More thoughts on paying attention...

   On my first trip to the Burren region of County Clare in Ireland in 2007 I was in a very different place, photographically speaking, than I am now.  It was the landscape itself, specifically the limestone pavings of this place, that set me on a completely new way of relating to the world.

   I spent a day walking over the limestone and getting down on my stomach to explore the spaces in between.  I became fascinated by these little environments where life, seemingly miraculously in some cases, sprung up and thrived.

   I knew I had to record them in color and it was the first time I worked seriously on an image in this way.  It came about because I decided to pay attention to the small view rather than the large view, the later of which this region in famous for.

   Paying attention takes time.  A lot of time.   You can't be in a hurry and you can't worry about "wasting" your precious time in a place.  That is so easy to do when you are on holiday and have a limited amount of time to spend in a given area.  I suppose that's why returning, as I did to the Burren in 2009 and 2014, is so valuable.  You've done the "big" things and can now spend more time with the "little" things.

   So, it makes it all the more important to me that on that first trip, when there was so much to see and explore, that I took the day, the whole day, to look down instead of out.  With hindsight I can say that it has made all the difference...

You might also like to read this original post on Paying Attention from February 6, 2013 ...

Paying Attention

What is it you notice?

life is a garden,
not a road
we enter and exit
through the same gate
wandering,
where we go matters less
than what we notice 
 ~ Bokonon  


   I love this passage by the fictitious character in Kurt Vonnegut's novel, Cat's Cradle.  I think it is a wonderful way to look at life.  It is especially profound to think of ourselves entering and exiting from the same gate...like the labyrinth.  But unlike the labyrinth, in life we wander by no particular path...in no particular direction.  The only thing that matters is what we notice.  In many ways, we are define by our noticing.

   The quality of my noticing is what I work on every time I walk out with my camera.  Every visual listening exercise I do, every moment I'm in the landscape I ask myself a simple question...What are you really paying attention to?  And perhaps more soul revealing, Why? 

    Here is a little visual listening exercise to try:

• Find a comfortable place to sit.  You'll need your journal for this exercise.
• Spend a few moments quieting your mind.  I always close my eyes for this.  A few deep breaths and then focus yourself on your senses, other than your eyes.
• What do you smell?  What do you hear?  Is there a breeze?  Can you feel the sun on your skin?
• After a few minutes of this quieting exercise, open your eyes and let them wander around the landscape.  As Bokonon suggests, it isn't important where your eyes wander, only what you notice.
• At some point, your mind will say "Stop!  Look at this!"  It is important not to question or pronounce judgement on what you have noticed.
• Write in your journal, in one word, the thing that drew your attention.  Tree, rock or cloud...just one word.
• Under this word write three words that describe this "thing".  Single, descriptive words.
• Next to each of these words, write a few words that would finish the sentence and further enhance your understanding of the object.  Here is an example:

Leaf

Orange as a fire's glow

Vibrant, are you trying to be seen?

Alone in grey, bare branch

• Try this with a few other "things" that draw your attention.  Now look at your collection of  observations.  What can you tell about the quality of your noticing? What draws your attention?  
• Now you can pick up your camera and see where this exercise may lead you.  What do you want to remember through your photographs? Why?

   This exercise will lead you to a heightened awareness of the landscape.  It is a little like going to a party where you do not know anyone.  Some people will draw you in; others will not.  Some you will immediately feel comfortable with, others not so much.  No judgement, it just is.  You can't know everyone at the party but the few you do meet you should give your full attention while you are with them.  The landscape is no different.  If you come back another day, you will meet a whole new cast of characters and you must, again, give each your full attention.  You photographs will reflect that intimacy.

Pause, Focus, Connect

Connections

   During our contemplative weekend on Star Island over Labor Day, workshop leader, Kim Manley Ort encourage participants to follow a three step approach to their camera work...Pause, Focus and Connect.  I've been thinking a lot about this process of approaching the landscape since.

   PAUSE:  It is very hard to make photographs on the run yet so many people seem in such a hurry to get from here to there.  Pausing allows you to take in your surroundings.  You can try this little exercise I did at the pond awhile back.  Take ten (or 20 or 15) steps and stop...wherever you find yourself.  Even if it doesn't, at first, seem very appealing.  Spend time really looking around yourself...up, down, right, left, forward and back.

