Cathedral of Knowledge

This is supposedly the Cincinnati Library in 1874.  I have no idea if that is true, but it's cool regardless.

Being Free

'When someone seeks,' Siddhartha answered, 'then it happens all too easily that his eyes will see only the thing he is seeking, that he cannot find anything, cannot let anything in, because he is always thinking only of that thing he seeks, because he has a goal, because he is possessed by the goal.  Seeking means: having a goal.  But finding means: being free, being open, having no goal.  You, Venerable One, may indeed be a seeker, for striving toward your goal, there is much you do not see which is right before your eyes.'

-Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha

Home.

It Comes at a Cost

'We would all like to be simpler, Paul,' she says, 'every one of us.  Particularly as we near the end.  But we are complicated creatures, we human beings.  That is our nature.  You want me to be simpler.  You want to be simpler yourself, more naked.  Well, I gaze in wonderment, believe me, upon your efforts to strip yourself down.  But it comes at a cost, the simple heart you so desire, the simple way of seeing the world...'

-J.M. Coetzee, Slow Man

City of Angels

George

Trips

Two from Siddhartha

At one time shramanas had passed through Siddhartha's city, ascetics on a pilgrimage, three scrawny, faded men, neither old nor young, dust and blood on their shoulders, nearly naked, scorched by the sun, ringed by solitude, alien and hostile to the world, foreigners and haggard jackals in the realm of human beings.  Behind them a breeze blew hot with the scent of silent passion, of mortification, of ruthless self-denial.

Patapsco State Park

The Buddha went his way, unassuming and sunk in contemplation, his still countenance was neither happy nor sad, it seemed gently to smile inwardly.  With a hidden smile, calm, peaceful, not unlike a healthy child, the Buddha walked, wearing the robe and setting his foot just as all his monks did, exactly as prescribed.  But his face and his tread, his calmly lowered gaze, his calmly hanging hand, and from that calmly downward-hanging hand every single finger expressed peace, expressed perfection, sought nothing, imitated nothing, breathed softly in an everlasting repose, an unfading light, and inviolable peace.

-Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha