Consider the trees

Consider the trees which allow the birds to perch and fly away without either inviting them to stay or desiring them never to depart. If your heart can be like this, you will be near to the Way.
 

Zen saying

Won't let go

I remember
how seeing the shape of your mouth
that first time, I kept staring
until my blood turned to rain.

Some things take root
in the brain and just don’t
let go.
 

T.S. Eliot, Slow Dance

Are you there?

Except for the tacky setting...beautiful

Yes, I’ve seen the works of a great civilization; I’ve seen your skyscrapers, your subways, and your Internet cafés, but why have I yet to meet any of your civilized persons? I only encounter specialists, artists who know nothing of science, scientists who know nothing of art, philosophers who have no interest in God … and politicians who only know other politicians.

W.H. Auden on what an ancient Athenian would say while being led through NY today

Naked Nude

To be naked is to be oneself.

To be nude is to be seen naked by others

and yet not recognized as oneself.

A naked body has to be seen as an object

in order to become a nude.

Nakedness reveals itself.

Nudity is placed on display.

To be naked is to be without disguise.

To be on display is to have the surface

of one’s own skin,

the hairs of one’s own body,

turned into a disguise which,

in that situation, can never be discarded.

The nude is condemned to never being naked.

Nudity is a form of dress.

 John Berger, Ways of Seeing, Episode 2 (1972)

Nude Naked