Words of Clarity on Photography from Carl Johnson

Carl Johnson

“Pam, you get a different feel from Ansel Adams’ stuff compared to those “extreme Photoshop” images because some people are not familiar with restraint, or, they are trying to create a graphic illustration more than they are trying to adjust an image so that it reflects the artist’s impression of the scene. Ansel Adams would push his negatives and prints to fulfill a vision of what he saw and felt, not to create something that wasn’t there at all.”
(I had shared with Carl how extreme Photoshop treatment was eroding my trust level with some photography. He had mentioned Ansel Adams, so I said that Ansel Adams’ work left a very different impression on me. This was his answer, which hits the nail on the head.)

Unity Awareness

Summer Drive-By (July 20, around 12:30 pm, Anchorage, AK)

I woke up this morning realizing how hard it is to transcend duality consciousness. The perception of an “other” is a reminder that there is still some path ahead of me. In a state of divine love, there is no other. There are those who have realized this who have had destinies of monastic-type lives. There are those who have realized this who have lived fully in this life amid the din and roar. Wherever we have been placed, it is the perfect place to come to Self* recognition.

*The Self is that which by its very nature is indivisible. All things appears as reflections inside of the Self. When we identify with a fragment, believing that we are that fragment only, this is described as wrong identification (a term used by G.I. Gurdjieff). I don’t believe it is really “wrong.” But in this state there is always at least an underlying sense of deprivation and lack of contentment. In the end, we will not be satisfied until we reach divine awareness and supreme inner peace.

Entering the Void with the Eyes Open

Peonies 1 (July 18, 2012, around 7:30 am, Anchorage, AK)
Peonies 2 (July 18, 2012, around 7:30 am, Anchorage, AK)

In time, when the yogi’s practice of meditation matures, he begins to experience unmilana-samadhi, open-eyed absorption. In other words, from the state of nimilana samadhi, he opens his eyes and his awareness remains absorbed in the Self even though he is in the state that comes after meditation (vyutthana) with his senses fully operating. The term vyutthana means ‘to rise’ or ‘to wake up,’ which I like to think means that, in the most expansive expression of waking consciousness, one has awakened to the perception of external objects bathed in the Great Light of Consciousness.

— Swami Shantananda, The Splendor of Recognition

Perspective

Sunrise Over Jenny's Roof (July 18, just after 5 am, Anchorage, AK)

I woke up thinking about how our personal and collective lives are almost always in the foreground of our experience. Most of our thoughts and actions are determined by what occupies the foreground of our lives.

Unless we cultivate a deeper perspective, no amount of attention to detail will bring the right proportions before our mind’s eye. No matter how noble our struggles to improve ourselves and the world, it is all a futile thrashing when we are not residents of the Heart.

The pull of absorption in the small self, the pallor of sleep, is so strong. To lay down for a moment may mean to sleep for aeons. I think of the many fairy tales that present the pitfall of sleep before us.

There is no hope without the grace that comes in moments of waking. One drop of dew on the grass in early morning can be our salvation. It can slake a thirst we scarcely  know we have until that one droplet meets the eye, and takes hold of us in some profound and unexpected way.

I can only pray for the strength to rise to the challenge. To rise and partake of the elixir of early morning after a night of fitful sleep, to practice obedience to the great rhythm of the world, isn’t easy. The body aches, the mind drags down around the ears. Every cell screams for sweet, elusive rest.

Dewy Grass (July 18, 2012, around 7:15 am, Anchorage, AK)