Urthona magazine covers contemporary art, photography, literature and traditional Buddhist arts from
Urthona – the landscape:Our guardian spirits are the romantic and revolutionary writers of early 19th century London – Blake, Hazlitt and Coleridge – and the Zen poets of Japan who were similarly drawn to the open, outer reaches of mind and culture. Our founding inspiration came from the Western Buddhist teacher Sangharaksh*ta who has always seen the arts as a key means of spiritual transformation
in the contemporary world. Here you will find essays on the arts as a means of rousing the imagination and communicating a sense of the sacred in ways that are relevant to the 21st century.Our VisionYou will find here a Romantic / Blakean concern for revolution as an attitude of mind which seeks to regenerate human perception as the means towards transformation of society. We value the language of myth as a vital means to explore human experience. The methods explored are those of the most inspired artists from the whole of human culture and the meditative techniques of mental cultivation which come principally from the Buddhist East. Longer articles and editor's blog at www.urthona.comFull catalogue of back issue for purchase at :https://urthona.com/urthona-shop-subscribe-to-current-issue-buy-back-issues/
The forgotten Inkling, colleague of Tolkien and Lewis
C. S. Lewis (left) with brother Warnie, date unknown, presumably taken during Major Lewis’s retirement The Inklings, that informal but highly influential Oxford literary group, has had many b…
So i don't know if folk want to see this kind of imagery some people find AI images spooky and that is quite understandable. I did these strange moorland machine ones in the style of various 19th & 20th century artists such as John Piper & William Waterhouse. Personally I feel it is okay to prompt for artists who are long in the grave but living ones I'm not so sure...
Editor's photo gallery – writing, editing and photography are three passions of mine, it is sometimes hard to juggle all three!
https://geopoeticblog.wordpress.com/
Here is a link I have never thought before - Tolkien and William Blake!
Annise Rogers explores the visual connection between J.R.R. Tolkien and William Blake.
TOLKIEN AND BUDDHISM
Has this topic been explored yet by anyone? Urthona will be doing so in our next issue (summer 2024).
Meanwhile here is an article that opens up many interesting parallels with Tolkien and western estotericism. Many Buddhists I imagine would focus more on Tolkien's moral vision, but there is much to think about in this rich essay written by a traditionalist writer in the lineage of Rene Guernon.
Joscelyn Godwin does mention Buddhism however. He picks up the key point that for Tolkien it is men alone, and not the in many ways superior elves who aspire to escape from the rounds of incarnation on the earth (slain elves can be reborn in middle earth). For Tolkien (in his pious Christian framework) this escape was in later history of Middle Earth to be guaranteed by Christ - as obliquely hinted at in the Silmarillion. For Buddhists of course this only comes about through remarkable spiritual practice (or the grace of Amitabha in Far Eastern Buddhism!). For Tolkien even the angels / gods / devas, and the elves, remain bound to conditioned existence, they have a different fate to human beings. But putting aside details of cosmology there is a poetic flavour to Tolkien's myth which embodies longing for transcendence, as well as the unique advantages of human birth, and has much to admire. Here is the key passage form Godwin:
"Tolkien accords to Man a unique position and a relationship with death that seem to find its closest echo in Buddhism. Of all the beings of the Universe, according to Buddhist doctrine, only Man can achieve Enlightenment and final liberation from the Wheel of Existence. Even the Long-Lived Gods who dwell in bliss, for a myriad of years must eventually descend and take on human incarnations in order to become enlightened, or else must continue to be reborn on the Wheel in inferior and even hellish states. When Ilúvatar (Tolkien's creator God) decided to make Men he promised to give them a new gift: ‘Therefore he willed that the hearts of Men should seek beyond the world and should find no rest therein; but they should have a virtue to shape their life, amid the powers and chances of the world, beyond the Music of the Ainur, which is as fate to all things else (S, p. 41). ‘It is one with this gift of freedom that the children of Men dwell only a short space in the world alive, and are not bound to it, and depart soon whither the Elves know not Death is their fate, the gift of Ilúvatar, which as Time wears even the Powers shall envy." ('The Silmarillion', p. 42).
https://hermetic.com/godwin/tolkien-and-the-primordial-tradition
Paul Hart is an exceptionally fine English nature photographer. He finds haunting, poetic images in neglected corners of small towns and the countryside. Many of the images convey a sense of desolation and paralysis, and the partial capture of nature in industrial farm landscapes
Show here is one from his fenland series 'Drained' and two from his series 'Truncated' about a plantation in Derbyshire.
The writer Isabelle Bonnet wrote this about his work in 2020:
Hart’s landscapes create a dialogue between art and document, lyricism and storytelling, the sublime and the ordinary. Almost everywhere, rectilinear and regular shapes unfold, impeccably drawn furrows responding to rows of trees, industrial constructions and metal structures. Vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines multiply across the pages, occasionally disrupted by an incongruous curve. They remind us that man’s ambitions for the domination and exploitation of nature and all things living have been fulfilled, as once dreamed of by Descartes, who wished to ‘render ourselves [...] the lords and possessors of nature’. These divided, squared and geometrical landscapes look as though caught in a cage – hence the impression of immobility or near-paralysis they convey. No movement animates this nature morte, no bird awakens these low and heavy skies and endless horizons...
https://www.paulhartphotography.com/series-index-1
BUDDHIST CHORAL MUSIC - a new web resource of music by Triratna composers.
