On Meditation

“Catching The Big Fish” is the title of a book by American film maker David Lynch.  It is,
as the sub-title suggests, a thoughtful exploration of “meditation, consciousness, and creativity.”  Here’s how Lynch introduces the concepts in the book: 

“Ideas are like fish.  If you want to catch little fish, you can stay in the shallow water.   But if you want to catch the big fish, you’ve got to go deeper.  Down deep, the fish are more powerful and more pure.  They’re huge and abstract.  And they’re very beautiful.

I look for a certain kind of fish that is important to me, one that can translate to cinema.  But there are all kinds of fish swimming down there.  There are fish for business, fish for sports.  There are fish for everything.

Everything, anything that is a thing, comes up from the deepest level.  Modern physics calls that level the Unified Field.  The more your consciousness - your awareness - is expanded, the deeper you go toward this source, and the bigger the fish you can catch.

Lynch goes on to describe how meditation has opened the door to creativity for him.  By going inside, and going deeper, finding calm and peace the world of creativity becomes ever more accessible.

I have practiced meditation for close to twenty-five years now.  It helps me stay focused.  Life becomes more meaningful, my intuition becomes clearer, the joy of life increases and periods of stress and worry just don’t seem to be all that important anymore. 

But for this photographer, meditation is where I find my inspiration and from there I can follow the path to imagination, originality, artistry, vision, acceptance and gratitude.

So, if you meditate, then this week’s exercise is to practice what I refer to as the “4-in-1.”  For every one hour of successful image making, you are going to need four hours of quiet contemplation.

And if you are not a meditator, then this week’s exercise is to do a little investigation on meditation.  The world wide web is full of articles and sites that will get you started.  Google “meditation,” and follow the thread of your intuition.

JDW