Seeing Form as Form

Seeing Form as Form

What do you think

When you see the color red?

When you see a shadow?

When you see shiny silver?

When you see a shape?

Can you feel your feet on the ground

As you take each step?

Are you rushing forward,

Or can you appreciate right now?

Does the air touch your skin

In this very space?

Can you take in your experience

And slow down?

Does your mind label

Your every feeling?

Does a feeling arise

With every sight?

Every sound?

Every smell?

Where can freedom be found?

Red is just red

Green is just green

Shadow is just shadow

Silver is silver

Form is just form

The world is alien

The familiar is made new

What was dull is now fresh

The ordinary takes on a different quality

This is training to see 

Things as they actually appear

This week, I aspire to try this with my children:

1. Have cameras handy, with fresh batteries and space on memory cards.

2. Ask if they see anything they want to photograph.

3. Encourage them both to choose a photo to print at the end of the week.

A Photo Walk Together

Yesterday I invited our oldest son to go for a walk. We both brought our cameras. I told him I was doing a Miksang exercise called "sidewalks" and that the point was to look at the sidewalks and notice what's going on there. I made it about me and invited him to join me if he wanted. I said I'd be taking about fifteen photographs. He seemed curious. I said "does it sound boring?" He said "kind of." I prompted him with a question: what's there? I said that we don't normally pay attention to sidewalks and he said "you're not supposed to." I said that's our choice whether or not to pay attention to them. I said nobody decorates them or makes them all that interesting. He said yeah. He said "they're just for walking on, that's all." He took 16 photos, not all of sidewalks. Afterward, I thanked him for coming along with me and said I enjoyed his company. He smiled.

Here are a few of his photographs:

What’s a helpful piece of advice for working with kids? They might not immediately “get it” or even want to do what you're doing. That doesn’t mean it’s pointless to talk about it with them, or to have them along with you while you practice.

Cheers!