Art is dead.

[Cadcam]

Art is dead. 

 

The days of illuminating us on the struggles and turns of the mind as we engage in our journey as a society are gone.  All that the artists offer us now are stories of lust and villainy. We are sold to temptation of indulgence and crime, and the reward or folly of both. 

 

Man has lost its soul for community and compassion and mercy. We no longer care about other people's hardships and curing them 

 

Man now lives its Age of Entitlement where living high on low pleasures is the affordable and easy path to happiness. Virtue is dead, our conflicts are unjust retaliation of criminal governments, soldiers are no longer heroes. 

 

Our champions of athletics and science and culture aim for wealth and not honor.

 

 

 

 

[Nungali]

Perhaps it is a trend in the mainstream .

 

If you are tired of shoot 'em up bang bang car chase shock horror fuck  ....  try some cinematic art from a newcomer in the field .

 

It won't catch on, of course  .....' they'   tagged it as a 'comedy '   - WTF ?

 

Tonga's first feature film ;

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YubsB8SzWjc

[Daniel]

I was in London recently and visited the Tate Modern art museum.  My son ( age:15 ) and I spent a great deal of time browsing the surrealism exhibit and talking about their collection.  Some of it was awful, boring, silly, and some of it was magnificent.

 

Mid-way though the gallery, I was presented with a TV on a stand with a curious and engaging video.  In the middle of a rather drab grey field, a largish darker skinned man, was painting, literally painting, a smaller white male bright blue.  For some reason, I was drawn to this.  It was fun, so much fun, to watch the painter applying the paint to their subject.  It's difficult to describe how it made me feel.  It was odd.  It was strangely satisfying watching the details of the smaller, slight-of-frame, white male of undetermined age become swallowed up by nothing but bright blue. 

 

Most people took a brief glance at the screen and wandered on.  My son had no interest in it at all.  We had been having deep conversations about the other pieces.  This one did not encourage conversation.  It was a video.  There was nothing to do, but watch.  My son wanted to move on to the next room.  But I kept begging him to stay.  I said, "This is really great.  Look at how much fun he's having." as the painter covered more and more of his human subject with bright blue.  All over.  The subject was patient, stoic, tolerant.  The painter was happy, calm, industrious, but not in a rush.

 

Then, something wonderful happened.  The painter was over halfway through covering the young man with blue.  Then, he stops.  Smiles.  He's having an idea.   ... He takes the entire bucket, lifts it over the other young man's head, and happily pours it all over them.  It was splendid.  I loved it.  It was a such a surprise; I gasp, loudly; then start laughing.  I couldn't help it.  It was wonderful.  All the other patrons turned to look at the american who was making a ruckus in the art museum.  I excused myself.  Then wandered off to find my son and the rest of the family.

 

The concept was so simple, and comical, but, it was executed so well, so professionally.  It was certainly art.  Living art.  I'm not sure what the artist was intending to express to the audience.  There's many possibilities.  Or.  Perhaps it was just the feeling, the engagement that they anticipated from their audience.  Like a moth to the flame, I was drawn and transfixed, watching the coverage of thick opaque blue all over the slight human form.  Then, splash, all over them, spilling down.  So happy, so satisfying, so glorious.  And I'll never forget it.  Just as the artist intended.

 

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/ramirez-figueroa-blue-abstraction-l04369

 

 

Edited January 14 by Daniel

[Nungali]

....   so then I painted my son blue  ^

 

" Hold still boy ! "

[Apotheose]

On 12/01/2024 at 9:32 PM, Cadcam said:

Art is dead. 

 

The days of illuminating us on the struggles and turns of the mind as we engage in our journey as a society are gone.  All that the artists offer us now are stories of lust and villainy. We are sold to temptation of indulgence and crime, and the reward or folly of both. 

 

Man has lost its soul for community and compassion and mercy. We no longer care about other people's hardships and curing them 

 

Man now lives its Age of Entitlement where living high on low pleasures is the affordable and easy path to happiness. Virtue is dead, our conflicts are unjust retaliation of criminal governments, soldiers are no longer heroes. 

 

Our champions of athletics and science and culture aim for wealth and not honor.

 

 

 

 

..

Edited April 8 by Apotheose

[Cadcam]

It was indeed a moment of pessimism. 

 

I'm well aware that in our Age, all things are accessible in all forms, and that there are a variety of choices available. 

 

Still, we seem to be at the mercy of striving for the ideal of Beauty, and execute or ignore that which fails it, and I blame this on the liberation of Lust, which finds us glorifying the body and senses. This, in combination with an ideal of perfect Law, leaves us intolerant of Man's obvious shortcomings of education, wealth and intelligence. 

 

 

[Cadcam]

I just realized that the more one loves God and Life, the more trials they will face.

[Apotheose]

5 hours ago, Cadcam said:

Still, we seem to be at the mercy of striving for the ideal of Beauty, and execute or ignore that which fails it, and I blame this on the liberation of Lust, which finds us glorifying the body and senses. This, in combination with an ideal of perfect Law, leaves us intolerant of Man's obvious shortcomings of education, wealth and intelligence. 

I understand it perfectly. And I share an alike view of it.

 

Recently, I’ve come across a woman - in a social ambience - who is known to have violent behaviour towards other women (envy/jealousy probably, I don’t know). In a certain moment, I remember having strong fluxes of intuition as if she was evil. She wasn’t saying or acting anything violent, but her eyes “talked” in a devilish manner. Her Aura was really, really bad. I was definitely surprised about it.

 

But, as a follower of Christ, Compassion came for me, and I understood that all her hate/confusion was founded on insecurities. So I felt sorry for her, and immediately ‘Loved’ her.

 

People are so immerse in that with is not Salutary, and which is definitely far away from the Perfect Law, that they get nothing but it back in their lives. Life is incredible; all makes sense in the end of the day. And what seems “off” just Seems.

 

Possibly, people are yet to seek the Beauty because they learned not to seek it, and rather just seek money, power and pleasure. I wouldn’t attribute this phenomena as their fault, but rather as human helplessness, abandonment and destitution, as of a societal and parental nature.

 

Wonder why people get so ecstatic when they encounter someone who really follows the Perfect Law. It’s as if they encountered some extraterrestrial being. 

Edited January 15 by Apotheose

[Jon]

If you haven't already seen it, you must watch this stunning spiritual art film from 1992. The film critic Roger Ebert said: "If man sends another Voyager to the distant stars and it can carry only one film on board, that film might be Baraka." 

 

Baraka means 'blessing' in Arabic. 

 

 

Edited August 13 by Jon

[Cobie]

 

@steve could you please tell a little about the circle around the letter? 

 
(it’s in https://www.thedaobums.com/topic/56083-the-two-arrows-of-suffering/?do=findComment&comment=1037906 )

It reminded me a bit of a mandorla, as e.g. in https://www.alamy.com/the-end-of-the-world-and-the-last-judgement-the-disciples-preached-among-the-people-as-jesus-had-said-illuminated-pages-of-the-codex-of-predis-1476-royal-library-turin-italy-image209613395.html 

 

 

Edited August 16 by Cobie

[doc benway]

@Cobie

 

The circle around the letter are five colors representing the five elements in Bön cosmology.

There are variations in how the rings are drawn but, in general, there are:

white - space element

green - air element

red - fire element

blue - water element

yellow - earth element

Some renditions leave out white in the ring, establishing white as the color of Ah.

Most explicitly include white in the circle.

Some versions do not include the 5 element lights at all.

This is the image I used when practicing zhinè.

 

 

 

[Cobie]

9 hours ago, steve said:

The circle around the letter are five colors representing the five elements in Bön cosmology. …

white - space element

green - air element

red - fire element

blue - water element

yellow - earth element …

Thanks, that’s very interesting.  So that’s where the colours came from!
I Googled a bit and saw a picture with the same circle on https://www.boandbon.com/bon/   

 

It’s a bit different but similar to the Chinese 5 elements (五行 wǔxíng)

from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuxing_(Chinese_philosophy)

I like the following picture best, as Wuxing was originally 4 directions with a center (the number 5).

https://iep.utm.edu/wuxing/

(Can’t remember now where I copied that picture from)

 

Edited August 15 by Cobie

[Cobie]

This looks an interesting book. In the picture is a woman lying down. I once saw a video about a giant woman the size of Tibet, she lies under the surface of Tibet. Does it relate to that?

 

 

 

 

Edited August 15 by Cobie

[Cobie]

 

@steve Is it relevant that it’s a circle? And if so, what is the meaning?

[doc benway]

On 8/14/2024 at 9:09 PM, Cobie said:

This looks an interesting book. In the picture is a woman lying down. I once saw a video about a giant woman the size of Tibet, she lies under the surface of Tibet. Does it relate to that?

 

 

 

 

 

I’m not familiar with the giant woman lying under Tibet. Tibetans have a lot of interesting stories and myths. This book describes a practice that is related to Tibetan “soul retrieval.” Their idea of “soul” is quite a bit different from the Abrahamic traditions. It is more related to the balanced embodiment of the five elements. When this balance is disturbed, reconnecting to the deficient elements in nature or internally is a primary method to restore health of body and soul. In this image the standing khandro (lit. sky dancer) is the goddess of the five elements from the Mother Tantra, the most widely practiced tantra of Bön. There are five khandros, actually, each representing an element and this is the space element khandro, the mother that gives rise to the other elements. She is standing on a corpse, representing the transcendence of samsara and death of the illusion of an independent “self.”

[doc benway]

22 hours ago, Cobie said:

Is it relevant that it’s a circle? And if so, what is the meaning?

 

There may be other meanings but my understanding is that the circle represents something I mentioned in the previous thread - thiglè nyagcig. This literally means single sphere and represents the wholeness or undivided nature of existence, eg non-duality.

[Cobie]

 

On 16/08/2024 at 8:38 PM, steve said:

… related to Tibetan “soul retrieval.” Their idea of “soul” …  is more related to the balanced embodiment of the five elements. When this balance is disturbed, reconnecting to the deficient elements in nature or internally is a primary method to restore health of body and soul. In this image the standing khandro (lit. sky dancer) is the goddess of the five elements from the Mother Tantra, the most widely practiced tantra of Bön. There are five khandros, actually, each representing an element and this is the space element khandro, the mother that gives rise to the other elements. She is standing on a corpse, representing the transcendence of samsara …

 

On 16/08/2024 at 8:42 PM, steve said:

… the circle represents … thiglè nyagcig. This literally means single sphere and represents the wholeness or undivided nature of existence …

 

Thank you, I find all this very interesting. And that reads to me as a useful practice, also for people like me from another tradition. For me the ‘soul retrieval’ part links nicely with the last Wuxing picture above. And the single sphere reminds me of Wuji. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuji_(philosophy). So far so good, but then … it gets very ‘other tradition’  …

 

Quote

… the illusion of an independent “self.” … … non-duality.….

 

I did try, when first joining this forum, to read posts about ‘no-self’ and ‘non-duality’. I finally gave up on trying to understand it. For me there’s also got to be taiji https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiji_(philosophy) 

 

 

Edited August 21 by Cobie

[doc benway]

54 minutes ago, Cobie said:

 

 

 

Thank you, I find all this very interesting. And that reads to me as a useful practice, also for people like me from another tradition. For me the ‘soul retrieval’ part links nicely with the last Wuxing picture above. And the single sphere reminds me of Wuji. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuji_(philosophy). So far so good, but then … it gets very ‘other tradition’  …

 

 

I did try, when first joining this forum, to read posts about ‘no-self’ and ‘non-duality’. I finally gave up on trying to understand it. 

  Reveal hidden contents

JFF, just for fun. How to generate posts in TDB? See my next post)

For me there’s also got to be taiji https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiji_(philosophy) 

 

 

 

I don’t suggest anyone try to understand non-duality. Better to practice what speaks to you and see what happens. 

 

For me, wuji has similarities to nonduality and taiji has similarities to duality, conceptually speaking.

[Cobie]

The Christian mandorla stands for the ichtheys. For me, it represents similar ideas as the above Bön circle.   

(mandorla, as e.g. in https://www.alamy.com/the-end-of-the-world-and-the-last-judgement-the-disciples-preached-among-the-people-as-jesus-had-said-illuminated-pages-of-the-codex-of-predis-1476-royal-library-turin-italy-image209613395.html )

 

 

Edited August 16 by Cobie

[doc benway]

4 minutes ago, Cobie said:

The Christian mandorla stands for the ichtheys. For me, it represents similar ideas as the above Bon circle.   
 

 

.

I like that. If we focus on differences, we find them everywhere. If we focus on similarities, we find those everywhere and, for me, it feels better.

[Thrice Daily]

The law of homogeneous species 

[Cobie]

birds of a feather flock together