Pictures Revealing Reality

        A picture or photograph is not “reality,” of course. We know that. And yet some “pictures,” especially when it’s all we’re seeing, are more revelatory than others. Windows into reality we may glimpse—if we take for real what is true, the essence, even the mystery at the heart of life. 

“When we look into the heart of a flower, we see clouds, sunshine, minerals, time, the earth, and everything else in the cosmos in it. Without clouds, there could be no rain, and there would be no flower. Without time, the flower could not bloom. In fact, the flower is made entirely of non-flower elements; it has no independent, individual existence. It ‘inter-is’ with everything else in the universe… When we see the nature of inter-being, barriers between ourselves and others are dissolved, and peace, love, and understanding are possible. Whenever there is understanding, compassion is born. (Thich Nhat Hanh, Living Buddha, Living Christ, p. 11)

        When I’m attentive, scouting through our window panes for certain slants of light, then when taken outside, and bending for a different framing, for a composition that recognizes an image planted inside by the great Mystery, then Truth takes my hand along the pathway, teaching, loving.

        Playing with the raw image also offers further windows. Searching shadows may realize a hidden, finer beauty. Adding contrast leads into the dynamic of opposites, increasing appreciation for each dimension, and more for the inevitable connection, like a vortex swirling sorrow and joy into beyond-words texture of the Divine.

“Background” holds and highlights.

The center of attraction deserves special focus and still its value depends on caring for the context, always shifting, adjusting to the light of that moment. The mystics try to guide us into special, moveable meanings as we move from station to station. Even love has a panoply of shadings.

“Moses’ searching refers to ‘rising to perfection (taraqqiy ila al-kamal). . . through the pursuit of the sacred intellect (al-‘aql al-qudsi).’ Al-Qashani’s idiom here evokes, but extends beyond al-Qushayri’s and Ruzbihan’s articulations of ‘divine inspiration’ and ‘perfect gnosis.’ ‘Retracing their steps,’ refers for Al-Qashani to two realities: (1) ‘rising to the station of the original nature’ (maqam al-fitra al-ula); and (2) rising to perfection until finding the sacred intellect. . . The sacred intellect. . . has been ‘specially selected with the virtue of caring (‘inaya) and mercy (rahma).’ That mercy is spiritual perfection: immaterial, indivisibly sacred and pure light. These qualities are all signs (athar) that the sacred intellect, personified by al-Khidr, is close and intimate. Al-Qashani, following al-Qushayri and Ruzbihan, interprets, ‘And We taught him knowledge from Our presence’ (18:65) to mean a sacred, inner knowledge given without the mediation of a human teacher (ta-lim bashari). Al-Qashani suggests, but does not stress, that this knowledge is unteachable.” (Hugh Talat Halman, Where the Two Seas Meet, p. 183)