When the mind is at peace,
the world too is at peace.
Nothing real, nothing absent.
Not holding on to reality,
not getting stuck in the void,
you are neither holy nor wise, just
an ordinary fellow who has completed his work.
Alvin Langdon Coburn (1882-1966), “Kensington Gardens, November”
from darksilenceinsuburbia: via
Adolf Wolf once said, “Man Ray is a youthful alchemist forever in quest of the painter’s philosopher’s stone. May he never find it, as that would bring an end to his experimentations which are the very condition of living art expression.”
Only in the last several decades have we come to realize the achievements of Man Ray. Set to opera music, this is a gorgeous tribute to the artist whose work ranged from photography, painting, drawing, collage, performance art, sculpture, and film. Man Ray stands as a model for artists to veer into the unknown and try many different types of mediums and methods. Perhaps the artist’s name says it all, as Marcel Duchamp writes as the opening epigram for Man Ray’s memoir Self-Portrait in 1963: MAN RAY, masculine noun, synonymous with joy, to play, to enjoy.
Thanks to Kat Ostrow for finding this video!
Thank you francine & lethebashar: Originally posted on Escape into Life
Chrysler Building Gargoyle, 1929. (from: overthetrail via: Wired New York)
Death is not extinguishing the light; it is putting out the lamp because the Dawn has come.
To them that ask, “where have you seen the gods?” or, “how do you know for certain there are gods that you are so devout in their worship?”. I answer, “Neither have I ever seen my own soul, and yet I respect and honor it.
Felice Beato, Victory Minaret; Qutb Minar, Delhi, ca. 1858 (source)
![“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” —Aesop
Photographer unknown [photo via paws22]
Thank you, liquidnight](http://www.tumblr.com/photo/1280/crashinglybeautiful/654179651/1/tumblr_l2hq2zY0hE1qzhl9e)
“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” —Aesop
Photographer unknown [photo via paws22]
Thank you, liquidnight
Each time we awaken to no longer being present to ourselves or to another is, paradoxically, a moment of presence. If we are willing to see the whole of our lives as practice, our awareness of the moments when we are not present, coupled with our intention to awaken, brings us into the present.
To me, every hour of the day and night is an unspeakably perfect miracle.