FOCUS:  On our Star Island retreat, I introduced people to my visual listening exercise.  This co-ordinates very nicely with Kim's encouragement to focus in on one part of the landscape.  What drew your attention?  What about this fascinates you?

CONNECT:   This is the moment when you forge a relationship, a more intimate embrace of what you at first merely witnessed.  This is the contemplative portion of the equation.  Traditional photographers, I believe, stop at the "focus" stage.  They literally focus the camera's lens, make the photograph and move on.  But the connection part is very important to me.  It allows me to move from the witness role to become more of a partner with the landscape.  The resulting image is really a co-creation.

   There are many ways to connect and it must really happen in the gut more than in the brain.  A recent article I read about the dynamics of a forest's web of connection made it more concrete to me.  In it, forest ecologist Suzanne Simard reveals how the trees communicate with other plants through this underground network.  It was mind boggling to say the least.  Now, when I get to the "connect" stage in my walk, I feel like I am part of that amazing web of communication.

    I encourage you to try this process when next you are out in the landscape and check out Kim's website for more information.

Tree Communication

Seen and Received

   I attended the Harvest Festival at the Sabbathday Lake Shaker village this past weekend.  What started out as a dreary cold morning ended in a glorious warm afternoon infused with that lovely light I love so much.

   This is a detail of a book in the gift shop which is a compilation of Shaker drawings. (You can learn about the Shakers here...)  I loved the title, "Seen and Received".  I have often written on this blog that I don't "take" or "make" photographs, I "receive" them.  I felt it very profoundly here in the village and it became the focus of my afternoon's camera work.

   The village was crowded with visitors enjoying the freshly made apple cider and all the activities of the day.  I did as well but I sat for awhile, a bit apart, to just breath in the beauty of the light on the facades of the pristine white buildings.  Receiving images requires quiet and stillness.  It doesn't come in a crowd.

   Because of the large numbers of people, my eyes naturally rose above their heads and I photographed the buildings from that viewpoint..looking up and out.

   The message to me was clear.  Above the happy hub bub of the day there was the serenity and quiet I always seek, wherever I am.  It is always there, even amongst the liveliest crowd.  Sitting quietly for a time allowed me to receive the images that I needed to receive.  It was the act of pausing that allowed me to forge that connection to this unique landscape.

   Seeing is one thing, receiving into your consciousness the meaning and message of the landscape is quite another.  The Shakers believed their drawings were gifts which they made visible through what they called their spirit drawings.  I think of my photographs as gifts as well.  What they did in their drawings I attempt to do through the lens of my camera.

   I will return to the village in early December for their Christmas Festival and to stock up on their wonderful herbal products the sale of which helps support continue restoration and preservation of the village. There are only three Shakers left, Sister Francis, Sister June and Brother Arnold.  They have put the 1800 acres of the village into a permanent land trust so this beautiful and tranquil landscape will endure for generations to come.  It is an endeavor I am happy to support in any way I can for I receive far more here than I give.

Settling into a Heightened Sense of Awareness....

   I always get such wisdom and inspiration from the daily meditations from Fr. Richard Rohr, the
founding director of the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

   I tried one of his exercises at the pond which, in many ways, is what I try to do with my visual listening exercises.  The first thing I notice was the rusty red tone of the sand along the water's edge.  I hadn't really noticed it before as I was usually focused on the sky reflections on the surface of the water.  It is probably a manifestation of the high levels of iron that can be found in this area but it was the color that drew me in and made me stay and look deeper.  Here is the exercise you might like to try yourself...

Rest: Practicing Awareness

   With your senses (not so much your mind), focus on one single object until you stop fighting it or resisting it with other concerns. The concrete is the doorway to the universal. This should lead to an initial calmness in your body and mind.

Surface Tension

   You must choose not to judge the object in any way, attach to it, reject it as meaningless, like it or dislike it. This is merely the need of the ego to categorize, control, and define itself by preferences.      

   You will thus learn to appreciate and respect things in and for themselves, and not because they profit or threaten you. This should lead to a kind of subtle, simple joy in the object and within yourself.

   “Listen” to the object and allow it to speak to you. Speak back to it with respect and curiosity. You thus learn to stop “objectifying” things as merely for your own consumption or use. You are learning to allow things to speak their truth to you as a receiver instead of the giver. 

  This will lead to the beginnings of love for the object and a sense of loving kindness within yourself.  A kind of contented spaciousness and silence will normally ensue. This is a form of non-dual consciousness. The concrete, loving consciousness of one thing leads to pure consciousness or “objectless consciousness” of all things.

Adapted from The Naked Now: Learning to See as the Mystics See,
pp. 170-171

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Footnote:

    The Fr. Rohr's book, The Naked Now, is a favorite of mine.  It has helped me a great deal in honing my visual listen skills and I recommend it as required reading for all contemplative photographers.

Opening up the Conversation...

   Images have the power to open up a conversation with your soul.  They trigger thoughts, memories, and tickle the hidden parts of ourselves in sometimes unexpected ways.

   I had my first SoulCollage® workshop recently and I was so moved by how people responded to the cards they made.  The cards revealed things that were lying just underneath their conscious minds...things that needed to see the light of day.  The image made that possible.

   Having conversations with my images is a crucial part of my practice of contemplative photography.  Welcoming the landscape into the dialogue, letting it actually start the conversation that my camera will follow up on, is also essential for me.

   Meditating on a simple image of rain drops and delicate vines is a soothing way to settle into this kind of deep reflection that follows the image gathering.  I am always amazed, like the people at the SoulCollage® workshop, at where these conversations lead.  Sometimes they take on a life of their own!  Whatever needs to be said out loud will be said if we allow the image to speak to us rather than impose our ego on the image.  Visual listening can take place in the landscape or within the image itself.

You can read the third installment of my Threshold Pilgrimage on A Sacred Journey here. ( And you can see one of the SoulCollage® cards I brought along on the trip!)

The Landscape as Silent Witness...

    Today I end a four day retreat on becoming a facilitator for SoulCollage®. It has been a wonderful experience. As I continue my study of SoulCollage®, I am beginning to forge connections in the process of creating the cards to my process of practicing contemplative photography and that is very exiting for me. One of the trans-personal cards you create for your SoulCollage® deck is the Witness card...mine is on the right.
   The Witness is defined as pure consciousness...

...a place to step into and detach.  It has no form, it has no shadow, and it is silent.

SoulCollage® Evolving, page 15

   Witness is also described as a mirror...never judging, merely reflecting back to us.  I realized as I read these words that this is, in many ways, how I view the landscape I photograph.  It is the great and silent witness and anything we might see can only be a reflection of what we bring to the experience.

   When we bring our fixed ideas and prejudices into the landscape, that is what we will see reflected back to us.  If I begin to see the landscape as the silent witness I can open up a channel of deep connection with it for I try to be a silent witness too, especially during my visual listening exercises.  Open, accepting, non-judgmental.  I truly begin to  embrace the idea that what I stare into is, to paraphrase Rumi, also staring into me!

   This is a whole different way to view the landscape.  It is not a passive, dead space but a living reflection of divine manifestation.  It has its own energy and can interact with us on a spiritual level.  I can't "prove" this scientifically.  I can only understand it on a experiential level.  I  know that when I am in the landscape and fully open to this energy I feel it most profoundly.  Then the encounter becomes a kind of co-mingling of energy.  When that happens I sometimes forget to pick up the camera altogether!   It is enough to just be there soaking it all in.

Internalizing the Landscape...

When you really gaze at

something, you bring

it in inside you.

- John O'Donohue

   I thought our winter weary souls could use a bit of a fragrant reminder of warmer days!  I have been photographing flowers in the past year, something I never did much in my exclusively black and white days.  This one is an image I made nine years ago and which I'd converted to black and white.  I went back to the original file and looked at it in color.  It was like seeing it again for the first time!

  (This is a reminder to always photograph in color even if you intend to convert it to black and white later.)

   My visual listening exercises are really about my attempt to somehow internalize the landscape...to bring it deep inside myself as John suggests.  This cannot be done with a cursory glance...the fleeting look...but only with the intensely focused gaze.  It really is the difference between looking and beholding.  Staring into the lovely face of a flower is a wonderful thing to do.  I remember how richly scented this one was, its large, velvety soft petals.  I am more intimately connected to the landscape if I embrace it with all my senses, not just my eyes.

   I really urge you to take your time and forge a connection with the landscape anyway you can. It may include merely sitting quietly or you may be guided by inspirational readings or you may, like I like to do from time to time, draw.  Drawing, for me, makes a direct connection between myself and the landscape. I physically touch and translate its contours and textures onto the paper.  It's not about creating works of art by any means, it's about creating relationship.   Learn to internalize the landscape and your images will benefit from this interconnectedness.

A Visual Listening Checklist...

  I think the part of my practice as a contemplative photographer that I am questioned most about is my visual listening exercises.  For me, contemplation is something I do before and after the actual photographing.  While I am engaged with making the photographs I turn to a more intuitive mindset.

  What I mean by "visual listening" is that I'm using my eyes as the ears of my heart...to hear what the landscape has to say to me by the images I am drawn to.  As I said in a previous post, "light is the language of the landscape" and that can only be 'heard' through the eyes.

    The way I look at and engage the landscape effects the quality of the experience I have with it. So these visual listening exercises are very important for me.  I try to switch off my brain, which can be very judgmental and rational, and turn on the heart's sonar system.  It scans the landscape for visual clues.  Anything I can do to slow down will help this process.

   I thought it might be helpful for those who wish to try this way of easing into their location to have a checklist to follow.  Keep in mind, however, that these are my ways of establishing a link to the landscape and are not the only ways...just a starting point.


I.     Find a comfortable place to sit.

II.   Close your eyes and just listen to the sounds of the place you are in.

III.  With your eyes still closed, take in the scents...touch things around you...make physical contact with the landscape.

IV.   Open your journal and record your first impressions.  Do not edit them...do not think too deeply about it...just record your initial reactions.  Let this play itself out for as long as it takes.

V.    Sketch if you like.  This step allows me to slow down and take in the essential elements of the landscape but isn't absolutely necessary.  These are not meant to be "fine art" just intuitive and spontaneous doodles.  You can make notes right on the sketch as well...like a visual journal.

VI.   What draws your eye? Now you can take out your camera and do some photographic "sketches". Look up, down, left, right and behind.  Use vertical as well as horizontal formats. Try not to think too much about it at this stage.

VII.  I often return to the journal and continue my thoughts on paper.  If I've brought something to read or listen to, something to inspire me further, I will do it at this time.

VIII. Now, put everything down, take a deep breath and just listen...give the landscape a chance to filter into your heart.  This time can last for several minutes.  Now is the time to do more serious photo-making if you want.  You will know when it is time to get up and move.

IX.   See where the landscape leads you and gather "breadcrumbs" as you walk.  When you feel the need, sit down and rest, reflect, listen.

X.    Take out your journal/sketch and make further notes on things that seem important for you to remember about this place.  If you can, try returning to this location at a different time of day or in different weather and see if there is more to learn here.  One thing I often do as I leave a place is to stop, turn and look back.  Last looks can be powerful.

   I hope this checklist will aid in your endeavor to forge a meaningful link with the landscape.  Through it you can realize the divine presence in all created things in your own unique way.  For at the end of the day, the whispers we receive are meant for our ears only.  We will hear what our soul most needs to hear at that moment.

   Consider joining Kim Manley Ort and yours truly over Labor Day weekend for a Contemplative Photography retreat on Star Island in the Isles of Shoals off the coast of Portsmouth, New Hampshire.  I will lead a morning teaching in the techniques of Visual Listening and Visual Journaling.  You will be able to practice this concept in a truly unique location aided by a personal guided meditation journal which you will receive.  Check out the link in the right side bar.

Insights from the Edge...

      Sometimes when I am in a landscape that is new to me, I feel a bit like I am standing on the edge...yearning to move into the meaning and message of the place but hesitant to do so.

   It is like when you go to a party, as many of us will do this holiday season, and know very few of the other guests.  You may stay on the edge of the room, scanning the crowd for a familiar face.  In doing so you might miss the interesting stranger standing right by your side.

