While the blog presents frequently – if irregularly – updated material, there is a great deal of content published on static pages in this site. For a display of shortcuts to these pages, please scroll down. Cast your net into the archives…
[Also see the pages index, where this content is arranged in three categories for easy searching.]
Image: detail from artwork by Meg Hitchcock
The pages index lists content published on static pages in this site in three categories: individual artisans and their work, collections of pithy quotes, and longer articles from artists, scientists, philosophers, sages and contemporary teachers of nonduality. Fresh additions are announced on the blog.
John Taylor Gatto and Jiddu Krishnamurti on conformity and how it kills true perceiving, learning and creativity. Are our schools training students to merely be obedient robots for a corporate culture? Or, are they being educated in such a way that they will understand all forms of indoctrination and cultivate their unique capacity?
In this talk to the Architects’ Association in London in 1967, the world-renowned scientist David Bohm investigates the phenomenon of creativity from all angles. What is a creative mind – and what sabotages its operation? What are the hallmarks of genuine creativity? Can it be cultivated? What is its relationship to health and well-being?
Michael Leunig is a much-loved Australian cartoonist, writer, painter, philosopher and poet. In this essay he shares his personal thoughts about authentic creativity as an intimate engagement with the archetypal ‘holy fool’, an innocent sensibility hidden in the depths of one’s being.
Suprabha Seshan is an environmental educator and restoration ecologist living and working at the Gurukula Botanical Sanctuary in the Western Ghat mountains of southern India. She writes here about the art of listening to her jungle environment from a silent mind. Paintings by Meena Subramaniam
A selection of quotes and longer extracts from J Krishnamurti on creativity, nondual awareness and the illusion of separation. “Can there be an awareness, an observation … without any judgement, and can there be an observation of the response, the reactions, without any judgement?”
Artist and Dharma teacher Kongtrul Jigme Namgyel on art, painting and primordial creativity: The purpose of art is to reflect and enjoy the richness of the world – not just what we think is ‘good’ and ‘pleasing’ – but the entirety of human experience. Natural creativity and its expression are not something separate from our own mind…
Jan Kersschot explains how some works of art can be a direct invitation to rediscover the infinite aspect of our existence. “When we look at art that points to the ultimate, that reveals the infinite within us, it simply takes our breath away. Automatically, we remember that there must be more to reality than we thought. “
Jordan Wolfson‘s richly illustrated and well-researched essay will be welcomed by all who see their art practice as a movement towards unity with something inconceivably larger than the programmed personality.
Solid gold inspiration.
“I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.” A page of quotes from, and about, Albert Einstein on creativity, curiosity and consciousness.
“He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.”
Psychologist, psychoanalyst, writer and artist Marion Milner kept a journal of her observations of her inner activities of thinking, perceiving, and feeling for many years. She was a ruthless tracker of her mental operations, with an equal ability to express the actuality of her experience – see extracts on this page.
Frederick Franck muses on the ultra-short time-fragments the 7th-Century masters called NEN – thought-moments of such flashing brevity that for all practical purposes they could be called timeless – and explains their importance to the discipline of seeing/drawing, of “BECOMING ALL EYE.”
Rupert Spira‘s ground-breaking essay on Paul Cézanne and nondual understanding. It will be valuable to anyone interested in undivided perception, Consciousness, Reality, and the nature and purpose of art in our era. The essay is extracted from Rupert’s book “The Transparency of Things.”
A collection of nondual perspectives, most of which come from Jerry Katz and the Nonduality Highlights team: Nonduality and art; education; cinema; aikido; haiku; western philosophy; psychotherapy; religions (Advaita Vedanta, Buddhism, Judaism, Sufism, Christianity, Taoism, Native American)
A selection from the writings of J Krishnamurti on seeing with the totality of your mind and heart, without the burden of belief.
“The eyes and from behind the head were only the instrument through which the immeasurable past was seeing into the immeasurable space that had no time.”
An essay by physicist Stanley Sobottka on how the failure of physicists to find an objective interpretation of quantum theory has the potential to liberate us from [our] fatal belief in separation. “Once we see that there is no me, no witness of no-me, and no-confinement, all separation dissolves.”
Douglas Harding reflects on finding himself headless: “Here is just emptiness. There is no getting my ego out of the way, and all that stuff. There is just the seeing, shining in great brilliance and clarity.” He invites us to stop thinking, do the experiments, and see for ourselves…
Frederick Franck‘s wise words about the importance of meditative drawing: “There is no other reason for drawing than the awareness of the eye awakening from its half-sleep” … “to see realistically, to find one’s place in the organic Whole, to see with the awakened eye.” “There is no other good reason for art…”
Since the Greek word for poetry, poiesis, means ‘to make’ it seems fitting to include here some fine samples of the art of making-with-words. Gabriel Rosenstock‘s haiku are exquisite makings, evoking both imagery and emotion. Notes and haiku from his book Haiku: The Gentle Art of Disappearing.
A selection of haiku from a collection called “A Glimpse of a God” by Irish poet Gabriel Rosenstock.
a glimpse of a god
in the eyes of the cat
following a moth
Nonduality is to be seen, lived, awakened to, and then, for whatever reason, one may try to define it. Jerry Katz writes from his alive, awake ‘seeing’ of nonduality and offers his own definitions, as well as a rich selection from sages contemporary and historical. An excellent overview.
Colin Drake, author, poet and potter, explains that creativity is a property of consciousness itself. “… awareness is endlessly creative, continually creating everything that arises in the universe, and also continually destructive in that every ‘thing’, which is ephemeral, finally returns back into that.”
The eyeless eye and the I-less I – a page featuring a collection of quotes from artists, philosophers, scientists and sages…
Of inconceivable power am I;
without eyes I see; without ears I hear.
