Sunday 22 March 2015

photos from zakaj's 2015 japanese trip

collating into one post

me & wife at Fushimi Inari : photo_800

wife : photo_814

interesting library at Mii-dera : photo_856

each "cell" in the octagon has rolls of commentaries and sutras inside, and the whole library actually rotates!

Mii-dera : photo_864

path at Mii-dera : photo_869

I thought these two pics were especially good, considering how much I suck at taking photos !

my favorite by far was the Kaidan-in on Mount Hiei (headquarters of Tendai sect, where Dogen, Nichiren, Shinran, Ippen & co all trained) :

photo_908

I'm fascinated by its colours, and the light

photo_909

either I was lucky or the light and the temple themselves emanate beauty ... that's my wife and my mother-in-law

I suck at taking pictures but I think that was is quite successful, either I was lucky or the light and the temple are just so beautiful that you can't make a bad photo !

---------

the paths are beautiful, photo_912 ... this is the place where Eisai the founder of J. Rinzai Zen used to meditate, the very spot : photo_915

love the paths and the gardens, photo_869 wish I could be here as something other than a tourist...

------------------

the first two pics are of Kaidan-in which is perhaps one of the most important Buddhist structures in all Japan. It was in this building that Mahayana Buddhists declared their independence from the Hinayana Buddhists of Nara. The structure itself was built to commemorate the death of Saicho (767-822), the founder of the Tendai sect... this is where Dogen, Nichiren, Shinran, Eisai, Ippen, all of the big names of Japanese Buddhism , practiced and were ordained

-------------------

(Sorry for this "travel log" I won't abuse 7th patriarchs blog to blog my travels it was just one exception!)

my reply

' Sorry for this "travel log" '

that's your best content so far and you apologise ! ?

both you and sepehr delete your best posts as well !

i presume you used a digital camera and i think one reasons the photos came out so well is the light was bright, but diffused which is what it takes to make digital cameras shine, they especially don't like the light being too dull !

13 comments:

  1. yeah i wanted to say majestic zakaj :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Zakaj, you should visit the Aokigahara forest, all called suicide forest.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FDSdg09df8

    ReplyDelete
  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  4. http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/57720.Clark_Ashton_Smith

    “Not as the plants and flowers of Earth, growing peacefully beneath a simple sun, were the blossoms of the planet Lophai. Coiling and uncoiling in double dawns; tossing tumultuously under vast suns of jade green and balas-ruby orange; swaying and weltering in rich twilights, in aurora-curtained nights, they resembled fields of rooted serpents that dance eternally to an other-worldly music.”
    ― Clark Ashton Smith, Lost Worlds

    ReplyDelete
  5. “Bow down: I am the emperor of dreams;
    I crown me with the million-colored sun
    Of secret worlds incredible, and take
    Their trailing skies for vestment when I soar,
    Throned on the mounting zenith, and illume
    The spaceward-flown horizons infinite.”
    ― Clark Ashton Smith, The Last Oblivion: Best Fantastic Poetry of Clark Ashton Smith

    Here's the full poem, it's long:

    http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/poetry/572

    It's too much Infinity though to the point it makes you mad.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. zephyr you are doing the typical reddit zen thing, quoting some bullshit then making like some righteous guru with stupid comments !

      zakaj with those photos has done something that is his own work, you just don't get it do you ?

      you are losing your own identity in rubbish, you need to get the balance right, one look into a book and two in life johann von goethe said !

      http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/j/johann_wolfgang_von_goeth.html !

      btw, don't delete those posts . . just let them sit, i am never entirely right ! :o)

      Delete
    2. I don't consider photography a viable form of art though.

      Delete
    3. sepehr you really have reality issues, anime fucked brain and you criticise photography ?

      produce some art yourself and then comment !

      Delete
    4. You already read some of the art I've produced myself and said it was good... my play and poetry for example.

      Delete
    5. I agree with Baudelaire's criticisms of photography as an artform.

      It's good to take for memories or whatever, but it is not an art. It takes no actual application or creativity.

      Delete
    6. i've seen plenty of photos that are art !

      why shouldn't photos be declarative memory and holographic in nature ?

      Delete
  6. Didn't expect this! Thank Andrew. I deleted the post at first because I thought it's just tourism and tourism has no place on 7th Patriarch blog. You are right I used a digital camera.

    " the photos came out so well is the light was bright, but diffused which is what it takes to make digital cameras shine, they especially don't like the light being too dull ! "

    That explains it.

    https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-SxDcFjIhDwU/VQ6-N-yigEI/AAAAAAAABrU/Pd__I786dPA/w823-h617-no/DSC04909.JPG

    it's really the only good photo I've taken my entire life! It's just with a Sony Cyber-shot... this building was also my favourite of all Japan, yet somehow nobody seemed interested in it! The tendai monks bow to it every time they pass nearby... it is the only building the bow to, it must have an important meaning to them, the bow seemed genuine

    I want to move here permanently just to be able to stay in these gardens, I love the nature here, for some reason I can't feel the same in Slovenian/European parks/garden/nature

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. that building was completed in 828, and is supposedly pretty much as dogen would have seen it during the time he lived there !

      most for the buildings were razed in 1571 after the siege of mt. hiei by the shogun oda nobunaga

      you are looking at something authentically from the 9th century, it's really an authentic "transmission" back to that time, and yeah, there is a patina that comes across from your photo !

      Delete