Experiments With Color And Emotion

Posted by michael

Tsunami Waves On Pacific Pond

This animation from NOAA shows the propagation of tsunami waves generated from the Honshu earthquake, March 11, 2011. Here at Beaver Creek we look out over the beach and think of the many people experiencing the shock of earth and water movement. What was too big to move becomes the toy of planetary motion. Some day we will have a big one here in Oregon and the mirror image will be produced.

This NOAA picture shows the predicted wave heights and propagation times for the 3/11/2011 tsunami.

Posted by michael

Science And Thought

Science is a method for the systematic observation of phenomena and testing of hypotheses.  Successful tests organize knowledge and make predictions about mechanisms and outcomes of action to and from objects.  Science assumes logic and rational explanation of testable hypothesis concerning quantifiable objects.  Objects are subject to the laws of physics and chemistry and are composed of sub-atomic and atomic particles, which are further aggregated into molecules and inorganic and organic structures.  Inorganic structure includes physical existence without life, while organic structure includes life composed of organs, organisms, and ecosystems.  The absence of quantifiable objects precludes the use of scientific methods and requires the use of metaphysics and other forms of philosophy for study and understanding.  Space and energy cannot be studied directly by science because they lack object nature.  If space or energy are objectified for scientific study, then they are not observed in their true nature.  

Thought is pure and not objectified.  Some scientists assume that thought is the sum total of chemical reactions in the brain.  However, this assumption cannot be scientifically tested because thought is not an object and is not subject to the laws of physics and chemistry.  While thought perceives objects, it is not an object itself, as evidenced by imagination, dreams, spirituality, irrationality, intuition, opinion, and other types of imaging activity.  Thought appears to take a seat as consciousness in the brain or awareness in the heart.  However thoughts cannot be captured and contained, like objects in the world.

Science attempts to objectify the world to test and predict its function and meaning.  This is a powerful method for organizing knowledge and controlling the irrational and unknown; dispelling superstition.  Thought is free and not required to follow the laws of physical nature.  With thought we have art, religion, politics, metaphysics, and culture; all ways of expressing the irrational and feeling or rejecting the compassion of space.  

Attempts to scientifically study thoughts and phenomenon that cannot be objectified or do not follow the laws of physics and chemistry violate the assumptions of science and cannot produce valid results.  These attempts waste valuable research money and time, appearing to lend a pseudoscientific patina to otherwise dubious efforts.  We should not confuse science with the cultural and spiritual aspects of our being. 

Space is the source of science and thought.  Everything is included in space and nothing is apart from space.  There is only one space and it has not been created or destroyed.  Space is not an object and every object and thought comes from space.  Space is infinite compassion and love because it touches and supports every other object and thought in loving embrace, never letting go, always supporting without bias or neglect. 

Be careful to include space in your thoughts and actions.  Without space you are compressed, depressed, and listless, feeling a heavy heart that knows the darkness of objects.  The darkness of objectivity is dispelled by the light of space.  Light emerges from space through the mirrors of stars and other sources of illumination and reflects off of objects to give them definition, context, and meaning.  Science is powerful, modern predictable form.  Thought is formless, luminous, and fluid.  Space is timeless and unchanging.  We are all of these, not be be confused with each other.

Posted by michael

Giving And Taking; Sending And Receiving

There is a perennial christmas tree in the Beaver Creek marsh.  A small mystery is maintained by joyful citizens joking around with the cultural signs and signals.  It reminds me of the give and take in this world.  We give our appreciation and joy to the wild.  The wild gives us well being and life force.  We are connected in a cause and effect manner and cannot be separated into ego-bound entities.  Any attempt to claim separation and isolation is a fools errand that ends in confusion and fear.  Relax and remember your birthright in wildness.  The writing of this tale is on the water; appears and disappears as quickly as the breeze passes.  Like breath, we constantly move the surface of our consciousness and recount the bright moments.

Posted by michael

Marsh Calligraphy

No form, form, metaphor, meaning;  the marsh is filled with calligraphy.  Sky, tule, breeze, water, and the writing is on the mirror.  Ever changing, like pages turned in a book, we can read the meaning in the mind's eye.  Struggling too much will cause the meaning to flee and we are left with an impression, like wings moving through the air, leaving no trail.  This meaning of marsh writing is just like the daylight that pushes back darkness all at once.  Where does the dark go?  The writing speaks volumes.

Posted by michael

On Wildness

There is a tame, and also a wild, side to the human mind. The tame side, like a farmer's field, has been disciplined and cultivated to produce a desired yield. It is useful but limited. The wild side is larger, deeper, more complex, and though it cannot be fully known, it can be explored... It has landscapes and creatures within it that will surprise us. It can refresh us and scare us. Wild mind reflects the larger truth of our ancient selves, of our ancient animal and spiritual selves... The wildness gives heart, courage, love, spirit, danger, compassion, skill, fierceness, and sweetness -- all at once --

~ Gary Snyder, Writers and the War Against Nature

Posted by michael

Reflections And Perception

We rely on reflections to see.  Everything that we see appears as objects, beginning as light reflected from object mirrors into our eyes.  We assume from habit that objects are real and this assumption is reinforced by other perceptions of sound, touch, taste, and smell.  All of these perceptions through other senses are also reflections; sound waves, neurotransmitter waves, and smell and taste particle waves.  

Reflections come with various levels of distortion associated with the wave structure of their transmission.  When we look at objects and their reflections in water, we see all of these aspects.  An object directly appears as solid and not wavering.  The reflected object appears as wavering, dependent on the effect of breezes on the water surface.  The reflected object color also changes, dependent on the water colors.  Who is to say which object is more real?  The object and its reflection are both reflections that have different qualities.  We assign realness based on our visual biases learned from years of observation.  Are we seeing a real object?

Our real object appears to be a reflection that we favor, while we reject the wavering reflection.  This ambiguity of real and illusory reflections is the great pathway into our true nature.  We can find the singularity where the object and its reflection meet.  Look along the bank of a creek or pond.  There is the seamless transition between object and its wavering reflection.  They are both reflections, joined by the continuity of light received from each, into our eyes and then transmitted to our brains by waves of neurotransmitters, reflections of nerve energy.  Our true nature lives in that line between reflections, where symbol and meaning meet.  The nature cannot be seen and is experienced directly in a continuum of awareness, not bound by reflections and their mirror surfaces.

Relaxing our perceptual biases gives us the freedom of wildness.  Our thoughts are free to dissolve into the warm sunlight that may be hidden behind the clouds of seeming objects; mirrors of light intended for perceptions.  Objects are mirrors and we are echos of reflection from those mirrors.  The singularity of the shoreline, the horizon of our perception, the surface of the mirrors, is our consciousness; that which brings together object, subject, and perception.  In all these echos, how can one hold an opinion?  We are all the free play of light and energy.

We experience timeless awareness when our consciousness recognizes the unity of object, subject, and perception.  This recognition happens on the singularity of the mirror surface which is unchanged by the reflections emerging from it.  That mirror surface is everywhere and we call it space.

Posted by michael

Sea Foam

Sea foam may appear when the surf is up at Ona Beach, where Beaver Creek flows out into the ocean.  The foam can look like snow, creatures, clouds, and other ephemeral phenomena.  Foam can give us a look at the invisible world of water currents and wind pressure.  Waves stir up the water and inject air into a foamy exuberance full of joy.  The foam moves over the top of the water in breezes and with the water, scurrying back and forth across the beach with incoming and outgoing waves and up and down the creek.  Then as quickly as it comes, the foam can disappear as surf calms down and the weather turns mild and sunny.  

Posted by michael

New Books - Beaver Creek History

 

Jackie Niemi has produced two more little books, fourth & fifth in her series of Beaver Creek history, entitled “Pioneer Women” and “Pioneer Children.”  Each book contains excerpts of oral histories from the Beaver Creek area, most of which were collected in the mid-1970's, and are from the Lincoln County Historical Society's Oral History Collection.  Niemi's books are available at Canyon Way Bookstore and the Lincoln County Historical Museum Bookstore, and sell for $5.00 each.

All of Niemi's small books will be featured at the Lincoln Co. Historical Museum’s Annual Holiday Festival and Open House on Saturday, December 4th, 1:00-4:00pm.  Look for her table, where she will demonstrate how she cuts and folds each book by hand.

Here is a sampling from each of the new ones:

[From “Pioneer Women”]:  “I remember her...I was nine or ten, I guess, when she died...I remember she used to go and rob the bees...Used to go bare-armed, go up to the kitchen, right out, and get in there, and get the honey she wanted, and tote it back in.  Hell, the bees would be all over her, and never sting her...they just would be all over.”

---Bill Gatens, (1975 interview)

[From “Pioneer Children”]:  “I walked three miles a day to and from school.  A mile and a half each way.  Each school was about middle of the two districts...They didn’t have both schools at the same time.  Well, if I could get in a week, or two or three weeks extra, boy, I took it!  I was glad to get to go to school.  School and I never departed.”

---Susie Rhoades (1975 interview)

Posted by jackie.  

Art Show Extended!

The art exhibit, “Responding to Elements of Space:  Art Inspired by Beaver Creek State Natural Area” has been extended through the month of November, closing on Nov 27th, at the Newport Visual Arts Center Upstairs Gallery.  

Newport VAC Upstairs Gallery

777 NW Beach Dr, Newport, OR

at the Nye Beach Turnaround

Gallery hours:  12noon-4pm, Tuesday-Saturday.  

For a video clip of the show opening on Oct. 8th, see our Oct. 10th blogpost.

While you are there, check out the “Washed Ashore” show in the Runyon Gallery on the 1st floor of the Newport VAC.  Angela Pozzi and her volunteer crew have made an interactive and educational environment of plastic debris that has washed up on Oregon’s beaches.  And you can touch the art!  Walk through the gyre, whale ribs and jellyfish.  Play a tune on the giant starfish, and more.  A great informative show!  

Posted by jackie. 

Clearly Apparent Yet Not Existent

The creek flows through the marsh and out into the ocean, surrounded and suffused by space.  There are many examples here of what is clearly apparent yet not existent.  We can call these examples metaphors and symbols for the nature of things.  We objectify our existence, separating ourselves from other objects and beings and declare us and them.  Objects and subjects are like a creek in its bed, wind in space, waves on water, reflections in mirrors, clouds in sky, and dreams in sleep.  Objects and subjects are illusory as they have no independent, lasting self-nature and are interdependent in a web of cause and effect.  This very dependence is the appearance that we call object and make philosophy and science with.  Since we are not omniscient, we are not able to see all of these causes and conditions.  We believe strongly in the independence of objects, as if they were separate and distinguishable, and say that they have self-nature.  We especially have a strong sense of ego; that we are independent, with self-will. 

The ego is like the emperor in the story of “The Emperor’s New Clothes”.  Two (duality) tailors (illusion) weave clothes (objects) for the emperor (ego) that are so light and fine (desirable) as to appear invisible (no cause and effect), especially to anyone too stupid or incompetent (shame) to appreciate their quality.  A child (original nature) eventually saw the emperor in his new clothes and recognized that he was naked.  But the emperor could not acknowledge this nakedness (awareness) and continued on, walking through the streets (the world) with the illusion of his new clothes.        

How deluded we are.  By maintaining this separation of subjective self and objective other, we fail to see what is.  We grasp on to solidity of self and objects as if they did not constantly change and depend on each other.  Even if we recognize change, we do not believe that it applies to our precious self and others.  We are afraid when objects change, as this represents loss and gain of something desirable or abhorrent.  We fail to see that birth, life, and death are a continuum, with the magical properties of spontaneous appearance and disappearance of consciousness that are dependent upon subject and objects.  This cycle rests upon unchanging awareness, which we sense but cannot see.  We are this awareness, which gives rise to the display of subjects and objects; just like waves forming and dissolving into water, reflections arising and disappearing in mirrors, clouds forming and dissolving into sky, and dreams appearing and disappearing in sleep.  The water, mirrors, sky, and sleep are metaphors for awareness and are not changed by this display.  Recognizing the illusory nature of display, we can return to our nature and be complete. 

When we are not attached to our conclusions, concepts, and training about existence, then we are free to experience our nature in the vast ocean of space which is mind.  We easily move through the causes and conditions that surround us.  Then we become what we are, omniscient awareness in the unending web of interdependence.  Everything is as it should be in the unending dance of change.  Relax and enjoy every emotion, thought, and perception as the illusions that they are, without the anxiety of grasping and fixation.

Posted by michael

Beaver Creek Art Show

Scenes from the opening night of the art show at the Newport Visual Arts Center, Upstairs Gallery.  Paintings, ceramics, photographs, pastels, and sculpture are on display through October, 2010.  Five artists, Sandy Roumagoux, Liisa Rahkonen, Nancy Jane Reid, Jackie Niemi, and Michael Davis show works inspired by the Beaver Creek State Natural Area.  The natural mind of wildness is invoked in the gallery, which is filled with light and life in the colors of marsh.



Reflections reveal our nature, as light is returned to us from objects, waking and dreaming;  all are mirrors.  We name these reflections perception, emotion, and thought.  We forget that everything is clearly apparent, but not existent.  We objectify that which is simply reflection and call it the world.  At the marsh, we are real and bask in the glow of the singularity that is our love for all beings and places.  We are alive and know it in our hearts.

Posted by michael

Art Inspired By Beaver Creek State Natural Area

This is a cross-post from Oregon Days of Culture of a notice for an upcoming art show at the Newport Visual Art Center, Upstairs Gallery,  opening on October 8, 2010 and running through October.

Art Inspired by Beaver Creek State Natural Area

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Brought to you by Oregon Coast Council for the Arts

This Gallery/Museum Exhibit is a Public event
and is Free.

October 8, 2010 - 12:00 pm

This event will take place at
Newport Visual Arts Center
777 NW Beach DR
Newport, OR 97365

Five artists reflect on the newest state park and the Governor’s Park of the Year, the Beaver Creek State Natural Area. Mediums include oils by Sandy Roumagoux, photographs by Michael Davis and Nancy Jane Reid, drawings by Jackie Niemi, and ceramics by Liisa Rahkonan.

Beaver Creek Marsh, oil painting by Sandy Roumagoux

Root Cave Bones, pastel and charcoal drawing by Jackie Niemi.

Sky Ranch, photograph by Michael Davis.

Tules, photograph by Nancy Jane Reid.

Doe Shelter, ceramic sculpture by Liisa Rahkonen.

Posted by michael

You Are Invited

Fun and Food offered as benefit for the Wetlands Conservancy

A fun and delicious fundraising event for The Wetlands Conservancy is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 25, at Blue Heron Farms, an organic farm on Alsea Bay. A multi-course gourmet dinner cooked with a wood-fired pizza oven and featuring local seafoods, along with baked goods and Oregon wines will be featured. 

Local and other Oregon-based sponsors providing food for the event and donations for the silent auction include Rogue Ales, Local Ocean Seafoods, Drift Inn, Bread and Roses, Oregon Oyster, Wilder, SeaPort Air, Oregon Albacore Commission, Kettle Foods, Pacific Natural Foods, Whole Foods, Ecosystems Services LLC., Chehalem Winery, Nostrana Restaurant, Organically Grown, Springfield Creamery, Columbia Sportswear, Organic Valley, and LUSH Cosmetics.

There will also be great tour options; hiking the new Beaver Creek State Park

Natural Area, birding with experts and free kayak use. 

Folks need to buy tickets on-line as soon as possible at Wetlands Conservancy website. 

