This is simply a detail shot of an alleyway near the Clear Mountain Zendo in Montclair. Zen is about increasing mindfulness, which includes noticing the little things. So here’s an alleyway with a lot of little things that you usually don’t notice.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
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Ah, a still, silent image that speaks so loudly.
Comment by spunkykitty — October 20, 2010 @ 10:02 am
Jim, What struck me about this picture is that the little things we don’t usually notice can be “beautiful” or “ugly.” Does this picture qualify as “ugly”? Maybe. Yet, maybe not. Are those graffiti paintings on the right wall? If so, perhaps the person(s) who put them there might consider them beautiful.
One time I saw a young man sitting and drawing something. I made it a point to notice what he was drawing as I passed by him. He was concentrating laboriouly over what would eventually become a graffiti painting somewhere. I remember thinking: Well, that’s probably going to make some people angry; on the other hand the labor, attention, and complete concentration he put into his work indicated that to him his work was a real labor of art. I’m sure beautiful to him.
Looking at the picture, I notice all the details of modern living concentrated in one picture: Electric meters, telephone wires, a security camera, downspouts to handle runoff from the roofs, chimneys, fire escapes, a plant growing in the shade in the back right of the picture by the building, and some plants growing along the building in the left forefront of the picture–to name just a few of the “little things” you catch in this picture. Someone commented to me that it “looks a little like India”–you catch the detrious of the urban landscape. Wow! In its own way a beautiful picdture. MCS
Comment by Mary S. — October 20, 2010 @ 1:45 pm