ojos
205.365
taken in chicago…some beautiful eyes from a poster. what was she looking at? why? what story was she told to evoke the gaze? so much goes into the details of marketing and what will evoke an emotion from some passer by to stimulate an action of consumerism.
“Marketing is the process by which companies create customer interest in products or services. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business development.[1] It is an integrated process through which companies build strong customer relationships and create value for their customers and for themselves”
taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing
sounds and reads misleading…that they are “creating” relationships and value for….whom? before the 1950′s the word “marketing” had not been defined….i wonder…
today when i sit down to watch the world news i am bombarded by marketing in the spots they call commercials. 90% of them are drug companies pushing their wares however if you listen to every word they say the symptoms from these medications have far more consequences then what the little pill delivers…an illusion of a cure. our “eyes” or ojos cannot see the truth it is up to our mind to investigate the true nature of what or how we see.
August 20th, 2010 at 5:59 am
The photograph is beautiful. Your thoughts on ojos, what we see and marketing are thought provoking.
It feels to me that our everyday world is so cluttered with “eye material”, mostly marketing in some form or another, making it almost impossible to really see anything other than illusions.
Contemplating the eye – mind connection…
If we take in so much through our eyes – how does it affect our mind? Does the visual clutter also clutter our mind? In clearing the mind, do the eyes see truth more clearly?
August 20th, 2010 at 7:34 am
great thoughts sabina!
the “eyes” do take in enormous clutter which creates distracting thoughts or incorrect views. our mind tells us what we see, and how to feel. in order to see truths we do need to clear our mind! everything we “see” is an imputation from mind…still being an ordinary mind our thoughts will be conceptual and innate however it is only through knowledge that we can gain wisdom and stop the cycle of seeing w/o thinking, question and investigation before making choices..
August 21st, 2010 at 3:19 pm
Thanks for putting your thoughts out there!
Yes, knowledge and stopping unconscious cycles…well said.
Thinking that you may be interested in a photography session that I once took over a weekend. Miksang – Contemplative Photography.
The Level 1 session I participated in discussed removing clutter in our visual fields among many other ideas.
http://www.miksang.org/m/index.html
Hope you are having a nice weekend.
August 22nd, 2010 at 7:49 am
Hazel, you say ‘the eyes take in enormous clutter‘. I see it differently: The eyes take in the absolute truth, unprocessed, uninterpreted, raw; the mind then turns this material into pictures, stories, opinions, likes and dislikes,and then into reactions and on and on. Yes, in order to see what really is, we have to take into consideration that the mind is a processor, and that this machine/organ is conditioned because it has this unique property to be subject to coditioning. The mind doesn’t tell us the truth, the eyes do. In order to see the truth we have to still the mind and watch it carefully and not readily believe its hasty conclusions. Yes, the mind translates what the eye sees into concepts, relates this to what it already remembers (knows) and delivers more concepts. Wonderful in the actual sense of the word, but not necessarily true.
August 22nd, 2010 at 9:30 am
Dear Klaus,
thanks for leaving the comment!! i love this kind of dialogue and engagement…
however…i hear your words but “eye” and “i” do not exist in the way my eyes see myself nor do you. therefore our eyes are mere aggregates… it exists in our mind. the only truth of representation to what our eyes see or what our minds construct is emptiness, only an enlightened or awakened being knows the truth of what “it” looks like.
the more i understand the more questions i am filled with! delightful to feel this way…and i will give your comment further thought(s)…this is just from the forefront of my mind…must delve into a little more…fascinating!! perhaps as an ordinary mind and human you are correct…
what i keep coming back to though is as a human right here right now, i am not awakened, my thoughts are conceptual and innate and yes, i work to retrain everything i was taught but what my eyes see today is “clutter” my mind is not controlled or trained enough to understand this truth spontaneously as it happens in a split second…hmm, it makes me think of that question of which came first the egg or the chicken!? since our subtle mind is what carries on life after lifes does it not make sense that the eyes are mere aggregates and our subtle mind is in fact our truth eyes?
August 22nd, 2010 at 3:30 pm
“the only truth of representation to what our eyes see or what our minds construct is emptiness” — This is powerful stuff. Probably true, however, it comes from a thinking mind and goes to a thinking mind. As long as we discuss this intellectually we would have to spend a lot of time on clarifying terms. Most of all ‘Mind‘. Otherwise we are bound to missunderstand eachother or talk about things merely for the sake of talking.
“only an enlightened or awakened being knows the truth of what “it” looks like.” I have a feeling I know what you mean, but isn’t this kind of enlightenment available with heartbrakingly little effort? Isn’t that what we learn in meditation? To watch the mind do its business and not follow the habit any longer to actually believe what it produces all the time? And gradually, carefully go back to the origin (to the pure sensations), resist the temptation to jump on the usual train of thought, if we are on it already, step off and go back? And rest there, where the raw stuff arrives. Endure the apparent meaninglessness, let the mind protest as much as it wants, don’t buy the alluring story it is endlessly offering with unsurpassable skill. Yes you need to wake up to the fact that that’s what the mind is doing – making stories, interpreting things, drawing conclusions, making sense; oh this greatest illusion of all: sense, order; comparing things, inventing meaning, and that that’s the only thing the mind is ever doing. Not that this is bad – we wouldn’t last a minute without the mind’s capacity to do all this – but, boy, in order to see the truth you have to reign in the mind and guard it and train it and treat it like a wild animal. If this is enlightenment, it is reachable. I think true enlightenment is far beyond this training stage where living with a mind like this in complete harmony and peace has become effortless. When the mind has awakened to the quality of its own nature, when the mind knows itself.
“my mind is not controlled or trained enough to understand this truth…” You only “think” this because you think you are your mind. You actually see the inadequacy of the mind but identify with it. You are not your mind, the mind is just an aspect of you. Most things are not understandable, no big deal. The world works very well without the mind understanding everything. Your eyes see, trust that, don’t trust any interpretations of what the mind adds.
I find it easier to do this on e-mail. Do I have to put this into the comment box too?
Klaus
August 25th, 2010 at 7:58 am
Random thoughts that arise from the interesting and engaging conversation happening here….
I recently read a book about a man who lost his vision at age 3. A true story of his life and the opportunity to have vision. The complexity of what vision is, the pathways that neurons make vision happen…not a simple nor completely understood phenomenon.
In my experience, it seems that the mind can direct the eyes i.e. figure background. If my mind registers that I am hungry, all of the visual world organizes itself to put food in the foreground and everything else in the background. I “see” what I need.
My mind activated with strong emotion directs my eyes to “see” emotionally.
Stillness of mind connects my eyes to beauty, wonder, and connectedness..
Eyes seeing truth.
August 25th, 2010 at 12:30 pm
To Sabina
The mind certainly physically direct the eyes, however, the eyes just see the plain facts, the truth, and the mind processes that, interprets, manipulates that, the mind makes its own reality out of it, it doesn’t accept anything else – unless it has been trained and awakened to its own nature and thereby to its intrinsic insufficiencies.
Yes, in stillness the mind has so much more time to watch carefully, see its own shortcomings and almost inevitably discover supreme beauty in things before it even deals with them.