posted to "The Third Tale," a blog on Weebly. In transferring it I have updated and made corrections where necessary.]
Someone recently posted this on FaceBook, and it reminded me of a few poems.
[This essay was originally posted to "The Third Tale," a blog on Weebly. In transferring it I have updated and made corrections where necessary.]
Image [was] available on a T-Shirt at VegTshirts.com [the sire seems to be gone]
It all began one day 19 years ago when I was sitting in the Jack-in-the-Box drive-thru line waiting for my two hamburgers, two fries and a Coke--at 7:30 in the morning.
Yes, that was a typical breakfast for me in my carnivorous days, and as I sat in the parking lot of my school eating cow's flesh, I thought, "Why am I doing this?"
And I quit. That was my last karma-inducing meal.
[This essay was originally posted to "The Third Tale," a blog on Weebly. In transferring it I have updated and made corrections where necessary.]
An inspiring article by radical thinker Mark Boyle here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/green-living-blog/2009/oct/28/live-without-money
Categories: Mindfulness, Quotations, Spirituality
[This essay was originally posted to "The Third Tale," a blog on Weebly. In transferring it I have updated and made corrections where necessary.]
I don't know why, but when I thought about a picture to use as an Easter greeting, this one came instantly to mind.
I had been walking (for hours) an old pilgrimage route in Guangzhou (better known to some as "Canton"). On a busy pedestrian shopping street, these two approached me for a handout. No, I said, and turned to walk away. In fact, I have never given any money to beggars in China, as it's a pretty well-organized racket (like the Indian one seen in Slumdog Millionaire).
But these two were so happy and--I don't know--JOLLY, that I turned back almost instantly and offered them 5 yuan (about 40 cents US each) for a picture. This was a modeling fee, NOT a handout!
They happily agreed (they did everything "happily") and here's the heavily-PhotoShopped shot.
I later saw them on a side-street playing chess.
Why this one for Easter? I don't know. Joy? Buoyancy? An indomitable spirit?
Anyway, Happy Easter.
P.S. Just for comparison, here's the original.
Categories: Art, China, Photography
[This essay was originally posted to "The Third Tale," a blog on Weebly. In transferring it I have updated and made corrections where necessary.]
Last November, Lila and I had the pleasure of visiting Shaolin Temple, where my former student and good friend Venerable Yanti resides (though he was in Russia at the time--teaching English and kung fu to children!)
[This essay was originally posted to "The Third Tale," a blog on Weebly. In transferring it I have updated and made corrections where necessary.]
It was a tough sorta day: I was hoping to do all three of my temples in Putian in a single marathon.
I had done Nangshan Cishou Si, then waited an inordinate amount of time to get a cab to take me to Guanghua Si. He had brought me in on a side-street filled with statuary workshops. After seeing the temple, I was rushing out to catch another cab to Guangxiao Si when I was captivated by the sights around me.
[This essay was originally posted to "The Third Tale," a blog on Weebly. In transferring it I have updated and made corrections where necessary.]
[This was floating around the internet. It isn't mine; I haven't changed the punctuation, capitalization, or anything. In fact I haven't even verified that it's all true, though I checked to see that the dates are accurate. Still, it's food for thought in these troubled times.]
The original Constitution of the United States that was ratified in 1789 had only one reference to religion: [Article 6] No religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.
[This essay was originally posted to "The Third Tale," a blog on Weebly. In transferring it I have updated and made corrections where necessary.]
You see many stars in the night sky, but cannot find them at midday. Can you say, then, that there are no stars in the heavens in the daytime?
So even though we humans do not see the Almighty in the daylight of our ignorance, we must not say, "There is no God."
Notes:
This is a great example of the common-sense, humble nature of Sri Ramakrishna's sayings.
The skeptic may pick this apart: "We can't see the stars because the sun is brighter. What is brighter than God?" etc.
But it's a beautiful illustration nonetheless. The full panoply of the kosmos is up there, all day long. And we're so blinded by what is near us (our daily worries, perhaps?) that we can't see it.
[This photo was originally posted to "The Third Tale," a blog on Weebly. In transferring it I have updated and made corrections where necessary.]
A monumental statue of the Vairocana Buddha at Longmen Grottoes, Henan, China
[This photo was originally posted to "The Third Tale," a blog on Weebly. In transferring it I have updated and made corrections where necessary.]
Posted by Rumi on FaceBook, via FB friend Jackie Tran:
