Bienheureux l’homme, air de Valaam

 

The unadorned purity of this is incredible.

No Limits

 “You know why I hate God so much . . . I mean the idea of God?”

“Why?”

“Because it’s the idea of a dictator imposing limits on us. There are no limits!”

“There’s no sin?”

“Of course not! Don’t you see how sick the idea of sin is?!”

“What about Auschwitz?”

“What about it?”

“Was that sinful?”

“Well no, cos there’s no sin.”

“So the Nazis were right?”

“What do you mean, right?”

“Well, if there’s no sin, then anyone can do what they want. So Hitler and the gang were right in just doing what they wanted. And in a sense the psychopath is demonstrating this idea of there being no sin far more than ‘ordinary’ people, as their actions are statements of there being no limits.”

“Well you’re going to extremes here.”

“I hate to tell you, but the very nature of sin and evil does go to extremes. How could anyone possibly not know that? And anyway, a minute ago you were ecstatic about there being no limits. You should also be grateful I went straight to the bogeyman of the Nazis. I could have gone in all kinds of alternative and graphic routes in, let’s say, illustrating your position.”

tWo

 

Two things I’m trying to get somewhere.

U Make Me Feel So Good

 By The Drum Club from 1992.

at sea

 

green

 

Up in the air

 

Whether I can get this to where I’d be happy with is a bit up in the air.

Big News

“Big” Al Gore has vowed to save the world from climate change by going on a diet. It is believed that the resulting reduced pressure on the earth’s resources in no longer having to feed and maintain Gore at his current level could restore health and balance to the global environment.

Nero con punti rossi

 

By Alberto Burri, 1957.

laNdscape

 

I don’t know if this will become something finished or not, but I suppose there’s no harm in showing it as is - or at least as was when I photographed it.

Fruits

 The line from the Gospels, “By their fruits ye shall know them.” Ordinarily one would think of this in reference to people, of good or bad inclination, and especially those who “come in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”

On a more direct individual level though, it reflects on the inner state which arises from where we put our attention. This can be external things or perhaps the thoughts in our heads, which may lead us in certain psychological directions, such as despair. So here again, whatever it is, what are its fruits?

trees, evening

 

Torch

“The batteries seem to be after running out on your torch.”

“Looks like you’re right. I might as well throw it out now, I suppose.”

“Throw it out?!”

“Well no, I’ll hold onto it. I can always use it I suppose to hit people over the head with it.”

“But why not just buy new batteries for it?”

“Oh I didn’t think of that. That’s what I’ll do.”

Blanket

[This below is a bit frustrating to my mind as it feels like it has some depth to it, but if so, what that is for now escapes me.]

“If you came across some ugly, horrible sight on the side of the road, what would you do about it?”

“I don’t know. Maybe I’d put a blanket over it.”

“But that wouldn’t remove it. What would be the point? It would still be there.”

“Yes, but at least no one would have to look at it.”

Seraph

 

The full, though still unfinished, picture was image of something I showed a few days ago, and with a colour filter applied.

Sumi-e coloUrs

 

2 gulls

 

Without

“You know what to a certain person, or let’s say someone in a certain state of being, heaven might be?”

“What?”

“A world without distractions.”

“And do you know to another person, or person in a very different state of being, what hell might be like?”

“What?”

“A world without distractions.”

fiGure

 

water

 

noW

 

Something I’m doing now.

A Man Who Saw Demons

 I found this well worth watching.

across the night sky 2

 

A bit more cleaning up of the picture later.

Okom blagoutrobnym, Gospodi

 

across the night sky

 I should have photographed this a couple of days ago before I decided to try to see if something could be made of it, cos in truth it probably looked not much more than a mess fit for the bin. After plenty scraping away at the ink and paper with a sharp blade though, this is what I’ve managed to help emerge, not that it’s finished yet.

