I have come to know and to value the depth perception of Frederick Franck through his books, such as The Zen of Seeing and Fingers Pointing Toward the Sacred. Through his art and writings he invited us who are “addicted to merely looking at things” to reawaken and to cherish “our inborn human gift of seeing.”
Frederick Franck (1909-2006) was a painter, sculptor, and author with a deep interest in spirituality. His sculptures are in the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Fogg Art Museum, and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, as well as at Pacem in Terris, a small sculpture garden adjacent to his home in Warwick, NY.
“Merely looking-at the world around us is immensely different from seeing it. Any cat or crocodile can look-at things and beings, but only we humans have the capacity to see.”
“To see reveals the meaning, to see is to see the Sacred, to look-at is to miss it.
“To see is that specifically human capacity that opens one up to empathy, to compassion with all that lives and dies.”
“When I see – suddenly I am all eyes, I…dive into the reality of what confronts me, become part of it, participate in it.”
“…when seeing starts.…It is an awakening, a new openness for and insight into the livingness of living things, a reborn capacity for empathy, wonder, and reverence, for awe for the simplest things of nature…”
This poem by Bill Slon, a Seescapes visionary, captures the spirit of the Loveburst video series. Ongoing creation recognizes the Creator’s use of evolution to bring all levels of matter to higher realms of being and creativity.
Our Universe, and everything in it, began with what is commonly called the Big Bang. We can also call it the Loveburst — the eruption of overflowing love that could not be contained. The story of ongoing creation is a cosmic love story.
From the first helium atoms to the stars, the planets, and life — all creation has collaborated in the 14 billion year history of ongoing creation.
For a better perspective on the depths of time from which we emerged the Cosmic Calendar maps the 14 billion year story of ongoing creation into one calendar year. This is an extract from The Loveburst,a five-part video series, at http://www.seescapes.com/ Also available on DVD.
One of the projects I’m now working on is a DVD video meditation entitled The Loveburst The Story of Ongoing Creation. It’s my attempt to tell what many call “The Great Story” of our history from the Big Bang to today.
I recently came across this video from Carl Sagan’s Cosmos series that inspired my approach to the last segment of The Loveburst. I’ll share this with you, until I can get my efforts up on YouTube.
Sagan compressed the history of the Cosmos into one calendar year. The Big Bang of creation takes place at the ist second of January 1. Today is at the last second of December 31st.
Our sun, like any other star, is held together by the constant push and pull of complementary forces. Without this ongoing tug-of-war, stars wouldn’t be stars at all.
It takes the constant outward push of a star’s inner fires to keep it shining.
And it takes the restraining force of gravity to keep these energetic balls of fire in shape.
If a star gets too pushy, it can blow itself away in a supernova explosion.
If a star caves in to external pressures, gravity crushes it into a lightless space cinder.
Without doubt, we need our inner energies to fire our enthusiasm. But to keep us in creative balance, we also need to accept the restraining pressures of life.