– Kaivalya Upanishad
What my eyes saw on the way: a poem by Frederick Franck
“In the silence of drawing
hidden, yet visible, in each face
I see the Face of faces
see:
that the plural of man …”
An excerpt from the final chapter of Ken Wilber‘s ‘The Eye of Spirit: an integral vision for a world gone slightly mad’. “The realization of the Non-dual traditions is uncompromising: there is only Spirit, there is only God, there is only Emptiness in all its radiant wonder.” Everything one needs to know is on this page.
The radical nature of true meditation: “Meditation is a movement in and of the unknown. You are not there, only the movement.”
Quotes from J Krishnamurti, Voltaire, Frederick Franck, Adyashanti, Byron Katie and Wei Wu Wei
The friendship between physicist David Bohm and philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti was deep and fruitful. In this article Bohm describes the nature of their relationship and the issues they explored together. A useful introduction to both Krishnamurti’s field of inquiry and Bohm’s scientific work.
Frederick Franck‘s guidelines for the creative life:
These Ten Commandments on seeing/drawing were revealed to me on a mountain, but also in a meadow, on a beach and even in the subway. For their revelation did not come all at once, but in instalments…
An excerpt from ‘The Zen of Creativity’, by John Daido Loori, in which he (somewhat reluctantly) meets his teacher, photographer Minor White and is introduced to the “crooked” creative path that eventually led him “to the mystical tradition of Zen and a new way of understanding art.”
An informative, well-researched essay by photographer Roy Money about Minor White. White was not only one of the most influential photographers of the 20th century but also a teacher, editor and curator, and his language of spirit and spirituality came at a time when it had declining credibility in the art world.
A page of quotes on undivided perception, creativity and awakening from Eckhart Tolle.
“…mastery in any field of endeavor implies that the thinking mind is either no longer involved at all or at least is taking second place. A power and intelligence greater than you and yet one with you in essence takes over.”
Excerpts from a talk given by veteran educator Stephen James Smith on the transformative psychology of J Krishnamurti.
“… To engender a new way of seeing is, it seems to me, the most urgent human task. Seeing and being are closely aligned. For, it is when we see clearly that we truly are.”
Observations on the meditative process and practice of slow art – of losing oneself in the mysterious, immeasurable, movement of creation – from Amanda Robins, Robert Hughes, Leo Hartong and others.
Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished. – Lao Tzu
Poetry and prose by eco-poet and Dharma teacher Tarchin Hearn:
“As you sew your robe,
do a mantra of loving-kindness with each stitch.
Consider this robe that clothes you:
the robe of your body, the robe of emotions,
the robe of thoughts, and feelings…”
A collection of passages from Ajit Mookerjee‘s book Yoga Art. “Reality is one, without a second. To realize through inner apprehension the oneness of all things by uniting the self with the Self, subject with object, zero with infinite – to intuit this supreme knowledge is the purpose of yoga and its art.”
Quotes from Adyashanti‘s talks and/or writings. Adyashanti’s nondual teachings have been compared to those of the early Zen masters and Advaita Vedanta sages. Expressing both the infinite possibilities and the ordinary simplicity of a spiritually realized life, Adyashanti’s teachings are…
An excerpt from ‘Unknown Man: The Mysterious Birth of a New Species’, by Yatri.
How did the sense of a continuing “I,” the ego, arise? … The ego does not actually exist – it is an illusion of continuity.
[And we have fallen for the illusion, hook line and sinker.]
In this delightful story, Dennis Waite creates a scenario in which a young woman (Sarah) is interviewing a sage (Swami-ji) about the meaning of Advaita, or nonduality. Swami-ji gently leads Sarah towards her own understanding, enlightening us all in the process.
An extract from ‘Perfect Brilliant Stillness’ by David Carse.
“Asleep in the dream, the everyday activity is to look without truly seeing.
What is called for is seeing without looking,
the seeing happening without there being one who looks.”
Douglas Harding, Wei Wu Wei, J Krishnamurti, Thoreau, Astavakra Gita, Gary Crowley, Nisargadatta Maharaj, David Carse, Jesus of Nazareth, Adyashanti, Ramesh Balsekar, Stanley Sobottka, Ramana Maharshi, Huang-Po, Llewellyn Vaughn-Lee, Lao-Tzu, Ken Wilber, Sogyal Rinpoche, UG Krishnamurti…
An essay by photographer Minor White:
“When we speak of trends, we concern ourselves with changes, with shifts in style from here to there and back again. …. Central to the changes is something else. If we have to give a name to this centrality, and I guess we do, one name is “Spirit.”
Extracts from a talk on art given by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche at Naropa University in 1979. “Art is a rather vast subject. In connection with human development all together, art includes the practice of meditation, learning about ourselves and discovering the nonexistence of our ego.”…
The utterly wondrous View and Meditation of The Great Perfection from Dzogchen Master Jamgon Kontrul Rinpoche
“… look directly into the naked, empty nature of thoughts; then there is no duality, no observer, and nothing observed. Simply rest in this transparent, nondual present awareness.” …
A selection of quotes from the writings of Wei Wu Wei. “The eye that sees, the ear that hears, the tongue that tastes are only apparatus, but the I that sees, hears and tastes is Reality. We only need to realize that and the first perception becomes satori.”
A collection of quotes about direct, story-free seeing from many sources.
“We do a lot of looking: we look through lenses, telescopes, television tubes…
Our looking is perfected every day, but we see less and less.”
– Frederick Franck
A collection of pithy quotes about the importance of awe, wonderment and astonishment from poets, writers, philosophers, sages and scientists: “The Greeks said that to marvel is the beginning of knowledge and where we cease to marvel we may be in danger of ceasing to know.” – E H Gombrich
the awakened eye 