   It is human nature to seek the familiar and safe experience.  It takes a trusting and adventurous soul to brave the unknown.

   Find a quiet place around your town that is not a place you usually visit.  Sit and settle in.  Spend some time re-adjusting to this new environment.  You might try the following visual listening sequence.  Journal your responses.

   I. What brought me here in the first place?  Did I seek it out intentionally or did I stumble upon it?  Both ways are meaningful.

   II.  What are my very first, unfiltered impressions?  Do any surprise me?  Do any trigger memories?  Do you feel any judgements seeking to draw you away from experiencing this place purely?

   III. What here feels most "unknown" to me?  This place has something to teach you...what do you imagine it to be?  Are there metaphors to be seen?  Take your time and look beneath the surface.

  After asking and answering those questions, follow your instinctual and intuitive impulses.  Let the power of the location (and all locations have power.  There are no insignificant landscapes.) draw you away from the edge into a centered place.  Do not be a bystander...open your heart and your mind to the experience.

Nature's Subliminal Messages...

Connections

   Back in the 1950's there was a big scandal when it was learned that advertisers on the new medium television were imbedding subliminal messages into  their advertising to increase consumer buying of their products.  The research on the effectiveness of subliminal messages in advertising is still debated but I want to employ this idea to the practice of contemplative photography.

   The word subliminal means "below the threshold of conscious awareness". We may not be conscious of it but some part of our brain is.  This information becomes part of our minds storehouse and, over time,  repetition of a message can subtly influence our thoughts and perceptions.  Now I have no scientific evidence to back up this statement, only personal, experiential evidence.

   In our interaction with the natural world there is a subliminal message underlying our encounters. It is the whole basis of contemplative photography for me.  This is not as far fetched as it may, at first, seem.   This subliminal understanding occurs because of the invisible thread of connectivity that exists between all of creation.  On some plane of existence we all communicate with each other even if we are unaware of it.  Some people are simply more adept at it than others and the practice of contemplative photography nurtures it.

   Harvard researcher, Howard Gardner , postulates 9 forms of intelligence.  The 8th and 9th, ones he didn't add until years after his initial book Frames of Mind was published in 1983, are natural intelligence and existential intelligence.  Natural intelligence is the kind of intelligence we all had at one time and which manifests itself most clearly now in native peoples.  They don't know how they know things about the natural world, the plants and animals, the patterns found in the weather, for instance, they just know it.  These individuals, in my opinion, are the ones who can hear very clearly the subliminal messages of nature.  Existential intelligence is present in people who seem to have a spiritual insight that is more highly developed than the rest of us.  They have the ability and the need to ponder the weightier issues of life, death, and Man's ultimate purpose on earth.

   I did my masters work at Harvard in the late 1970's when Gardner was formulating his theory of multiple intelligences.  It was a very exciting time to study there. His theories made so much sense to me back then and they still do especially as I delve deeper and deeper into contemplative photography.  In fact, these two intelligences, natural and existential, are what contemplative photographers seek to nurture in their practice.  Perhaps, if contemplative photography was made required study in our schools, we could raise a generation of children who could easily tune into the subliminal messages of nature and wouldn't that be a wonderful thing!

  Here is a short video that explains 8 of the multiple intelligences. The 9th, Existential Intelligence is still controversial and research continues to determine if it should or shouldn't be included in the list.

Multiple Intelligences

  

  

   

Reviewing the Practice of Visual Listening...

6:40 am - Pembroke, Maine

   At the core of my practice of contemplative photography is visual listening.  It is the practice of preparing myself to engage with the landscape.  It might be helpful to those who are new to the idea of using photography as a contemplative practice to review this concept of visual listening.

   Although,initially, I want to quiet my mind to remove distractions and focus my attention, it is important to note that I am not trying to empty my mind of all thought.  Besides being pretty nearly impossible to achieve, it is not, in fact, a desirable state for the contemplative photographer.

   Visual Listening is an interactive form of mediation, not a passive one.  After all, the word meditation comes from the Greek word medesthai,  which means "to think about" or "to care for".  It requires a focused but engaged mind.

