Lightly Child, Lightly

~ Live & Learn

“Living in the forest, I feel the presence of many ‘treasures’ breathing quietly in nature. I call this presence ‘Shizuka.‘ ‘Shizuka‘ means cleansed, pure, clear, and untainted. I walk around the forest and harvest my ‘Shizuka’ treasures from soil. I try to catch the faint light radiated by these treasures with both my eyes and my camera.

In Tao Te Ching , an ancient Chinese philosopher Lao-tzu wrote, ‘A great presence is hard to see. A great sound is hard to hear. A great figure has no form.’ What he means is that the world is full of noises that we humans are not capable of hearing. For example, we cannot hear the noises created by the movement of the universe. Although these sounds exist, we ignore them altogether and act as if only what we can hear exists. Lao-tzu teaches us to humbly accept that we only play a small part in the grand scheme of the universe.

I feel connected to his words. I have always sensed that there is something precious in nature. I have an impression that something very vague and large might exist beyond the small things I can feel. This is why I started collecting ‘Shizuka’ treasures. ‘Shizuka’ transmits itself through the delicate movement of air, the smell of the earth, the faint noises of the environment, and rays of light. ‘Shizuka‘ sends messages to all five of my senses.

Capturing light is the essence of photography. I am convinced more than ever that photography was created when humans wished to capture light.”

~ Masao Yamamoto, “Shizuka (Cleanse)”

Notes:

  • Masao Yamamoto (61), is a Japanese freelance photographer, who blurs the border between painting and photography, by experimenting with printing surfaces. He dyes, tones (with tea), paints on, and tears his photographs. His subjects include still-lives, nudes, and landscapes. He also makes installation art with his small photographs to show how each print is part of a larger reality.
  • Photographs by Masao Yamamoto with “unknown” and “untitled” via the Artstack.com
  • Quote via Memorylandscape
  • Prior “Lightly child, lightly” Posts? Connect here.
  • Post Title & Inspiration: Aldous Huxley: “It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them.”

28 thoughts on “Lightly Child, Lightly”

  2. The one thing better than a day that starts with Lightly, is a Lightly day off. And especially, one that starts with a post like this one 😊

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  3. it is a blessing that we cannot see, hear or feel so many things that exists in the universe. Our hearing if same as other beings we will be continuously occupied. Our system allows us to connect with what is relevant to us. I am sitting here and lots of parrots are int his area, if I could understand them then it would be difficult for me to read a post.
    We Our mind and heart speaks to us, but we can not hear with ears..rather we feel the message.

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  5. This is so beautiful and so true 🙂 For the last month, throughout the day, I’ve heard too much of the sort of noise that makes it so, so, so hard to stay calm. Everybody, just everybody in my neighbourhood seems to be having work done on their houses. It’s clank, bang, drill, drill, drill, broom, broom, on and on and on. And when that stops, there’s a child that just screams for the sake of it, which starts off a dog that barks so much that its voice is hoarse. That is why I get up early in the morning before the noise starts, and why I also wander about in the garden in the dark before I go to bed. Then it is nature and peace.

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    1. Sarah, have you – just by chance – seen me watering the garden at 10h30 yesternight or getting up at 7 before the big heat to scrub the white cement bench in our veranda, cutting back and down dried & wilted/withered flowers/growth….?
      Did you see me nearly jump when the only one neighbour NOT YET on hols set off his screaming tree saw and thus making the few chickens further down cry out in non-unerstanding with their chicken-brains that this horrible noise doesn’t mean THEY will be slaughtered….? 😉

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      1. Kiki. if you were a neighbour, I’m sure we’d get on very well with each other!
        I don’t water after dark, as it brings the snails out to eat my plants, but, yes, I am usually out there at 22;30 hrs with my nice, quiet dog, and out there again with her at about 06:30 hrs. Tree saws are the worst, and I forgot to mention them, as they have been part of the foul cacophony to assault my eardrums and utterly fray my nerves.
        I feel very sorry for those poor chickens D:

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  6. Am I the only one always thinking ‘How does he do it?’ All the time….?!
    Or do you all know something I obviously don’t?

    The beauty and truth of this takes my breath away – and yet, I really, really need it – as well as the quiet, serene, peaceful, non-judging, clean-smelling aura of a forest, of water…. So many treasures – so little awareness for so many.

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  7. Thank you, David, for giving us more sweet beauty…we all seem to know that the inner being must be engaged to enjoy living. So much outer noise and strife drives us either crazy or to the deep well within. I’ve loved Lao Tse since I first read about him in high school.

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  8. You do have a wonderful knack, David, for sharing the perfect things at the perfect times…
    Those quiet times sometimes seem so hard to capture in our busy, noisy lives.

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