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Making love with light : contemplating nature with words and nature / John Daido Loori.

By: Material type: TextTextPublication details: Boston : Shambhala, c2000.Description: 176 pages : illustrations ; 25 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781590304860(pbk)
Subject(s):
Holdings
Item type Current library Collection Call number Copy number Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Non-Fiction Davis (Central) Library Non-Fiction Non-Fiction 779.3 LOO 1 Available T00464291
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

This book of exquisite photographs arises from the premise that unless we love nature, we will not work to save it from exploitation and eventual destruction. The rich mixture of photographs, Zen poems, and essays presented on these pages is intended to open our hearts to the wild and the wilderness, and to direct us to the ways in which we can heal the earth.

The Zen master John Daido Loori, who is widely known for his efforts to make creative expression an integral part of spiritual practice, here inaugurates a new art form: Zen photography. It's a modern continuation of an ancient tradition that looks to art as an expression of the enlightened mind. The camera thus becomes a contemporary version of the Zen brush, as Loori captures moments of exceptional, unrepeatable beauty. Each image is a seed for contemplation.

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Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

As explained in the foreword to this beautiful book, there is an ancient Zen practice of incorporating san, or a short text, within zenga, or Zen paintings traditionally done with ink and brush. The author of the foreword and book is the abbot of Zen Mountain Monastery, a man known in Buddhist circles for adapting modern technologies to ancient purposes. One way Loori does this is through a camera, snapping photos in place of inking zenga. This book presents two introductory essays, "Sacred Space" and "Light," then 77 of Loori's color photographs, grouped into two sections, "River Valley" and "Rock," each of which opens with its own essay. The essays are finely written and acutely observant about nature, humanity, the sacred. The photosÄof rocks, water, vegetation, occasionally of animals alive or deadÄare more impressive still, each imparting not only a visually striking image but, carried by the image, a sense of stillness or grace. These are masterful photos, worthy of contemplation. The san accompanying the photos (san on one page, photo on opposing page) work less well. Occasionally, they deepen the experience of the photos, but as often they're more literal and less evocative than the images, sometimes merely descriptive and infrequently overwrought. An extraordinary image of two boulders in water, for instance, is joined by the lines, "Light as spring blossoms/boulders float suspended in space." Overall, this is an unusual and spiritually powerful book, handsomely produced, suffused with a genuine and accessible understanding of the miraculous ordinariness of the natural world. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

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