David Jones, artist and poet (1895-1974) begins his PREFACE TO THE ANATHEMATA :

'I have made a heap of all that I could find.' (1) So wrote Nennius, or whoever composed the introductory matter to Historia Brittonum. He speaks of an 'inward wound' which was caused by the fear that certain things dear to him 'should be like smoke dissipated'. Further, he says, 'not trusting my own learning, which is none at all, but partly from writings and monuments of the ancient inhabitants of Britain, partly from the annals of the Romans and the chronicles of the sacred fathers, Isidore, Hieronymous, Prosper, Eusebius and from the histories of the Scots and Saxons although our enemies . . . I have lispingly put together this . . . about past transactions, that [this material] might not be trodden under foot'. (2)

(1) The actual words are coacervavi omne quod inveni, and occur in Prologue 2 to the Historia.
(2) Quoted from the translation of Prologue 1. See The Works of Gildas and Nennius, J.A.Giles, London 1841.


10 March 2010

On the way to a teaching

.
In Melbourne last night were two visiting pointers to the mind.



Sogyal Rinpoche, author of The Tibetan Book Of Living and Dying, gave a public teaching at the Collingwood Town Hall. In considering the nature of mind, one of Rinpoche's favorite analogies is the film projector, with it's passing image filters and it's projections, behind which, uninvolved, is a pure intense light. He quotes the summary of Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche:
Samsara is mind turned outwardly,
lost in its projections.
Nirvana is mind turned inwardly,
recognising its true nature.
During last night's teaching there were references to clear seeing and to empty projections, empty prejudices ...

On the way to the Sogyal Rinpoche teaching, this student of mind, already aware the Dirty Projectors were also in Melbourne, photographed their poetsoftheinterverse listing outside the hi-fi bar.

What a marvelous work of name, he thought again. He imagined them taking the stage and declaring to their followers :



Hi, we're Dirty Projectors.

2010.03.09_HI FI BAR_Dirty Projectors
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something ...

LOGOS/HA HA