Toronto Cityscapes

Toronto Cityscapes

Cities have their own transcendent landscapes and the stories they tell are never the same.   Take a stroll with me through some streets:

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Structures - Real Prosperity

Structures - Real Prosperity

A rich man asked Sengai to write something for the continued prosperity of his family so that it might be treasured from generation to generation. 

Sengai obtained a large sheet of paper and wrote this on it: "Father dies, son dies, and grandson dies."

The rich man became angry. "I asked you to write something for the happiness of my family! Why do you make such a joke as this?" 

"No joke is intended," explained Sengai. "If before you yourself die you son should die, this would grieve you greatly. If your grandson should pass away before your son, both of you would be broken-hearted. 

If your family, generation after generation, passes away in the order I have named, it will be the natural course of life. I call this real prosperity."

The ultimate standpoint of Zen … is that we have been led astray through ignorance to find a split in our own being,

that there was from the very beginning no need for a struggle between the finite and the infinite, that the peace we are seeking so eagerly has been there all the time.

D. T. SUZUKI

Our mind is like a clear glass of water. If we put salt into the water, it becomes salt water; sugar, it becomes sugar water.... But originally the water is clear. No thinking, no mind. No mind, no problem.

SEUNG SAHN

There is only one thing certain and that is that nothing is certain.

G. K. CHESTERTON

Voyages are accomplished inwardly, and the most hazardous ones, needless to say, are made without moving from the spot.

HENRY MILLER

Those who seek the truth by means of intellect and learning only get further and further away from it. 

Not till your thoughts cease their branching here and there, not till you abandon all thoughts of seeking for something, not till your mind is motionless as wood or stone, will you be on the right road to the Gate.

HUANG-PO

The End.

Structures 2013

Structures 2013

In a typical urban setting our senses are treated to a vast array of ordered geometric excellence. The space is defined by repetitious horizontal and vertical lines, interspersed with reflective glass, gleaming metal, curved concrete, sandstone and red- brown brick. All of this leaves us in awe. At the foot of these colossal monuments which greedily impale the sky are the clogged arteries of people and traffic, the cacophony that is unique to each metropolis.  Though this vast array of shapes sounds and empty spaces do not compare to pristine nature’s beauty, they have their own particular charm and magnetism.

Here’s a selection of pictures that demonstrate this:

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