Not the Body, But the Consciousness

The problem in middle life, when the body
has reached its climax of power and
begins to decline, is to identify yourself
not with the body, which is falling away,
but with the consciousness of which
it is a vehicle. This is something
I learned from myths.

Joseph Campbell

Simple and Forgotten Things

You must go in quest of yourself,
and you will find yourself again
only in the simple and forgotten things.
Why not go into the forest for a time,
literally? Sometimes a tree tells you
more than can be read in books.

Carl Jung

The Universe

You are the soul, the universe,
and what animates the universe.

Rumi

A Function of Your Own Consciousness

There is an Indian fable of three beings
who drank from a river:
one was a god, and he drank ambrosia;
one was a man, and he drank water; and
one was a demon, and he drank filth.
What you get is a function
of your own consciousness.

Joseph Campbell

This is Your Purpose

You are here to make things.
You have qualified
simply by being born.
Your curiosity about creativity
is qualification enough.
This is your purpose.

Amie McNee

The Secret of Life

The secret of life
is to waste time
in ways that you like.

Jerry Seinfeld

What the Myths Are For

What the myths are for
is to bring us into

a level of consciousness
that is spiritual.

Joseph Campbell

Look Without to Look Within

If I'm upset at something,
I have let it have power over me.
Then I am projecting, because
there's no one out there.
The only thing we should use
the world for is to look at
what our mind is doing.
I "look without" to look within.

Ken Wapnick

Thrown Out of the Nest

To be fully alive, fully human,
and completely awake is to be
continually thrown out of the nest.

Pema Chodron

What We Stay Alive For

We don't read and write poetry because it's cute.
We read and write poetry because
we are members of the human race.
And the human race is filled with passion.
And medicine, law, business, engineering,
these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life.
But poetry, beauty, romance, love,
these are what we stay alive for.

From "Dead Poet's Society"

At the Still Point

At the still point of the turning world.
Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards;
at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest nor movement,
And do not call it fixity,
Where past and future are gathered.
Neither movement from nor towards,
Neither ascent nor decline.
Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance,
and there is only dance.

T.S. Eliot

You Are the Art

As you create,
you are creating yourself.
You are the art.

Amie McNee

Their Own Sweet Way

Things go their own sweet way,
whether you let them or not.
The rose blooms without your approval
and dies without your consent.

Byron Katie

If You Really Want to Help

So if you really want to help this world,
what you will have to teach is how to live in it.
And that no one can do who has not themselves
learned how to live in the joyful sorrow and
sorrowful joy of the knowledge of life as it is.

Joseph Campbell

The Divine Presence Everywhere

Change the focus of the eye.
When you have done that,
then the end of the world as you
formerly knew it will have occurred,
and you will experience the radiance
of the divine presence everywhere,
here and now.

Joseph Campbell

Never Become Anything

If you want to be a grocer, or a general, or
a politician, or a judge, you will invariably
become it; that is your punishment.
If you never know what you want to be,
if you live what some might call the dynamic life
but what I will call the artistic life, if each day
you are unsure of who you are and what you know,
you will never become anything, and
that is your reward.

Oscar Wilde

Not the Same

No one ever steps in
the same river twice,
for its not the same river
and he's not the same man.

Heraclitus

Entry Point to Change

Curiosity is
your entry point
to change.

Anne-Laure Le Cunff

Fully and Completely

Wisdom is nothing more
than the ability to live
in the present moment,
fully and completely.

Byron Katie

Too Old and Too Young

I'm too old to die young,
and too young to grow up.

Marty Feldman

Thought to be Insane

And those who were seen dancing
were thought to be insane by those
who could not hear the music.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Unexpected and Miraculous Outcomes

By releasing our attachment to our beliefs
and expectations, we open ourselves up
to new possibilities and opportunities.
This can lead to unexpected and
miraculous outcomes.

Byron Katie

Trusting Myself

I prayed for guidance and
learned to trust myself.

Rumi

From the Inside

Your believe God looks at us from above,
but He actually sees us from the inside.

Rumi

Why Fear the Way?

If God is your guide,
why fear the way?

Rumi

Why Are They Falling In?

There comes a point where we need to
stop just pulling people out of the river.
We need to go upstream and find out
why they're falling in.

Bishop Desmond Tutu

Art Mirror

Art does not "hold up a mirror to nature."
It holds a mirror up to you.

Michel Faber

Your Tribe

Your tribe is just multiple reflections

of the person you think you are.

Michel Faber

Inside a Lover's Heart

Inside a lover's heart
there is another world,
and yet another.

Rumi

The Sacred Liquid

Are you jealous of the ocean's generosity?
Why would you refuse to give
this gift to anyone?
Fish don't hold the sacred liquid in cups.
They swim the huge fluid freedom.

Rumi

Inches from the Treasure

We search this world for the great untying
of what was wed to us at birth
and gets undone at dying.
We sleep beside a stream, thirsty.
Cursed and unlucky his whole life,
an old man finishes up in a niche
of a ruin, inches from the treasure.

Rumi

The Act of Photography

You don't make a photograph just with a camera.
You bring to the act of photography all the pictures
you have seen, the books you have read,
the music you have heard, the people you have loved.

Ansel Adams

Photography and Personal Growth

Our personal growth can
fuel our photography, and
our photography can fuel
our personal growth.

Brooks Jensen

A Different Kind

Most of the world's suffering is due
to a certain kind of masculinity.
A different kind can change that.

Elaine Aron

The Best People

The best people possess a feeling for beauty, 
the courage to take risks, the discipline to
tell the truth, the capacity for sacrifice.
Ironically, their virtues make them vulnerable;
they are often wounded, sometimes destroyed.

Ernest Hemingway

Work Without Applause

Be prepared to work
always without applause.

Ernest Hemingway

Keep Your Heart Beating

Always remember to make room
to shoot what you love.
It's the only way to keep your heart
beating as a photographer.

Joe McNally

Tell No One

Travel and tell no one,
live a true love story and tell no one,
live happily and tell no one,
people ruin beautiful things.

Khalil Gibran

We Need Your Art

You have been seduced into
thinking you are inconsequential.
It is a lie. We need you.
We need your art.

Amie McNee

Photography Chose Me

I didn't choose photography.
Photography chose me.

Gerardo Suter

I Am Unstoppable

Do you know how powerful I feel
because I can handle failure?
Oh my god. I am unstoppable.

Amie McNee

Bringing All Yourself

Art is choosing to do something skillfully,
caring about the details, bringing all yourself
to make the finest work you can.
It is beyond ego, vanity, self-glorification,
and need for approval.

Rick Rubin

The Ones You Didn't Plan For

The best photographs are
the ones you don't expect.
The ones you didn't plan for.

Joel Meyerowitz

Telling the Story

If I could tell the story in words,
I wouldn't have to lug around a camera.

Lewis Hine

A Way of Being in the World

We tend to think of the artist's work
as the output. The real work of the artist
is a way of being in the world.

Rick Rubin

What Equipment I Use

When people ask me
what equipment I use,
I tell them my eyes.

Anonymous

Living Life as an Artist

Living life as an artist is a practice.
You are either engaging in the practice
or you're not.

Rick Rubin

Creativity is ...

Creativity is a wild mind
and disciplined eye.

Dorothy Parker

Content With Silence

When words become unclear,
I shall focus with photographs.
When images become inadequate,
I shall be content with silence.

Ansel Adams

Audience Comes Last

In terms of priority,
inspiration comes first.
You come next.
The audience comes last.

Rick Rubin

Not When, But Why

It's not when you press the shutter,
but why you press the shutter.

Mary Ellen Mark

All That Matters

All that matters is that you are
making something you love,
to the best of your ability,
here and now.

Rick Rubin

One Piece of Advice

At 70 years old, if I could give
my younger self one piece of advice,
it would be to use the words "fuck off"
much more frequently.

Helen Mirren