Solitude: Scene II

Scene two: at the water temple at the Awaji island, Japan.

The setting was idyllic. It wasn’t much, just a pond atop a hill, with the mountains in the backdrop. We had just walked up the hill, and there was a calm hush all over the place. The silence wasn’t deafening, but you could hear the flutter of a bird’s wing. Nothing moved there really, it was all still, as if the earth had stopped its mad tailspin. I remember while entering the place, I wondered why we had scheduled a whole hour for the trip here. By the look of it, we could be out of here in ten minutes, given the size of the place and paucity of detail. But as I walked around the temple, I lost any sense of time, as we know it in the ‘real’ world. Minutes, seconds, hours, days, months, years, decades, centuries, millenniums, all seemed to vanish into the haze. It was no longer something that moved constantly, but expanded and contracted naturally. I sat there and stared at the water, as the fish swam from one end to the other, in a loop. The rhythm faded into the background and I found my thoughts zooming through my head again. I stared at those fish for the entirety of the hour, which seemed more like ten minutes to me. 

Reflections in the sand

 

 

The sun is setting deep, an orange flaming ball. It is a quiet and peaceful setting, an occasional cool breeze blows through my hair. I sit there watching the flaming ball go down behind the large gateway. The shadows lengthen across the floor, painting a wide arc as time passes by. I become aware of my being and my senses as the final rays of the sun stream through the gate and onto my face. Time almost stops at this moment, allowing me to reflect, and detach myself from reality. My mind races through memory, skipping time, folding it, compressing it, yet somehow, time stays still in this moment. In one instant, I am able to traverse the entirety of my existence, no past, no future, in that instant. The gateway, the sun, the shadow, the breeze, the sky, the earth, me, all become one, and at that moment of synchronicity, time slows down to zero, allowing me to travel at the speed of thought

 

 

 

 

: 間.

 

 

 

 

(While at the Ryoanji Temple, Kyoto, Japan, November 2007.)

Hello Me!

Umm…This is my first blog, and since i haven’t really told anyone yet that I’ve started this (partially because I don’t know if I will go beyond this one), this blog is to myself. So, Hello Myself, and let’s see if I can actually manage to stick with this attempt for longer than one blog!

Slopintheocean is my worldview. I have been thinking of doing this for months but knowing myself, i just didn’t make the effort. I am inspired by the everyday. My inspiration for starting this today also was quite serendipitous and unexpected. I am quietly indebted to that person. This is for every nameless, faceless, discriptionless, nonchalant moment of inspiration that has ever been, and surely will be.

I hope this slop doesn’t turn into a flop.