Across the water

 

Tattoos, Piercings, Spirit of the Age

Why the massive increase in tattoos, piercings in the very modern era? Because the spirit of the age is materialism, and thus the mind/soul of those immersed in that spirit is on identification with the flesh, and to an unprecedented level. So the spirit tries to merge absolutely with the flesh. In the apparent absence of a higher spiritual reality, it tries to brand  itself in the physical. The sense of higher or spiritual truth is intrinsic to us and so that powerful yearning for truth and union will be there, but here it attempts to fulfil itself with the flesh - in a time where the prevalent ethos informs there is nothing beyond flesh/matter. So here is where truth is attained.

Obviously I could go on alot on this, but this is the brutal shorthand.

cranes

 

handed

 

I just handed this in to get framed.

shades

 I think just a part of a picture from a few weeks ago that isn’t worth working on.

Che Guevara, Romanticised Psychopath

 

A quick search of the interviewee here, James Bartholomew and Che, yielded this Che Guevara was a Sadist, and lifting a couple of examples not duplicating the video:

Guevara was made chief judge of the revolutionary tribunals and the first commandant of La Cabaña prison in Havana. This was his attitude to court procedure: ‘We do not use bourgeois legal methods; evidence is secondary. We must proceed to convict.’ Some of the executions of political prisoners were televised to make sure that everyone knew resistance meant death. He has been called ‘Castro’s executioner’. Fidel Castro probably chose him for this role because Guevara enjoyed killing and told his father so. He once wrote: ‘Crazy with fury, I will stain my rifle red while slaughtering any enemy that falls into my hands. My nostrils dilate while savouring the acrid odour of gunpowder and blood.’

Rosa Hernandez was the mother of a 17-year-old youth condemned to death. She went to La Cabaña prison and begged for a meeting with Guevara. Guevara agreed to see her. ‘Come right in señora. Have a seat,’ he said. He listened silently while she desperately pleaded the innocence of her son. Then Guevara picked up the phone and, right in front of her, gave the order that her son should be executed that night. Mrs Hernandez became hysterical with grief. She was dragged out by the guards.

One of Guevara’s jobs for Castro was founding Cuba’s first concentration camp: Guanahacabibes. The camp had the motto, ‘Work makes you men’ – which is grimly reminiscent of the sign above the entrance to Auschwitz: ‘Work sets you free’.

In 1962, the Soviet Union placed nuclear missiles in Cuba and only removed them as a result of threats by the United States, which resulted in a deal. Guevara told the British Daily Worker newspaper soon after, ‘If the missiles had remained, we would have used them against the very heart of the United States, including New York. We must never establish peaceful coexistence. We must walk the path of victory even if it costs millions of atomic victims.’ 

The words of an insane psychopath. And which also shows, when someone has willingly opened themselves up to the nakedly demonic, and then in full conscience, or absence of conscience, commit to that choice, rational limits can go out the window. Joy in destruction and nihilistic chaos is the deeper desire.

caRs

 

Tudor Man Dry

 

I posted this a few days ago when the ink was still wet, and this is it dry.

The Gurus, the Young Man, and Elder Paisios

 Just to mention this book which I’m currently reading in digital form, and would definitely recommend. Very readable and interesting. 

This powerful memoir tells the story of a Greek youth who, out of a desire to know the truth empirically, began to experiment in yoga, hypnotism, and various occult techniques. He visited the ancient monastic republic of Mount Athos in his native Greece, where he was brought to a knowledge of Jesus Christ by the saintly Elder Paisios (1924–1994). Nevertheless, believing he had only found “part of the truth” on the Holy Mountain, he chose to give the “same opportunity” to Hindu yogis that he had given to Elder Paisios and other Orthodox monks. Thus, at the age of twenty-five, he embarked on a trip to India, where he undertook his search in the ashrams of three famous gurus, one of whom (Babaji) was worshipped as a god. His experiences in India, along with his subsequent encounters with Elder Paisios on Mount Athos, are recounted in the present book in vivid detail.

Cymbol

I’m maybe doubtful I’ll get this to where I’m happy with it, but here it is for now.