The Two Guardians of the World

The two guardians of the world – the bright states that protect the world – moral shame and moral fear.

The Buddha shared that a sense of shame and the fear of blame are two bright states that protect the world. Having a sense of shame means that we refrain from doing evil because we do not want to harm ourselves. It is because we wish to preserve our self-respect that we develop a sense of shame. We wish to be respected by others, so we develop the fear of blame.

When there is a leader who does not ask his predecessor to give him advice of how to govern, he will rule according to his own opinion which sets the stage for a decline in morality and consequently the quality of peoples’ lives. If we look at the world today, the two guardians of the world are fading away.

We have stories of immoral characters who go unpunished.

We begin to see and hear of increasing violence in its manifestation of negation of others, verbal and physical abuse, threats, power and control, and murder.

There are increasing rigid polarizations within families, between friends, and among neighbors and strangers.

There are reports of increasing incidents of racism.

There is a growing absence of social governance and increasing incidents of lawlessness; as well as, a growing sense of distrust, fear, anger, isolation, and sadness.

Looking to find resolution we find that government figures are more concerned with winning votes than with governing.

Some religious leaders seem ready to do almost anything to accommodate their followers while others resort to fanaticism.

What are the variables that can begin to nudge us out of this time of discontent? Faith, virtue, a sense of shame, the fear of blame, mindfulness, concentration, wisdom, compassion, and/or loving-kindness?

~reference: The Two Guardians of the World

lens-artists: designs and shapes

Well…this week’s lens-artists challenge is, indeed, a challenge. While visiting a number of lens-artists’ post I sense that this challenge is one of joyful engagement. I, on the other hand, am stumped. It must be like speaking/writing English with limited understanding of grammar … that is, if it sounds right then it must be clear, coherent, and effective communication. Yes, no, maybe?

So I went to Google and engaged a question and answer session with AI. AI tells me that shapes in photography are geometric (circles, squares, triangles) and organic. Shapes define composition, create structure and evoke emotion.

Photography design is the art of using core principles like balance, contrast, and emphasis, along with elements like, shape, and color to create visually compelling images.

While my photography is guided by an understanding of various elements of photography, the major guiding tool is … yep, the subjective experience.

Thank you Tina (Travels and Trifles) for this challenge.

P.S. AI defines subjective experience as …an individual’s personal, internal, and first-person perspective of consciousness, encompassing unique sensations, feelings, and interpretations of the world. Unlike objective events that can be observed by others…

the field outside my window…

Outside my window looking eastward is a field …once a hay field that silently told stories of seasonal changes. My favorite was during time of haying as it awakened childhood memories of harvesting … especially of those times of baling.

All of this ended when the construction of a new housing development began with dust and noise and then the absence of the hawk soaring through the late afternoon sky. After that it became a time of remembering when I was 7, and the sense of okay-ness to wander over to work sites accompanied with childhood curiosity, “what ya doin’?” during the beginning stages of construction.

Then … the clock towers ... of importance, of course, was the building of the tower right across the street and questions about possible blocking of the eastern horizon’s dawn. So a shift from my year long photo project from …

the morning’s sun north to south – south to north travels to a focus on a section of the horizon – away from the clock tower which began to look like a prison guard tower.

Yet, this morning as I pulled the drapes open with joyful anticipation suddenly silenced by …

lens-artists: last chance

This week artists Tina (Travels and Trifles) invites artists to share “those images you’ve loved over the past 12 months, but have not yet shared.”

Reviewing photographs created over the year confirmed that the majority of images posted on WordPress were part of a skyscape project, Dawning … beginning anew.

Each image within the photo book Dawning … beginning anew is a telling of the sun’s seasonal movements along the eastern horizon and the circular messages of spring, summer, autumn, and winter. The most dynamic is the ongoing changes, moment-to-moment … the multiple variables that paint the sky’s canvas.

So with this in mind, I decided to share the healing moments within the circular process of grief’s darkness to a renewal of life found within each dawn’s first light to its sun rise on this day … Winter Solstice.

summer solstice

The images above begin with the transition from today’s first light to dawn and then the beginning of winter solstice.

Winter Solstice messages the triumph of light over darkness, tells of the gradual return of longer days and stories the promise of renewed life.

For me the cherished moments … the aweness within the art of photography is seeing the world through a camera’s lens and hearing the click of the shutter. The rest is just a delightful dance with possibilities and a constant reminder, “you can’t make a bad photograph good, but you can make a good photograph bad.”

May your holiday be filled with the gifts of freedom within peace, joy, and love.

brenda

contemplative photography – flash of perception

“… sudden gaps in the flow of mental activity … suddenly you see …

“When the flow of ordinary mental activity is interrupted, mind and eye stop … your surroundings appear vividly. This is what we call flash of perception. …”*

*Andy Karr and Michael Wood, The Practice of Contemplative Photography

reweaving within grieving

the uncertainty within grief’s reweaving memories…

The personal story is a narrative of our unique sense of identity.  We create our identities through the stories we weave onto a tapestry that is formed against the background of our family mythologies. We pull threads from of an assemblage of recalled details from our pasts and weaved them into images that cast us in whatever role corresponds with our current situations, feelings, thoughts, or actions. The colored threads of this tapestry are often re-embroidered to reflect the creative and dynamic process of our perspectives as we shift in, out, and between various roles, feeling states, and cognitions.  As we reflect on our self-created images we are in turn affected by them; therefore, there is an unconscious re-weaving of our tapestries. ~The Meditative Journey with Saldage