The Leaf of Enlightenment

Comment

Comment by alchemistra on April 4, 2009 at 12:56pm

"...and the one leaf on it I thought of as 'enlightenment' (which I guess I see as really experiencing the awareness of all the rest of the tree as an illusion ...."

Yes, I see what your saying here. That the leaf shoots out directly from the trunk of the tree is very telling. To me it seems to partake of the whole tree, before any division has occurred. Wonderful imagery.

Comment by Zetetic0void on April 3, 2009 at 5:49pm

This painting is one of my few with some intentional symbolism.

I thought of the main tree which divided at top and then into many smaller branches as like the manifestation of formations from the basic 'one' at the root (think of the one root as the Tao or "God" or Ultimate Reality or whatever). These two branched areas which multiply into many smaller parts can also be seen as representing opposites or complimentary things (good,bad ... short,tall ... left, right >).

The branch on the right with the two ravens I thought of as time which spirals inward (theoretically keeps going). The two ravens (or crows) I took from Odin's two crows although I thought of these as more "past" and "future" and the gap between them as the present.

The snake on the tree is sort of like in the Garden of Eden story... so if you go past the snake, you get into the realm of the dividing branches of knowledge and awareness of judging Reality into opposing catagories for all things (I guess sometimes that tree was probably incorrectly called the "Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil"). I also made the snake on that tree as a dollar sign ...hehe.

The branch at lower left branches off before reaching time, the snake, or the realm of division into contrasting masnifestated "segments" of Reality ...and the one leaf on it I thought of as 'enlightenment' (which I guess I see as really experiencing the awareness of all the rest iof the tree as an illusion ..... not that I feel that experience, I just mentally think that is true (maybe someday I'll have the so-called cosmic consciousness and really feel it.)

I'm not sure why I put a moon with an eye in it. The only thing I think of about that is that the phase will be continuously changing so that seems to mean that the vision is always changing.


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Hmm, I never thought about the snakes looking at the birds...maybe that implies a connection between what the snake represents to the past,present, future of the birds.

Comment by alchemistra on April 3, 2009 at 4:14pm

Something interesting here with the birds so close under the lunar eye, the snake is looking at them.