6:40 pm -  Pembroke, Maine

   Visual listening demands that you look into the landscape and try to hear its message - not with your eyes and ears solely but with your eyes and ears linked through your heart.  You must not only see the landscape but feel it as well.

   You can use many methods to quiet your mind but once it is focused on what is there, directly in front of you, allow your mind to think about what you see and, probably more importantly, allow your heart to care about what you see.

   When both the mind and the heart are brought into harmony, you will have reached what Alfred Stieglitz called: "the moment of equilibrium".  Now you can begin to receive your images...

Hindsight, Foresight...What about Nowsight?

   Visual listening is all about cultivating our "nowsight".   Before you say it, yes, I know nowsight isn't even a word.  That, I think, is the whole problem.  We spend so much of our time looking back or looking forward that the now escapes us.  With visual listening, we calm the wandering mind and focus our attention on the right here, right now, right before our eyes.  Of all contemplative photography concepts, this is the one most people have the hardest time with.

Yellow Flower, Yellow Flower, Yellow Flower....

   Becoming nowsightful (another "non-word", I do love making up words!) is learning to see in the present moment only what is in front of you. It would seem so easy to do but, in fact, our monkey minds are rarely stilled to this degree. Meditation certainly helps but when you are walking around in a landscape this can be difficult to pull off.

    One way I try to stay in the nowsightful mind is through mind journaling, saying out loud what I would write down if I wasn't in motion. I will say a word or phrase that describes something right in front of me like "tall grass".  As I proceed through the tall grass I repeat it until I come to another area, then I'll change my mantra..."rocky road, rocky road, rocky road".   Of course, you don't have to say it out loud, just chant it in your mind.  Probably a better idea if you aren't totally alone; you don't want people to think you've taken complete leave of your senses!  If you are describing, verbalizing, something right in front of you and repeating it over and over, your mind will focus on that one idea alone. It will be less prone to wander away to what you might have for dinner tonight.  Mind journaling keeps me nowsightful.

   Christine Valters Painter wrote a lovely post for this blog about quieting the mind...read or re-read it here.  I also wrote a post, Cultivating the Quiet Mind with ideas you might find useful.  You can refer to that post here.  Finally, below you will find an interesting article and short video about the benefits of stilling the monkey mind...

How to Focus the Wandering Mind

Shifting Perceptions...

   I'm teaching for the month of July and I made this study of the clouds while I waited for the custodian to open the door of the school.  It reminded me of the time, years ago, that I took my class of first graders out behind the school to lay in the grass and look at the shifting clouds.  We were studying the painter Constable I think.

   Now, it made me think of the subtly shifting perceptions we have as contemplative photographers.  Our mood, and therefore, our visual perceptions, changes from day to day even moment to moment.  When you are in a particular "dark place" you will see, perhaps unconsciously, images that speak to that dark place.  This is actually a good thing.  Contemplative photography should speak to all of you; not just the sunny, happy you.

   It was a particularly good day for photographing clouds since the sun was greatly filtered so I poked my head out from time to time to see what was happening in the sky.  This really has the makings of a photographic series I think.  The sky can mirror our emotions with alarming accuracy and it would fill out journals with interesting observations.

   So much of contemplative photography comes from a sub-conscious level.  We are often completely unaware of it until we sit with our images and really look at them.

   To get back to  my little students looking at clouds...I remember asking them, "what made the clouds move?"  Of course they said the wind but then I asked them what made the wind move?  Then their unfetter imaginations kicked in and I got answers like "angels beating their wings" to "it's just magic!"  Ah, to be a six year old on a summer day!

The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.  -W.B. Yeats

Guided Meditation...

Passing into the Storm

   I've written extensively about my practice of "Visual Listening", something I do before I begin my camera work on location. This is simply my term for the guided meditation I engage in before I begin the Deep Play of the photographic experience. I want you to realize how simple I try to make this process. I think everyone needs to establish their own way of approaching this phase of contemplative photography but it is a crucial phase for me. In fact, I might go so far as to state that without some form of guided meditation, preparing your mind for receiving the images, there can be no true contemplative photography! Without this preparation, you are just on a "click and run" mission snatching fragments of the landscape and missing the essential truth of it.

