Posts tagged Balance and Sexuality
If this was the cover of a book, it would be called The Spectrum of Light Reveals Itself, Duality and Other Short Stories of Symmetry and Enlightenment. I’d read it.
~Schmüdde
Misfortunes of Silenus (c 1505/10)
Perseus Rescuing Andromeda (1513)
Symmetry in Narrative
Piero di Cosimo’s Misfortunes of Silenus (c 1505/10)
Depictions in narrative order:
- The drunken Silenus falling off his horse (center)
- Unsuccessfully helping Silenus to his feet by his band of satyrs (half man, half horse) and lustful women (right)
- Boys rubbing mud on his forehead (left)
The same narrative relationship can be seen in Perseus Rescuing Andromeda (1513).
The spark of the story, not the climax, is depicted in dramatic fashion as the centerpiece of the visual narrative. Although analogies to time-based media like film are dubious because the viewer is shackled to the movie’s flow of time, a similar structure could be Tony Gilroy’s Michael Clayton (2007). The climatic centerpiece (the explosion of Michael Clayton’s car) is also the first thing you see in the film and an event you come back to later as the film resets to a point before it.
The circle-triangle-square is Sengai’s picture of the universe. The circle represents the infinite, and the infinite is at the basis of all beings. But the infinite in itself is formless. We humans endowed with senses and intellect demand tangible forms. Hence a triangle. The triangle is the beginning of all forms. Out of it first comes the square. A square is the triangle doubled. This doubling process goes on infinitely and we have the multitudinosity of things, which the Chinese philosopher calls ‘the ten thousand things’, that is, the universe.
The trouble with us linguistically-minded beings is that we take language realistically and forget that language is of no significance whatsoever without time. In truth, language is time and time is language. We thus come to think that there is in the beginning of the world a something which is real and concrete, such as a world of galaxies which though formless and nebulous is yet real and tangible. This is the foundation of the universe on which we now have all kinds of things, infinitely formed and varied. It is thus that time itself begins to be thought of as something concrete and real. A circle turns into a triangle, and then into a square, and finally into infinitely varied and varying figures. In the same way the Biblical account of creation has turned into historical truth in the minds of many. But Zen is very much against such fabrications.
Sisyphus by Titian
“The Myth of Sisyphus”
In the essay, Camus introduces his philosophy of the absurd: man’s futile search for meaning, unity and clarity in the face of an unintelligible world devoid of God and eternal truths or values. Does the realization of the absurd require suicide? Camus answers: “No. It requires revolt.” He then outlines several approaches to the absurd life. The final chapter compares the absurdity of man’s life with the situation of Sisyphus, a figure of Greek mythology who was condemned to repeat forever the same meaningless task of pushing a boulder up a mountain, only to see it roll down again. The essay concludes, “The struggle itself…is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”
The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine (~1340)
Barna da Siena
Saint Catherine’s first visceral experience between her and Christ was at the age of five. He appeared before her, smiled at her and blessed her. It was enough to leave her in a state of euphoria. Soon thereafter she devoted her life to him. Who wouldn’t? A source of jubilation that is as intangible as it is real, absolutely beyond the material world.
Striving for completeness, she sacrificed everything for him. She concentrated her virginity to Christ. She flagellated herself in an effort to repent her sin and the sin of all man. She became mute for years on end and fasted for weeks at a time. But deep within her was a sense of doubt. She once confessed that she felt possessed by evil spirits, not by the love of Christ. An imperfect belief drove a wedge between her and the feeling of inimitable, eternal love.
Catherine of Siena had the resiliency and faith within her to eventually overcame this sense of doubt. After years of devotion, she was finally ready to consummate the union between Christ and herself. Her trials had only brought them closer. In 1367, at the age of 20, she became the bride of Christ. In the small wedding ceremony, attended by select friends and family and presided by God, Jesus perfected their love by placing a ring made of his own foreskin on Catherine’s finger. This act was founded in the Christian belief that God resurrected Christ and took his body to heaven. Thus the only part of Christ’s body that remains in this world would be the result of his circumcision.
She proudly wore the ring that no one else could see and only she could feel. A symbol of her quiet, everlasting jubilation. Despite of, or because of, her intimate relationship with Jesus, she was canonized by the Catholic church in 1461. In 1940 she became a joint Patron Saint of Italy along with Saint Francis of Assisi. Then in 1970 she became the first woman to be named a Doctor of the Church. Finally, in 1999, Pope John Paul II made her a patron saint of Europe.
Nature-nurture is dead because they’re really the same thing. Nature is the thing we must understand first, in terms of how things get wired in utero and the phases of brain development. The piece that used to be called nurture is genetically driven changes that come with things like stress, hormonal differences, neglect, abuse, drugs, or toxic substances. Understanding the genetics we’re born with and how they get modified by our upbringing and environment is the key.
A moment frozen it time. Tension exists in a painting because we know it can have no détente. This is something cinema cannot provide. Something must happen unless it is the final frame.
Readers Digest Condensed Books
Illustrated by David Blossom
1975
Perfection is static, and I am in full progress
If you meet the Buddha, kill him.
Linji
Something worth repeating should be thought provoking. I cherish this quote because it encourages us to find our own Buddah - the knowledge of self. If we see it outside of us, it is false, and we should eliminate it as a possible sense of identity - even if it is Buddah himself.
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