Any questions call 541-547-4097, Paul Engelmeyer, PO Box 694,Yachats, OR 97498 

Posted by michael

Bright Day On The Water

Bright day on Beaver Creek.  Being on the water reminds of me of how we see.  The world is composed of five movements; earth, water, air, fire, and space.  Everything else is elaboration on these movements and added complexity to satisfy our longing for knowledge.  Of course we talk and think about science and the chemical elements with their atoms listed in the periodic table.  We say that objects and beings are composed of atoms that are subject to the laws of physics and chemistry, as if this explained what we see and do.  Even further in our conceptual cave, we talk about quantum physics and the particles that make up atoms, until reaching the ultimate particles.  Then finally we move into the space-time continuum and attempt a grand unified field theory of everything.  At the end of the day, we are still in a boat, paddling up the creek, with life but a dream.

In any event, what we see and respond to are the five movements.  So paddling on Beaver Creek through a sunlit afternoon actually immerses us in the theory of everything; spontaneously and all without effort.  We do not arrive at any conclusions about the nature of the universe and we are relaxed into the rhythm of sun sparkles and waves.  This is the reality that wave-particle theory of atoms and photons aspires to.  As we feel the imposed separation of subject and object that science assumes, there is a deep emotional reaction that yearns for understanding our source and meaning.  This source is wildness and the five movements; earth, water, air, fire, and space.  By actually thinking and creating art in the forms of the five movements, we may recognize our nature.  Consider the center of a wheel.  It is undefined, yet pervades all wheels.  The center is everywhere, undefined and pervasive.  We are like this center, moving through a dream world of perceptions and images that are spokes on a wheel which becomes organized by our movements.  Deconstruction will drive you crazy with endless details.  Reconstruction will set you free, whole again.

Posted by michael

How We See

We see our visual world through reflected light in the mind.  This light can be captured and explored through photography.  By looking at the seamless boundary of object and reflection, we can see the continuum of mind, which is luminous space.  The sun appears in water as a thousand reflections (sparkles); so too colors and shapes appear in mind.  Reflections reveal our nature, as light is returned to us from objects, waking or dreaming.  We name these reflections perception, emotion, and thought.  Calmly looking, we can see that mind is not altered by its perceptions, just as mirrors are not altered by reflections.  All apparent and hidden things (this and that) arise from, rest on, and dissolve into radiant space, which remains unchanging.  Our world and us in it are reflections in the vast mirror of space, the lucid and radiant mother of all.  We are not separate from our reflections; like the sun reflected a thousand times in water is not separate from the radiant sun in space.

Posted by michael

The Tortoise And The Hare

Illustration from here

I read an essay recently about the economy needing a bit of ingenuity.  The essay discussed the problems with short-term thinking and quick profit in the context of the present state of business.  Demand for goods and services is currently assumed to be depressed and stimulation of this demand will cure the economic sickness.  The author suggests that demand for goods and services is not presently depressed.  Instead, the business community needs more long-term investment, innovation, and hiring to correct deep structural problems in the economy.  I was reminded of the tale of the Tortoise and the Hare. 

The hare brags that he can beat anyone, especially the tortoise in a race.  The hare's hubris is overwhelming and he loses the race with the tortoise.  The tortoise understands the value of slow and steady effort made with insight into the long-term goal of crossing the finish line.  The hare is controlled by his appetites for sleep and food, short-term gains not connected to the long-term goal of the finish line.

Conservation of economies, wetlands, and wild spaces is similar to the tortoise's focused effort to reach the goal.  Sustained vision and development of community and political support is needed to raise funds for investment, including conservation easements, acquisitions, and management.  How delightful it would be if business could relax and take a long-term view of profit and well being, instead of quarterly returns and short-term profit.  We could expand the scope of investment, with stable reliance on our ingenuity and connection to nature.  Returns on investment would be higher and not subject to the uncertainty and risk of markets that are controlled by a few big players using computer trading with little regard for the ethical aspects of resource development and human capital.  

Posted by michael  

Garden Color

Ambling around the garden, the color pops and the summer soothes.  Found a bumble bee asleep in the morning dew-soaked Buddleia.  Maybe was too tired to go home, or maybe just gave up and died right there.  Flowers speak to the simplicity of color and scent.  Nothing else to consider when experience blooms in the early morning light.

Posted by michael