Do You See what I See?

 

I tried to fill my sketchbook with as many sketches as I could however as time wore on the environment got a little more toxic than was conducive towards having creative impulses and so I spent a little more effort with the camera instead just so I still keep my practice as a documentary artist, a 'self seeker' whose mind is in constant analytical mode about every move and every circumstances even every thought is to be recorded, I did my best to keep up.

Kapas can make you feel like you are in a timeless space and you can be lost in your own dream if you sit and be present in the beautiful space, and ocean of tranquility, a silence that even the chattering mind had to fade out of respect for the elegance of Nature.  All thoughts slowly evaporates and the warm sea breeze hold one's attention like a blanket and not a sound other than the lapping of the waves against the shore...I felt Being there. 

Will the next monsoon relocate these tree trunks! WallahuAllam! Only Allah knows. I doubt that this was man's arrangement as a piece of assembled art to enhance the scene of the beach and the ocean . The chaotic twists and turns of the roots is a stark display of opposites against the pristine calmness of the sea. My sketchbook is my ego saying ,"I was there."  

How time has eroded the rocks and the sea has shaped them over millions of years to look and feel as they do today and I am but a speck in time having my experience in form and emptiness, within and without, I was there, Present a consciousness enjoying itself.. This is what i felt most of the time when I was able to be alone away from the Resort. The art of being amidst the chaos and the order of life is what i called, "The Art of Living." The essence of what i call my own art practice or who I am as an artist. Observation and Expression are synonymous, they happen in the moment simultaneously and spontaneously, in the blink of an eye or for eternity; the question is were you there! Who was there! The experiencer! The observer! The witness! who? You? Or were you just another tourist taking the scene in and capturing it on your I-Phone or camera.

Have you listened to Hans Zimmer's, "Pirates of the Caribbean " lately! Earphones are a great help and then you look at the horizon and what do you seee!! Yes, good uplifting music helps to keep the mind from wandering away from where you are at into La la Land or worse yet into the wars and the suffering in the Gaza Strip and in Israel a war that will never end except when it all ends and nothing left to come to an end. The end of time, the end of days, call it what you may or want, Armageddon, the Nuclear Holocaust, the Mother of all wars, the end of Kali Yuga, Lord Shiva dances for the last time in Self Destruction. Yes have music in you ears and in your heart so that you will at least appreciate the beauty that humanity is capable of when not killing each other. 

To the lower right of the picture you see the wall of sand bags that hans had constructed in order to face the upcoming wrath of the Monsoon Season. The called it "The Dutch Wall of Kapas."

 

I had the idea that if I survive the Monsoon Season on the island I would look into opening my own Ashram or Zen retreat called the 'Monsoon Retreat' on Kapas. If Shuniamurti can do it in Costa Rica why can't I on Kapas! It would be a perfect venue for such a spiritual retreat whereby once the Monsoon blows there is no chance of leaving the Island. Boat services cease to operate and it is against the maritime law to do so during the Monsoon. So even if one is bored to death, and ferns are growing between your toes from the damp or one craves for a burger, no such luck. One sits and listen to the winds howling and the rain drumming on the roof and all around you sometimes for weeks often accompanied by a cacophony of thunder and lightning, this will be the practice.

                                   As the Firebird flew by there was silence in the air.

In  the words of my Aussie Brother, Ben Ronjen, "No harm in dreaming, mate!" 

A Gentleman from Washington DC came by and like acted typical American the first day or two. Bossy and aloof is one way to look at it and I thought him to be a bit of a bigot till I got to know him. I approached him after i found out that he was an American, Randy was his name and this was what he wrote on my sketchbook...

" You and i are Finally at the Point in life where we know the importance of life,

not just the cost, It is Freedom.!

Be well Friend,

Randy.-USA.

I told him that he was a CIA man and he said as a matter of fact he once was.

Yes you get to meet all kinds on Kapas and you are just one more actor to the scene.