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Kimberly Poppe

Glimpses

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Glimpses

When I was studying English literature, I remember being particularly struck by this passage in Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own:

 

“What is meant by ‘reality’? It would seem to be something very erratic, very undependable—now to be found in a dusty road, now in a scrap of newspaper in the street, now in a daffodil in the sun. It lights up a group in a room and stamps some casual saying. It overwhelms one walking home beneath the stars and makes the silent world more real than the world of speech—and there it is again in an omnibus in the uproar of Piccadilly. Sometimes, too, it seems to dwell in shapes too far away for us to discern what their nature is. But whatever it touches, it fixes and makes permanent. That is what remains over when the skin of the day has been cast into the hedge; that is what is left of past time and of our loves and hates.” 

 

I have always been slightly obsessed with those moments of “reality” and the idea that they could be less erratic and more dependable, which is part of what has led me to the practice of meditation.

 

Recently, I have been playing around with contemplative photography inspired by a previous post by Jeremy Tattersall where he describes the book, The Practice of Contemplative Photography by Andy Karr and Michael Wood. Along with being great fun, this is a real practice of integrating meditation into everyday life—off the cushion and walking around in the world. The practice is to see and photograph the world in fresh ways, to reveal richness and beauty that is normally hidden from view, to see clearly and make images based on fresh perceptions.  It is something anyone can try. They also have a website called Seeing Fresh which essentially describes the practice itself and has galleries, assignments, and the possibility for you to submit your own photos.

How do you integrate the practice of meditation into your daily life?


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Comments   

 
+1 # Sandra Pawula 2012-05-30 21:52
How interesting! I've never heard of 'contemplative photography'. It makes me want to pull out my I-Pod and give it a try. Thanks for these resources.
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0 # Kimberly 2012-05-30 23:51
Go for it and enjoy!
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0 # Charles Tart 2012-06-07 17:11
I was introduced to these "glimpses of reality" through the Gurdjieff work I did years ago. It's way too clear to me that we (or at least certainly I) walk around 90%+ of the time lost in our thoughts and feelings, paying little attention to what our senses are bringing to us. Yet when I stop all that chatter for a moment by deliberately turning attention to my senses - the world - it's so real, it's full of richness and beauty that is always there, but I'm just too absorbed in my thoughts to notice. In such moments I always wonder why I don't come back to sensory reality more often - and then get carried away on the next thought train.....
Thanks for reminding me Kimberly!
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