Thematic Content Foreword
ix
Thema 1:
Photography today as a spiritual medium and transformative tool
1
Thema 2:
Allow your dynamic inner eye to see
33
Thema 3:
Engage in photography with an open palm and an attitudinal spirit of spacious harmony
43
Thema 4:
Illuminate your photography with mindfulness
65
Thema 5:
Trust and develop a sharp intuitive sense of the Universal
79
Thema 6:
Join in Nature’s vibrancy through personal kinetic participation
101
Thema 7:
Realize that everything is alive with multi-layered meaning and occult significance
115
Thema 8: Espouse a natural approach to evoke both a contemplative state and transformative outlook
131
Thema 9:
139
Cultivate a deep inner stillness and clarity of consciousness
Thema 10: Be ever alert to the Sacred
153
Thema 11: Trust in the sentiency of all things
181
Thema 12: Adopt the profound view that all beings are inherently free and all things must remain essentially free
203
Thema 13: Understand that time and space contract and expand concomitantly in symbiotic mode
275
Thema 14: Allow for creative spontaneity through the intrinsic state of an essential emptiness of self
293
Thema 15: The searing of the Divine Imprint upon the photographer’s Soul and his creative vision
317
Afterword
367
Foreword
A
ll things great or small, considered alive or inanimate, whether part or whole, actively or passively participate in that sacred act, that Sacred Whole, which
Is Creation. All objects or bodies, whether a rock or a human being, whether an atom, a cell or molecule, whether an electron, neutron or positron... all are made of the same generic stuff, or universal energy of Creation. All that is part of this time-space Matrix, this immediate Immensity, this great interconnective Webbing, responds creatively and spontaneously to light, sound, silence and stillness... to form, shape, seam and symmetry. All, including the Whole, is found to be perceptibly or imperceptibly, in continuous cyclical movement.
Things arise, things subside; there are birthings, there are dyings; there is renewal, there is crystallization. Everything is mutual, everything is complementary, everything is interconnected, everything is interactive, everything is part of a dynamic (evolutionary) process... whether slow or fast, patient or impatient, neutral or impactful. Everything vibrates and oscillates, ebbs and flows, waves and sways, undulates and fluctuates. Absolutely everything is vitally alive and virtually awake, even when it appears to be in seeming sleep, or presumably, to the human eye, at least, inanimate and unable to be perceived. It is even said that from fallen ashes resurrects the mighty mythical bird, the majestic Phoenix. Any and all outer object, no matter what, necessarily invokes an inner response. Any and all subjective innervation, or concentrated inner focus, evokes an outer objective manifestation at some level of the psyche. Photography cajoles an object, scene or situation, into an apparently dynamic, or quiescent, (extended) second of Stillness... into a sort of suspended state... of either sprawled, or contracted, Sacred Space... vying for the gracious attention of the viewer. Perhaps photography sincerely, (albeit subconsciously), wishes to experimentally escort the world toward a compendious personal and collective change.
x
Transformative photography embarks the viewer upon a symbolic journey, and picture by picture, step by step, invites the beholder, despite himself, to reflect more deeply and maybe, just maybe, commit himself to nurturing a more wholesome attitude, or universal altitude, of interplane Oneness. The transformative photographer’s overview is not one of separativity, but is rather, a journey of diurnal celebration... one of passionately participating in the world and the ‘all that is’ with a commonly shared sense of wonder, awe and joy. No more should a conscientious photographer uphold an attitude that conjures the old, covetous grasping way; nor should he ever stoop to pose in an ignominious posture of subtle avidity; nor ever, with an apparent pride of possessive accomplishment. The transformative photographer should aim to bring a fresh, revivifying breeze to the latent creative embers which embrace intimately the shape of all things that are... and are to be. The One Spirit breathes equipotently upon the viewer and the viewed alike, and most importantly, upon the visionary photographer and his specialized focus of attention. If a genuine gratitude is unaffectedly cultivated and a heartfelt respect is purely upheld for God’s exalted table of multiple manifestation, and if an authentic awe is unpretentiously displayed for the consecrated All-Alter of Creation, then and then only, can a deeply creative transformation take place, (unassumingly), in the within and without of everything and everyone’s Sacred Circle of life experience.
xi
May the Holy Spirit spread Its wings graciously upon you, the reader, as you openly peruse this pictorial pilgrimage of loving photography... in the symbolic name of goodwill, good relationship, beauty, truth and wisdom. May these transformative moments spent together be savored as an explorative experience of shared Grace. Simhananda Montreal, January 15, 2010
To be Noted: The present volume in its original format had 27 themata, or pictorial chapters. Only fifteen of them are herein presented... which for the most part, consist of an expanded and reedited transcript of a conference given by Simhananda on October 5, 2008. Subjoinder: The selected remarks which accompany nearly every photo are not necessarily precise citations taken from the chapter, or thema, under elucidation. Some commentaries are quite liberal in their annotative exposition, while others are used mainly as a lucid medium of pictorial decipherment, or simply as a procedure involving a picturesque (tonal) observation.
xii
180
Thema 11 Trust in the sentiency of all things
W
hereupon approaching the world with camera in hand, the photographer must do so with the knowing conviction that all
things have heart, all things have intelligence, light and soul, and all things have livingness or sentiency. This igneous anthropomorphy of form applies to all of existence, whether the configuration be rocks, crystals, flowers, fruits, vegetables, cars, houses, houseboats, forests, trees, mountains, rivers, valleys, oceans, or fish. Everything has a heart, a fiery core; everything has a certain centre of light and lightness.
181
Seen from the right perspective, it is perceived at once and without a doubt, that everything has a particular aliveness about it, and every individual a singular character of beingness about him, or her. The whole world, in fact, the whole of Creation is essentially about being, and being is the root cause of existence. In fact, it precedes existence. The world’s existence, though we may get sidetracked or somewhat lost within its myriad manifestations, when fully explored or deeply plumbed, will always bring you back to the basic root of ‘Beingness’, for beingness is always sacred and points always to what man calls his Divine origin.
182
All things have heart
183
all things have intelligence,
184
light...
185
and soul...
186
and all things have livingness or sentiency.
187
Everything has a heart,
188
a fiery core
189
everything has a certain centre of light...
190
and lightness.
191
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