Don't cling,

Don't seek.

Wonderful Pictures In My Dream

I had this fantastic dream, that is not worth mentioning at all to anyone. It's more of a reminder to myself. I thought I would like to paint this photo I saw in my dream. I saw three that I remember actually. It was funny. It was about chinese people sort of "moving in" to a new piece of land, kind of like you move in to a new apartment. 

They were hauling massive amounts of Buddhist statues to this new land so I was photographing this procedure. 

One amazing picture I remember was sort of like a large pool. I was standing 20m above it maybe shooting downards at a slight angle (imagine you standing on a jumping platform looking down). 10 guys on each side, with ropes in their hands, was pulling up through the surface of this big pool a big Buddha statue, just as it was breaking through the surface so it was like the ears and stuff was still submerged while the eyes and nose was above (barely) water, and it looked like there were waves in the little swimming pools because around the surface of the statue that was above surface looked like waves on a beach. It looked simply remarkable. And this picture, and the rest was in sort of, sepia, brown-tone, picture rather then black and white. I was like "wow" when I saw these images in my dream only to wake up to a blank roof. Thanks for that.

Another picture was, if you would imagine a long cable-car type thing. High up in the air. I was in that, and infront of me, again, a half a statue of a Buddha. Sort of like chest and up, the rest was broken. Two big cables lowering this statue, with a very slight angle downwards (again, an angle you'd be in a cable-car in a skiing resort). The statue was facing towards me, with cables going right past me over my head (since I was in a cable-car behind or whatever). Beautiful mountain landscape behind with amazing clouds with sun barely coming through. Just beautiful.

Why these images in the dream? Why do things happen as they do in dreams? Very interesting. Just wish I had these gorgeous pictures for real though. 

Random Pickings From "My Philosophy On Acting"

Yeah, I'm writing my philosophy on acting. It's going so and so. I write a bit then I feel like it gets convoluted and I start over again. I thought I'd share one bit of my thoughts though. Most of my philosophy comes from my complete and utter face-palming when I listed to the acting teachers I have met and what they teach. I mean... I am so un-impressed with every single one of them that I get pissed. 

So what I do is I have conversations in my head, like a dialogue back and forth in an imaginative situation, let's the steam out, kind of like therapy. I think they all have a very mechanical, un-human, no soul, way of acting, or teaching or doing acting. It's as if they started philosophizing about acting and when they started to see things as a little bit different then usual, i.e as if they think they can see "behing the scenes" they stopped right there with their philosophy because they think they've "got it". But in fact you must stop there! You have to keep pushing on and thinking and thinking and putting the hours in, in your mind and soul.

A zen-master once said something along the lines of (yes, I am paraphrasing);

"When I started practicing buddhism I used to see mountains as mountains and rivers as rivers. When I got into a more intimate knowledge of zen I started seeing mountains as something OTHER then mountains and rivers something OTHER then rivers..." I feel like this is where all of my so called "teachers" have stopped their journey of the mind thinking "HA! I got it! I am so smart, I should be a teacher, people should listen to me". But nay, keep going, you havent reached the finish line yet, because this monk continued and said "...but once i fully understood what it was all about I once again saw mountains, as just that, mountains. And rivers, just as that, rivers" That is crucial!

T. S. Eliot said, in "Little Gidding";

We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time

Journey on, journeymen, from mechanical acting to just being a human being that eats, drinks and sleep. Nothing more, nothing less.

This is but a bit of the conversations in my head.

Hm, made it sounds quite poetic towards the end. Complete works of shakespeare? Maybe I'll do one of me own!

An Haiku

A leaf tumbling on the snow

Spring has arrived.