El-Branden Brazil

Photographer, Writer & Mystic Traveller

Posts tagged ‘Thoughts’

The Illusion Of Separation

Great wisdom tells us repeatedly that concepts of “I”, “you”, “we”, “they” are irrelevant. They are illusory and divide us, creating frictions where there should be none. We need to get past labels of differentiation and move towards what unifies us and what cultivates our awareness of our shared humanity. Only together can we overcome the very serious threats that we share, such as global warming, poverty, war and famine.

To be truly compassionate is to see ourselves in others.

Dawn Prayers On The Shore Of The Ganga
Dawn Prayers On The Shore Of The Ganga
Photography by El-Branden Brazil

Zen Reflections

Whilst sitting with my Zen Master, something suddenly occurred to me:

Human life is exactly like a leaf on a tree. In Spring, it buds into existence. In Summer, it reaches its full potential, bright and green. In Autumn, it begins to lose it’s vibrancy, turning brown and falling to the ground below. In Winter, it decomposes and becomes one with the earth again.

This metaphor is perhaps obvious, but the difference is in how a human life and a leaf go through these changes. A leaf is without consciousness, and passes through the process of existing, very, very quietly and being what it simply is. Humans, by contrast, manifest great anguish as we grasp desperately to what will inevitably be lost. If only we could remain silent like a leaf, being the thing as it is, with the sweet clarity of Truth and without the grandiose delusions of self.

Leaves & Tiles At A Zen Temple

Photography by El-Branden Brazil

An Epiphany

A random moment allowed me to be conceived. I gestated in the womb of my mother for nine months, unaware of the life that awaited me outside. On the day I was born, I breathed my first breath. As time passed, the world slowly came into focus, as I gained the awareness that comes with growing pains.

In my teens, my place in the vast universe became apparent. I would sit out in my parent’s garden, on cool British summer evenings, staring at the seemingly endless starry sky above. Sometimes, I felt a cold loneliness. Whilst at other times, a sense of oneness.

As I continued to mature, I began to sense and question deeply the social restrictions enforced upon me by individuals I did not know, but who seemed to think they were empowered to control my destiny; my brief, fleeting moment at existing. I looked around, and saw so many of my colleagues and friends accepting this status-quo, as if it had been written in the very fabric of space and time. That life should be routine, rigid and monotonous. That it was okay and expected that during our brief moment to live, we should commit our precious time to endless commuting to workplaces, embrace soul-crushing conformity and the conditions laid out by companies, whose only interest are profits and how best to enslave us, without us noticing. Their trick, to just barely reward our efforts adequately with nothing more than pieces of paper, we are told to be of some worth.

In this twisted vision, so devoid of any connection to true reality and the long-forgotten cyclical rhythms of the precious planet, we wallow in the madness of greed, dependency and apathy, whilst the elite continues to grow ever more powerful, gorging itself sickeningly upon the spoils of its victories.

And let us not forget, how easily young men and women are sent to their deaths upon a distant battlefield, that those manipulating reality will never see with their own eyes, or be prepared to spill their own blood upon. They will just sit comfortably, monitoring and collecting data about the legions that we make, imprisoning and questioning anyone whose eyes have been opened.

The present world order is a rigged game, created by a few. It doesn’t have to be this way. This is OUR world! We have a birth given right to do what we wish with her, and that should be to do nothing, other than to realign ourselves with her rhythms again. To respect her. To share her fairly, so that no one need starve again or live in horrendous poverty.

As Machiavelli pointed out in The Prince, a king can only be a king if the people allow him to be. Of course, the king will try to coax and manipulate the loyalties of his subjects, through either rewards or punishment. But, the people will always have the power. They just need awakening.

Photography  by El-Branden Brazil

Sunrise On The Nile – Photography by El-Branden Brazil

The Dead Man’s Mass

The light of Twilight opened:
Bruised in orange inclination
Below a dark blue cascade
Of starlit elevation.
He lay down to ponder
Upon the complex folly of descent
And all the foolish hooded lies
That embraced all human incident.
His breast released a fearful sigh –
Exasperating all clear smoke
From deep within his ancient lungs
And pushed out from hidden throat.
And his eyes became wide open –
Gasping at the visual splendour
In every moment passing on,
As life evaporated yonder.
His memories caught in bloodied fever
And seeping from every pore;
He felt ecstatic recollection
For what had been before.
And no where had this Dead Man seen,
The golden sunrise of the Night –
Transcending high in earnest dream
And drowning him in Holy rite.
And vanished by forsaken moment,
Reality’s gates were closed –
Elyseum of ancient myth constructed
While his abstract mind composed.

– El-Branden Brazil
Copyright January 12th, 1998 –

image

Painting by El-Branden Brazil