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| The Pocock Diaries:
Scripts From An Open Heart Installment IV . . . Mary Pocock |
The Pocock Diaries is a work in progress - this is the fourth installment. If you missed installment I, 2 or 3 begin here. Entries will be added each month. Some excerpts of e-mails will also be included. Some excerpts of e-mails will also be included. And please feel free to send along your thoughts or feedback to The Pocock Diaries
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"The way to do is to be said Lao Tsu. The way to paint is to be -- Empty, that is. When I begin to paint, said a Chinese artist, I do not know that I am painting. I entirely forget that it is I who holds the brush."
In the act of painting there is no painter. Bird and blossom, tree, mountain and river are not the outcome of any willed action but simply of reflecting. The mind of the painter, as that of the sage, is compared to a mirror. When a man allows the busy surface of his mind to settle, it is as though he ceased to disturb the surface of a lake, which then, naturally and inevitably, reflects the sky, the bird or cloud or whatsoever happens to be there, and reflects them without any distortion, as they are.
(Wandering in Eden) |
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It is not easy to define the word "drawing". It encompasses a vast range of interrelated and varied activities, the results of which are seen in Museums, on bodies and in sand or rock faces. Broken down to its essence, it's description could be that of mark making, and in this sense it remains one of the simplest and most basic of activities. A good drawing/photograph/sculpture is a quantum leap from mere good technique. It is brought to life by what you infuse it with. The subject matter is not paramount here. It is the fascination that you carry for the scene before you and the interaction that occurs, which defines the finished work of art. As artists, we need to allow the process to begin without judgment, fear or analytic introspection. Once a connection to the subject is made, surrender to your natural instinctive response and let it direct your hand and its instrument.
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The time I have spent learning and practicing meditation, solitary contemplation and conversation with other persons living with cancer has helped me realize that life is a tangible field which we sculpt within the expansion and contraction of experience, naturally seeking balance.
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BALANCE
is
a constantly moving position,
located somewhere
between effort (E) and surrender (S).
THIS FORMULA:
B = E + S
T(time)
ACCEPTANCE of this balance is necessary to be able to be happy near either end of the co-ordinate. BALANCE requires EQUANIMITY and acceptance of a seemingly static, but actually ever-changing reality.
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| The spiritual level is the only level cancer cannot penetrate. On a mundane level, it colours all experience; on the spiritual level, it is nonexistent. |
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Meditation has helped my compassion, equanimity, acceptance and wisdom about the nature of reality grow, revealing the quiet space inside each of us that allows for transformation.
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HOW COMPLETE ACCEPTANCE LOOKS LIKE DENIAL:
Or, Yes, we have cancer and no, we are not crazy to be laughing so much.
ACCEPTANCE ---------------------------- AVERSION/DENIAL |
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I think a very practical meaning of the word 'transcendence' is to take in (accept) whatever we are given to live with, and go beyond it in some way. Actually, once you have accepted your situation, you have already gone beyond it in one sense. | |
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For Rumi,
Our Mind is a Guest: Our Body A Guest House
I enter the guest house
solitaire,
later trembling with fear
not knowing who or where I am
Success at finding out
this knowledge
determines how I will
leave my guest
house.
If I have been a good guest
leaving is effortless and joyful
And if I have clinging still
I depart not so gracefully
Into a life I know not.
If I have been a poor guest
and left messes and been rude
This will tug at me in my going
And cause discord.
So learn to be a guest
in love, compassion and wisdom
And travelling will always
be a joy.
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