on contemplation...

... a reading...

the religious historian william k. mahoney invites us to consider "artistic and religious moments as arising from the practice and experience of contemplation." the term, he writes, comes from the latin con-templum, "a two- or three-dimensional space in which one is able to see sacred realities."

mahoney quotes the trappist monk thomas merton: "a door opens in the center of our being and we seem to fall through it into immense depths which, although they are infinite, are all accessible to us; all eternity seems to have become ours in one placid and breathless contact."

from william k. mahoney, "the artist as yogi, the yogi as artist," in parabola, "the creative response" (spring 1988), p. 69.

resources for the journey

parabola, "the creative response" (spring 1988)
thomas merton, new seeds of contemplation
joseph campbell, the inner reaches of outer space

... and tea

omotesenke fushin'an (a chanoyu (tea ceremony) tradition)
the new way of tea (an asia society exhibition)

drink deep!
jeanne

musing this morning...

...on the nature of transcendence...
















ascent
scanned and altered polaroid image
january 19, 2006

...and the flavor of a new tea...

egyptian licorice mint, from yogi tea

resources for this morning's journey

susheela raman, salt rain (cd)
gaston bachelard, poetics of space
the zen calendar
yogi tea

savor the journey!
jeanne

musing this morning...

...on the nature of consciousness...

perhaps
she sculpts electric goddesses
floating...
shimmering...
flowering in the dark
like psychedelic metaphors...

a tea for the journey

blueberry bliss, from london fruit and herb company

be well,
jeanne

musing this morning...

... on the nature of perception...















library altar
scanned and altered polaroid image
january 3, 2006

while recalling a wonderful white tea...

honeysuckle white (from the republic of tea)

resources for the journey

buddha project resource guide (2004)

best wishes,
jeanne

oracle (an experiment)...

patterns appear in inner and outer worlds, brought into being through the interplay of random elements and conscious mind. this has always interested me. as have the epiphanies that arise from encounters at the margins and interstices of existence...

engaging with priciples of change, interdependence and synchronicity, i've been exploring ever-increasing levels of the random, in search of insight into the dynamics of experience.

the process begins with oracular (i ching) readings, which are mediated through the alchemy of observation, discussion, reflection and dream... this leads to images and to sets of words, which, as strings entered into a search engine, generate fragmented soliloquies from the random thoughts of the world wide web.

i do not claim authorship of these streams of thought: they are assemblages of the words of many, coming together in a particular moment through the process of inquiry.

i find them compelling...

(i repeat myself... the above text was written in 2001 for oracle, which began as part of conceptvessel, and edited today for thisconceptvessel... a new oracle, alchemy, was posted yesterday, january 1, 2006...)

alchemy/the cauldron

alchemy evolved along with thisconceptvessel, after a july 7, 2005 reading of the i ching resulted in:







50: ting/the cauldron
above: the clinging, fire
below: the gentle, penetrating, wind
... which led me to thoughts of cauldrons, to the relationship between conceptvessel and cauldron, and to a deeper contemplation of alchemical processes...

this has been a six-month process, involving much unconscious and conscious activity, and many, many pots of tea...

i'll return to thoughts of the cauldron, to bachelard's water and dreams, and to the connections between them, soon...

... in this alchemical vessel...

a few resources for the journey

oracle (on conceptvessel.net)
wilhelm/baynes, the i ching or book of changes

and remembering tea...

pure one, organic green tea from the mountains of taiwan (pale green heaven, imported by a friend)

be well,
jeanne