Retrospective 2019-20

This is a look back at was has happened during the week.

Paintings

Below are this week’s paintings. The flower is from a photo by Emma Taylor (@generativeOD). And the painting with the trees and green moss is from Fermansbo Urskog, which is an old-growth forest.

Books

This week I’ve read The Way of Zen and re-read Tao: The Watercourse Way by Alan Watts. Here and here are my reflections from reading Tao: The Watercourse Way last year. And here is a poem I wrote today, which is inspired by The Way of Zen. Both Zen and Taoism move beyond abstract knowing into direct experiencing of Life itself. Abstractions are like a cup. They reduce experience to units simple enough to comprehend one at a time. But trying to understand Life in terms of words and concepts is like trying to drink water with a fork instead of a cup.

Today I started reading Stephan Harding’s Animate Earth: Science, Intuition and Gaia. Stephan Harding makes a distinction between explanation and understanding. Explanation is rational, while understanding is intuitive. For understanding, we need to seek intimacy and connection with what is explained.


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