"Longya's Thief in an Empty Room" from Eihei Dogen's 300 Koan Shobogenzo

The Main Case - A monastic asked Zen master Judan of Longya (Zhankong), "When do the teachers of old get stuck?" Longya said, "When the thief slips into an empty room."

Capping verse - When the mind is empty, the eyes are finally clear. Shining through detachment and subtlety--the root of creation.


Just to avoid any confusion or misunderstanding between you, the reader, and myself, the writer, I’ll make it clear right off the bat: for me, ideas, concepts, and theory are not methods for acquiring objective knowledge but rather catalysts for subjective experience of life; my life; anyone's life. While I admit I’m not averse to being able to posit a thesis that many can agree on, what’s more important to me is to instigate reflection. Similar to the manner in which a koan operates, activating consciousness of premises, assumptions, and prejudices in a dialectic process leading to the emptiness of knowing, so I hope to illuminate my subjects, not by shedding light on them, but by casting shadows, tracing their forms in darkness, in silhouette relief, to know them only by inference, by what they are not. My tools? Arbitrarily constructed in language and consciously divided for the sake of an intellectual pursuit: my mind (reason and awareness), my body (instinct and corporeality), and my spirit (presence and desire).

Friday, January 28, 2011

Sometimes it just happens.


Sometimes it just happens.

I take a lot of photos. Too many, in fact. There are probably only about four or five that I’m genuinely proud of. Or maybe pride is the wrong way to think about it. That would mean I’m in control. If I feel this, it’s just a feeling, and that’s all.

Am I with the image, the moment? Is that what’s happening? Am I merely there to witness its existence, passing in an instant?

Or is it something that’s between the too-active of the former and too-passive of the latter? Do I allow myself to notice certain things, to position myself in a certain relation to the world that I’m not actually separate from, no matter how clear the division is in my head?

I look. I notice. I feel for how open I want to be in this relationship (aperture and shutter speed).

I frame. I open the shutter. And something clicks…


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