the realization of not-two-ness

Posted on by miriam louisa simons

 

It is [the] flash of realization of not-two-ness, that is both the centre and the endpoint of our human experience.

In every seed of every weed, in the knee-joint of a dead wasp’s leg, the structure of the Whole of Reality is laid bare for those who have eyes to see.

 

Image by Laurent Schwebel

 

Our brain filters out the overwhelming poignancy of this Structure of Reality, of the Divine, as it manifests in all that is.

The eye, however, when it awakens, sees all things as “unseparated” from itself, to speak with Eckhart*.

– Frederick Franck
The Awakened Eye

* Meister Eckhart: The eye with which I see God is the eye with which God sees me.

Photograph: Laurent Schwebel

Frederick Franck at the artisans’ gallery

seeing/drawing as meditation

the Face of faces

the 10 commandments
(Frederick Franck’s guidelines for the creative life)

the dance of Me and Mu

Posted on by miriam louisa simons

It feels like time for a nod to Frederick Franck, mentor supreme, whose book The Awakened Eye provided the impetus and the title for this blog and website.

 

Frederick Franck: Leaf

 

For to the awakened eye no thing remains a mere thing. It reveals itself to be, instead of an object, an EVENT in the timeless abyss of time, an event of unfathomable meaning that happens to take place more or less simultaneously with the event I call “Me”. In the language of Zen this state of no-thingness, of selflessness, is called Mu (literally it means “no”), in which I become an empty vessel, filled by what the eye sees.

I let [the things being drawn] flow through this Mu, let them precipitate themselves onto the paper, as if without any “thinking”, any interference on my part.

For these moments to happen I have lived sixty-some years.

– Frederick Franck, The Awakened Eye

image source

pacem in terris

waking up to wonder

the leaf’s budding and dying are my own!

homage to Frederick Franck

seeing/drawing as meditation

the Face of faces

Frederick Franck at the artisans’ gallery

the 10 commandments
(Frederick Franck’s guidelines for the creative life)

the leaf’s budding and dying are my own!

Posted on by miriam louisa simons

 

Leaf and drawing - artist unknown

 

When I am totally absorbed in drawing … and have become leaf or grass, when the split between I-as-subject and It-as-object is bridged … I am now in touch with the process of Life itself. The leaf’s budding, unfurling, wilting and dying are my own! For however short a span, IT – instead of Me – has become the center of my universe. It is no longer a thing observed: but an ever-changing, ever-fleeting mystery, which, like myself, flashes past at the speed of light. Then, in this flashing Now, I may glimpse Reality, I may recognize the Self, that Original Face I share with all that is; I may glimpse the Buddha Nature: the Pearl of Great Price.

– Frederick Franck
The Awakened Eye

frederick franck at the artisans’ gallery

the Face of faces

seeing-drawing as meditation

the 10 commandments