Images and Reflections

Though one should live a hundred years not comprehending the Truth Sublime, yet better, indeed, is a single day's life of one who comprehends the Truth Sublime.

- from the Dhammapada

When I'm happy I usually go out and shoot. I grab my small black camera, pick up a pair of freshly charged batteries and a soulful journey begins! With eyes wide open and my index finger ready to click the shutter, a different level of awareness happen. Sweeping visions of clouds, sky, trees, birds, people and seeing it in a fresh perspective. Observing and partaking to what nature unselfishly offers. The world is a canvas, an infinite mixture of hue nourishing the spirit. Lively colors that stir up positive emotions - joy, excitement, Love.

Life swings like a pendulum as the old saying goes. Soft, bright, sunny days make good images. But weather always change; everything in life are bound to change in one form or another. Fluffy white clouds turn into dark grey, skies become sombre, trees stripped of foliage, birds and people retreat in their homes. However, it does not mean that a "bad" weather produces bad photographs. It is a matter of how one perceives it. Quoting from the book A Course in Miracles, it says that, "A miracle is a shift in perception."

When I'm feeling down I don't make photographs. I simply hold my camera and contemplate. I recharge my batteries likewise recharging myself. An inner journey to think about life itself. It is dark, devoid of any color. But coming from this state of mind arises awareness; knowing is still there. It never left. I just set it aside for a while thus, unconscious of my thoughts and feelings. From darkness starts imagination, from gloom a shaft of light pierces through. Slowly, gradually enlivening again the world within myself.

Shaking, like an earthquake halts the swinging of a pendulum. Similarly, dilemmas and difficult circumstances in life put things into balance. It is a blessing in disguise! It naturally feels irksome but a sudden shift in awareness alters everything, as if a negative laboriously washed in a cocktail of chemicals but eventually reveals a stunning positive print. Imprints affecting our lives for the better. Life is a series of lessons set in a big classroom with our experiences as learning modules and projects popping out from nowhere. And through a creative art such as making photos I have learned and continues to learn.

Through this art I have reflected and realized essential things in life. I have expressed the inner workings of my soul. The mother of the great Ansel Adams persuaded him not to pursue photography. His mother said that the camera cannot express one's soul. She wanted young Adams to continue his career as a pianist. Adams answered that "maybe the camera cannot, but a photograph can."