    I sometimes just do a simple breathing meditation to quiet my mind but I often begin the process with an inspiring poem, a quote from a writer I admire or another written form that seems to have the possibility of generating a new way of regarding the world. Simply reading and re-reading the piece, perhaps narrowing it down to just a phrase or even a word, can induce a meditative state. Music is also a lovely way to guide your mediation. It serves to block extraneous noise in the environment that may distract your meditative mind. But use it with caution. The natural sounds of the landscape, wind and bird sound for instance, are very important to an understanding of the place so be careful not to block these sounds completely! If I use music, I am sure to turn it off and listen for these natural sounds as well. They are part and parcel of the landscape and can guide our thoughts (and our photographs) in the most unexpected ways. Once in a meditative frame of mind, I find I am more receptive to the whisperings of the landscape which I then record in my field journal. This is often simple, rambling "word trains" but whatever comes into my mind I record. Then and only then do I pick up my camera a begin to receive my images.

    However you chose to guide your visual listening experience, be sure that your primary objective is to enter into a shared experience with the landscape. You can visit the link below to explore other ways of employing guided mediation in your contemplative practice.

  

Head Space

Meditation and Photography...

   I written a lot about my idea of Visual Listening...a technique I use before I begin making photographs on location.   It is a form of meditation.  Minor White is known to have encouraged his students to meditate before they began their camera work as well.  Some people may find this difficult to imagine because they have a whole lot of misconceptions about what it means to "meditate" and conjure up all sorts of images of red robed monks and incense.

Reaching - 2011, Scotland

   Meditation can be done by anyone at anytime and in any situation.  There is no one way to do it any more than there is one way to make photographs.  You have to find a way that works for you.  I found the following list of pointers in a recent Huffington Post article and I'm passing them on to you. You can read the full article in the link below.  (I don't know how long the link will be active so I've included the summary points in this post.)

    Whether you call it meditation or visual listening or anything else, being still and completely present is essential for the contemplative photographer.

• Have no expectations. Sometimes the mind is too active to settle down. Sometimes it settles down immediately. Sometimes it goes quiet, but the person doesn't notice. Anything can happen.
• Be easy with yourself. Meditation isn't about getting it right or wrong. It's about letting your mind find its true nature.
• Don't stick with meditation techniques that aren't leading to inner silence. Find a technique that resonates with you. There are many kinds of mantra meditation, including the Primordial Sound Meditation practice taught at the Chopra Center. Or simply follow the in and out of your breathing, not paying attention to your thoughts at all. The mind wants to find its source in silence. Give it a chance by letting go.
• Make sure you are alone in a quiet place to meditate. Unplug the phone. Make sure no one is going to disturb you.
• Really be there. If your attention is somewhere else, thinking about your next appointment, errand or meal, of course you won't find silence. To meditate, your intention must be clear and free of other obligations.  - taken  from an Huffington Post article, March 11, 2013

 The 7 Myths of Meditation Busted!

  

Walking with Wonder...

   When I first moved to Maine nearly 18 years ago, I could walk in the woods behind my house and be in peaceful silence. (Except during hunting season during which time I NEVER walk in the woods!) I could always find a sheltered place where the noise of the modern world did not intrude on my thoughts.  Unfortunately, that's not the case now.  On the day I took this stroll in the woods and made these tiny studies of the forest floor I could hear the sounds of heavy equipment clearing a lot somewhere nearby and the noise from the wood splitting business down the road about a quarter mile away.  The surrounding mountains amplify noises to an astonishing degree.  It is just not as easy to find a truly quiet place anymore. I'm afraid I will have to go a bit farther afield in the future if I want to find a truly solitary place.

    This post is about seeking out, as much as it is possible, the quiet corners of your world to walk in silent wonder of the small details of nature.  I did manage a few photographs that day and I've included four here.  Now, if you are not familiar with Picasa, the free Google photo editing program you should down load it ASAP.  It offers a lot of simple techniques to enhance your images and I especially like this Polaroid format.  You can easily add notes to your image and keep a Nature journal of your walk.  The program crops the images into the familiar square format of the old Polaroids.  It is a fond memory of my childhood when my Father would record so much of our young lives with his ever present Polaroid camera.  I think the next time I travel I might try keeping a digital journal using this format.  It would also be great to put the images into an accordion book later on with my notes already added.  It is a great way to write your poem of images!

