Obstacles are those frightful fruitful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.

Henry Ford

When I first read the above quote in my diary I saw fruitful. Reading it again now I see the original word is frightful! Just shows how ones perceptions and comprehensions are conditioned by ones point of view.

All a bit lost in words at the moment. Tomorrow maybe some photographs.

I appreciate individuals, and groups, who stir to express themselves through artistic endeavour. I appreciate the, for want of a better word, the passion which has anybody opening up their doors and windows to allow themselves out into the public domain. Out there for scrutiny, open to scrutiny. To sustain that personal vulnerability over perhaps a life-time there must be something quite deep going on. I struggle to appreciate what that might be but perhaps the common theme is a wish to better understand ones own evolving inner process of thoughts and ideas. Whether it is giving our inner world expression through so called high art or everything else it doesn’t much matter to me.

And it is the everything else which has my attention. Even if I don’t really understand what is being conveyed on the surface level, I can appreciate something deeper. So what about these videos composed by a chap who practices within our Soto Zen tradition. I asked him how do I describe what you do. He said, after some thinking about it, abstract geometrical landscapes. I’ve picked out Japan Crossing because of the overt Buddhist connections as well as the connection with travel and especially travel by train. There are a whole bunch of these abstract geometric landscapes. Give them a go why not.

The videos called Bloodline of the Buddhas has a very direct link in with our spiritual roots.

This refers to the teaching of Shakyamuni Buddha and how it has been handed down through time in the Soto Zen lineage to the present. The soundtrack contains a manipulation of the sound of monks at Throssel Hole Buddhist Abbey singing the daily Ancestral Line scripture.

Some years back this video was shown at a video festival (or what ever one calls such events) in Tokyo.

This post was inspired by an event I attended last evening. I’d cooked ‘tea’ for the main speaker and his wife so obviously I’d support the event, especially since it was just around the corner from where I am staying. The subject of the talk was a local Heritage Railway. I’d joined a room full of railway enthusiast, the steam era specifically. The emotion in the room on seeing photographs of trains in full steam was something to behold!

Everything else, in terms of creative human endeavor covers a lot of ground. Steam train fever, ice fever, knitting fever, philosophic ponderings, meditation? Passions can morph into obsessions of course. Along the way hopefully – deep personal fulfillment. Moments at least.

Chris maintains a personal blog where he posts photographs and links to his videos. There are recent images of snow in Norfolk. Weather again!

The next passionate endevour will be about knitting.