"I am not one who was born in the custody of wisdom. I am one who is fond of olden times and intense in quest of the sacred knowing of the ancients." Gustave Courbet

26 June 2018

Humbly.

Chatham, Fog on Mt. Tamalpais, n/d


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.

Masao Yamamoto

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