Thursday, November 29, 2007

GREAT NATURE / UPPER SKAGIT INDIAN TRIBE / SEMIAHMOO RESORT IN BLAINE, WASHINGTON / MIND OR HAND?

This is where I stayed on Thanksgiving night, a wonderful place owned by the Upper Skagit Indian Tribe. Although some of the rooms facing the water to the west are very expensive, I stayed in the least expensive room, a cozy and comfortable room on the fourth floor, looking east toward the mountains, the rising moon, and the sunrise.











































































































































































These days human beings have forgotten what religion is. They have forgotten a peculiar love which united their human nature to Great Nature. This love has nothing to do with human love. Standing in the midst of nature you feel this love of Great Nature . . . . Zen students must experience this peculiar love. This is religion.
(Sokei-An)
















The hand that guides the brush has already caught and executed what floated before the mind at the same moment the mind began to form it, and in the end the pupil no longer knows which of the two -- mind or hand -- was responsible for the work.
(Eugen Herrigel)

("Painting in America," by Old Girl Of The North Country, from the early 1980s)

One last thing.

4 comments:

The Dream said...

That is an amazing quote - indeed, when I am "in the zone", it is prayer and meditation. GREAT pictures! What a lovely place to spend Thanksgiving!

Loren said...

Sounds like that quote fits perfectly with the Taoist literature I'm currently reading, am.

Anonymous said...

thanks for photos, i lived on Drayton Harbor when the spit was an abandoned plant owned by Alaska Packers, my favorite memory is the loons and their calls slipping through the fog. kjm

robin andrea said...

Your photos are beautiful, am. This looks like a wonderful place to spend Thanksgiving. The quotes you choose are always so precisely right on and interesting. I don't know what you are reading, but it's always mind-expanding.