In photography there is a reality so subtle, it becomes more real than reality.
Alfred Stieglitz
Raining out there and I am seeing a lot of leaves on the ground and a lot of empty branches. I love the Oak this time of the year though. ( I know I am preferring :)) When the beautiful vibrancy of the season begins to fade I look to them. They are always last to lose their leaves. Though they are clinging, like we cling to so many things in this physical world and clinging, of course, keeps us all a bit trapped, I do secretly appreciate their attachment to their leaves. It allows the colour in the world to linger just a little bit longer.
I also love the light in Autumn. ( again preferring...straying off the path of the middle way big time lol). Inspired by that light, I found myself with camera in hand again taking pics of that which I love the most. I took pictures of my grandson in amongst my tress. ( Of course, neither this child or these trees are 'mine'...but you know what I mean). I had not shot for a very long time and I missed it so much more than I realized. Capturing essence, capturing emotion and capturing the perfect balance between joy and frustration...beauty and ugliness...shadow and highlights...black and white...all a perfect dance that I am in love with. Why did I wait so long to shoot?
I had lost interest I suppose. I mean I do have some camera issues...with a lens that needs tweaking and one of my camera bodies that needs some looking into...but I could have tried. Because of my attachment to all that was going on in me and around me, photography felt like too much effort for my exhausted body and mind when no effort was really required at all. Man, there really is no trying, no seeking, no great effort required in photography...just as there is no trying in meditation or in breathing. It is not like the photographer has to do something or seek something out there...
It, like life, is just a matter of nakedly observing what arises.
Nakedly observe all that arises in this modality, which is without meditation and without distraction! (page 48)
I am learning through what I am reading now that: There is no duality between the object viewed and the observer....no duality between the actor and the action, (page 48-49), no distinction between the photographer and the subject being photographed...between the lens and that which the lens is pointing to. And there really is nothing to be done...nothing to capture outside of this mind. There are not phenomena extraneous to those that originate from the mind. [So], there are no modes of conduct to be taken extraneous to [those that originate from the mind]. (page 45)There is just pure awareness. I feel that when I have the Nikon to my eye. Pure awareness, looking at pure awareness.
And what about this fretting I used to do about how my pics turned out? Silly waste of time because there is no duality between purity and impurity (page 49), beauty or ugliness, too dark or too light, screwing up or getting a great shot etc. And "I", as this little me ( body and mind) that holds the camera and pushes the buttons am not the one that takes those pics, anyway, because there really is no one there attaining.
There is no duality between the object of attainment and the attainer. Without focusing on the attainment of the result, search for the attainer! Though one searches for this attainer, none will be found. (page 50)
All is well!
The Tibetan Book of the Dead: The First Complete Translation. (2005) Penguin Books: London
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