"The important and or only vital question is, how much greater, finer, am I than I was yesterday?
"Have I fulfilled my possibilities, made the most of my potentialities?
"What a marvelous world if all would - could hold this attitude toward life."
- Edward Weston, photographer
Mandalay
Patience is your teacher
Show how you feel - spirited away
You speak every language
Nature is your teacher
You are nature
Nurture vs nature - play experiment
Walking makes the road - red dust, green trees, golden cat o' nine tails, breeze, yellow sun, blue sky, blue lake...mirror
Born to be real
I'd rather be real than right
Posture breath
Paint with light
Bamboo tiger
Blind music
Golden weed fields yellow flowers green stems red dust
Musical language said, when you sit at a java/tea zone on the edge of the expansive traditional Banlung market,
open a notebook, remove a pen from a pocket,
unscrew the Mont Blanc mountain peak,
turn a page to spill linguistic symbols,
a Khmer man
maybe 40 sitting at the round metal table drinking energy liquid
stares at you with deep black eyes.
No expression. Black retina points.
Stranger in a strange land.
How does it feel to be on your own, with no direction home, like a rolling stone?
Observing a stranger preparing to scribble.
One true sentence
Laos
“We climbed up. We descended,” said Zeynep breathing through her shamanic mask.
“Is it carved from tribal memories?”
“Masks are symbolic manifestations in diverse cultures. Mask dance is a ritual, worn in a dance trance. Wearing a mask you become the thing you fear the most, your essential nature. Masks hide a human’s consciousness of fear.
“Dance is about process, becoming from stillness, from nothing. Shiva symbolizes the union of space, time and destruction. Dance is ancient magic. People seeking transformation wear masks representing gods or demons. Dance is the incarnation of energy from the source. We are from the source. Have courage to wear your natural face mask. The entire universe is a vast theatre. Death does not exist.”
“Humans evolved their ability to scheme and deceive behind masks,” said Lucky. “How do they manifest compassion and love without projecting guilt and shame on others while wearing their mask?”
“That's an eternal life quest,” said Z. “It requires daily practice and letting go of ego. Cogito ergo sum. They think their mask is reality. It's not. It’s artificial, an illusion, a myth, a projection of their fear.”
“What's your greatest fear is an essential quest-ion. We become the thing we fight the most. Our true self,” said L.
“My greatest imaginary fear is not experiencing truth and bliss beyond the self, passion and cravings,” said Z.
“That’s Nirvana. You break down before you break through. Authentic people confront their shadow. They evolve as a higher being. Scared, conditioned masked ones project their fears and insecurities onto others. It’s a survival behavior, a defense mechanism to avoid being honest and real. To avoid facing their mortality their darkest fear in room 101 the last room you want to enter, they deceive themselves. They lie to themselves and others avoiding the truth. They mask their pain. Truth is painful. Pain and suffering are different. Pain is a sickness leaving the body. Existence is suffering.”
Desire - Attachment - Loss - Suffering
Desire creates suffering. Kindness is a healing energy.
Your mask eats your face.
“Two critical elements of social intelligence are humor and curiosity. Do you remember James Joyce going into exile with silence and cunning?”
“Yes. He knew how to put seven little words in order. He was a cunning linguist. He said, ‘everything I do is an experiment,’” said Z. Exile is a form of suffering.
“So it is. Survival and creativity are raw instincts. Self awareness separates humans from lower life forms like apes, plankton and sea enemies-anemone fish eating animals and androgynous androids in the deep subconscious.”
“Writers lie for a living. We make stuff up. We write it down. We treat our mental illness every day. We have stories, poems and adventures to finish we haven’t started yet.”
“Imagined or invented conversations and episodes,” said L.
“Literature is a tool for unveiling, not obscuring the truth. It’s the best way to make fun of people.”
“Literary fiction expounds historical truth.”
“I prefer healthy doubt to certainty. I am more interested in traces than object. My notebook is essential,” said Z.
“We are the only animal who laughs and the only animal who knows they will die. We die every day. We imagine our death, our mortality. This fills some with dread, psychological neurosis, paralysis and lack of purpose. For others it’s a release joy and a dance. To live one has to die at least once. Once you die you realize how to live. Freedom is unconditional.”
“Freedom is an absence of choice. Are you a clown? Perhaps a clownfish?” L said.
“Look in your dream mask mirror. You get the face you deserve. Not all the clowns are in the circus. Let’s dance.”
“When you're looking good you're feeling good and when you're feeling good I just live to see your face.”
“We are wise calm lunatics whether we dance or not so we may as well dance. Let’s invent the world. Let’s invent reality. Wisdom-mind of intent not the emotion mind of fire & water.”
“I’m with you. We were born dead and slowly came to life.”
Flame your life.
Red dust Banlung town turned windy.
Swirling quality gem stone particles and degrees of indifference spiraled through air.
Redwood slats covered open sewer drains.
Locals watched Leo with curiosity and suspicion.
They stared from a deep vacuum.
When he made eye contact they glanced away with fear, uncertainty and doubt.
They didn’t see many strangers here.
They listened at 49% or less saying yeah, yeah with panache.
Leo's questions were constantly repeated.
Questions grew tired of repeating themselves.
This is so fucking boring, said one question.
We are abused. We are manipulated and rendered mute. Useless.
It's a test, said another question. Patience is our great teacher.
I’ll try, said another question.
Yes, said a question, these non-listeners
have a distinct tendency to say more
and say it louder when they’re leaving,
when their back’s turned away from eye contact and potential real communication.
I’ve seen that too, said a question, who, until this moment had remained silent.
My theory is that it’s because of the genocide and fear. It’s also a delicate mixture of stupidity or indifference, said another question. Why is the most dangerous quest-ion, said one.
Can you explain, asked a question.
Sure, people ran away to survive. People started running and others would ask them a question like
why are you running, who’s chasing you, where are you going
or what’s the matter or when
did you become afraid or why don’t you
stay longer and the one running would keep going
trailing abstract question words behind them
like memories or disembodied spirits or molecules of indifferent breath.
I see, said a question.
That explains it. Yes, said a question. Being correct is never the point. Tell me why oh my.
Glimmering cube of melting ice
Language of chopsticks
Incense smoke curls
Passing reflections
In death’s mirror
10
Street photographer works the image
Subject - light- composition
Move like a ninja
Geometry angles
Follow the light
Performance art
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