    All these images were made within fifteen feet of each other. I would walk a step or two and look closely and intently at the tiny world at my feet.  Everything caught my eye and seemed, somehow, miraculous to me.  To walk in wonder is a practice that all contemplative photographers should cultivate.  You certainly can't be in a hurry to get from "here to there"!  Remember, the point of the walk is not the destination but the walk itself and you don't have to hike the Appalachian Trail!  A simple saunter in a meaningful, nearby location will offer all the "photo ops" you could want.    Below are two thought provoking links along these lines that you may find interesting.  Truly quiet places are becoming increasingly rare in the world...such a pity.

           

Sound Walking

The Last Quiet Places

Training Your Third Eye...

   In Taoism, Third Eye Training allows the student to tune into the correct vibration of the universe by closing the eyes and focusing on a spot between the eyebrows.  In some traditions, the third eye is thought to be the soul's eye while our two normal seeing eyes connect only to our physical body.

   Fr. Richad Rohr, founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico, considers the third eye as a metaphor for non-dualistic thinking. For him, the first eye provides sensory input, the second eye relates to reason, meditation, and reflection and the third eye is the mystical gaze...building on the first two eyes but going much further.

   For a contemplative photographer, at least THIS contemplative photographer, the third eye is an absolute necessity for one to practice visual listening skills.  The soul's  eye perceives, and the heart's ear listen's...the two components of visual listening.  It is through this interchange of looking and listening that the contemplative photographer can enter into a  meaningful relationship with the landscape.

   I would even go as far as to say that it is the ONLY way to tap into the wisdom of the landscape.  Our normal ears hear only "noise"- a gulls screech, the wind in the trees or the sound of our footsteps on the path.  Our normal eyes see only color and shape and texture. If we rely exclusively on our normal senses, we may create decent photographs but they will stop far short of sensitive renderings of the spiritual sense of a given place. If you like, think of the creation of great contemplative photographs like having your Grandmother's famous recipe for spaghetti sauce...it's great because it is based on a complete understanding of the ingredients and their proper relationship to each other. Random vegetables, herbs and spices, regardless of how good they may look, will not make a great sauce without this practiced understanding of their qualities and inter-relationship but it's the love she puts into the effort that matters most.  Without that intangible element it's only sauce.

   So when you go out into the landscape, take some time training your third eye whether it be through meditation or visual listening techniques.  The time will be well spent.  

The Layered Landscape...

   In Western culture, we see the natural world as property.  Land is to be developed and made "productive" and more "valuable" as if it were neither of those things without the hand of Man interceding on its behalf!  As a contemplative photographer I must reject that mindset.  For me, the landscape is a living, breathing and layered experience.  It is overwhelmingly complex but capable of sparking stunning revelations in a person who embraces its many nuances.

   On the surface layer we have trees and rocks and plants and sea - the physicality of place.  For some people, perhaps most people, this is all it is.  Some places  may be more pleasing than others, some more appealing but they are all merely variations on the theme of "landscape".

   Just below this layer is the dynamic dance of all the creatures, including the human kind, that interact in an intimate give and take with landscape.  We have to look a bit deeper if we wish to see this splendid choreography at work but it is an important layer to appreciate and understand.

   At the deepest level is the pulsating essence of the landscape - its breathing in and out, its vital flow of energy and its essential and spiritual presence.  This is the level we can not "see" but only sense and it takes all our senses if we are to dig down to this layer.  We must taste it, smell it and touch it as well as see it and hear it but those five senses are still not enough.  We must try to awaken our third eye if we want to reach this level of understanding and intimate connection. (I'll talk more about the "third eye" in tomorrow's post.)

   Truthfully, I've reached that bottom layer only twice although I've sensed it countless times.  I reached that essential level once when I was on the Burren in County Clare Ireland in 2007 and once as I stood on the edge of the sea in a remote part of South Uist, Scotland in 2011.  They were both powerful experiences and the hope of another such encounter with the soul of the landscape is what keeps me motivated as a contemplative photographer.  I'm thankful, however, that it is a rare occurrence...it makes it, when it does happen, an even greater blessing.