Sarvadarsin introduces a new web resource of Buddhist choral music: In recent years, Buddhism has spread to the West, becoming the fastest growing religion in some countries, its teachings and practices striking a chord with individuals seeking spiritual growth and inner peace. Previously, as it reached new parts of the world, Buddhism had a transformative effect on the cultures it encountered, as new Buddhists share and communicate the Buddha Dharma in ways informed by their own traditions.
One of the biggest new Buddhist Movements, the Triratna Buddhist Community, emphasises engagement with the arts as one of the most valuable aspects of spiritual practice. Members of the Triratna Buddhist Order have been creating explicitly Buddhist visual art in a modern style for some time, and increasingly they are creating in other areas too, including choral music.
Buddhist Choral Music is a new website which brings together recorded performances of pieces composed by members of the Triratna Buddhist Order, Bodhivajra, Vipulakirti, Manidhara and Sarvadarśin. Visitors to the site can hear audio and video recordings of several of the pieces and choirmasters are encouraged to browse through over twenty pieces available to download as sheet music, which their choirs can perform or record.
Texts featured in the compositions include some of the most important Buddhist texts including The Heart Sutra and excerpts from The Diamond Sutra and The Dhammapada.
site and to fund future compositions and recordings.
Website: www.buddhistchoralmusic.com
Contact [email protected]
Barn near Stapleford, Sony A6300 Zeiss 16-70mm
Behind Stapleton Church there is a wonderful Avenue of Horse Chestnut trees, taken with the zeiss 16 to 70 – these old Zeiss lenses are are not quite as sharp as modern lenses but they have wonderful colour rendition
The Inklings, preparation for the next issue of Urthona I am reading up about the inklings that unparalleled Oxford group of fantasy writers.
CS Lewis was also a Christian apologist and popularist. He tried to make Christianity both thoughtful and imaginatively attractive to thoughtful people all over the Western world. There are still institutes in the USA dedicated to his memory studying his voluminous writing.
Here are two good ideas he had.
1. Heaven and hell are fundamentally states of mind when you die you go into the state of eternal knownness if you have sinned in your life you will experience that as hell but if you have accepted Christ you will experience it as heaven. Clever huh?;
2. The various talents and capabilities we have gifts, that come from somewhere else we can develop them but we are given them in some sense. Therefore the appropriate emotion is humility and gratitude. For him of course the gifts come from God. For a Buddhist perhaps you think your gifts come from good karma from previous lives. If so you can be grateful to your past self and all the other conditions that led to that good karma. But this seems to lack a sacred dimension perhaps??
3. In some ways Christ , for Lewis the ultimate being, was like a very wise but cuddly golden transcendental lion...!
PS his friend Charles Williams another inkling wrote a short novel about various platonic archetypes including The Lion erupting into the world... I'm not sure which of them got their first.
Watch this space...
As photographer I often turn to 19th century watercolors for inspiration, I wish more contemporary painters were working like this... Thomas Leeson Rowbotham c. 1854
Saddhahadaya - a l landscape painter from Cambridge who is a member of the Triratna Order features in the new Urthona, issue 36 'Unknown Landscapes' - available at www.urthona.com (click URTHONA SHOP) in top menu). Image: 'Rainy afternoon in Eigg'.
Khemin - a traditional landscape painter from Norfolk who is a member of the Triratna Order features in the new Urthona, issue 36 'Unknown Landscapes' - available at www.urthona.com (click URTHONA SHOP) in top menu).
Cezanne painted Mont Sainte-Victoire many times always trying to capture its essential form and presence. In Urthona 36 ‘Unknown Landscapes’ Maitreyabandhu talks in depth about appreciating landscape art as a spiritual pursuit. And about his love of Cezanne and how this was the inspiration for his wonderful new poetry collection 'After Cezanne'.
URTHONA 36 Unknown Landscapes OUT NOW at www.urthona.com (click URTHONA SHOP) in top menu)
Maitreyabandhu says: “Nothing takes the place of standing in front of a painting and meeting it with everything you’ve got. You’re trying to meet everything the painter has got with everything you’ve got. It’s too easy to sort of want the painter to do all the work. You have to go and meet him. You have to give him or her what you've got; you have to be open to them.”
Celebrated landscape artist David Mankin lives in what he calls the ‘wild west’ of Cornwall. He begins by making dynamic, gestural marks, then a process involving many layers of working and reworking unfolds. Like nature itself, his paintings are fluid and dynamic, with elemental forces meeting and merging within the horizon of the canvas.
David is featured in URTHONA 36 Unknown Landscapes OUT NOW at www.urthona.com (click URTHONA SHOP) in top menu).
Urthona Issue 36 NOW ON SALE – Unknown Landscapes
A sumptuous issue devoted to landscape art and writing.
Highlights include interview with Maitreyabandhu about his love of Cezanne. Review of the Hockney Arrival of Spring exhibition. Sacred springs in Nepal and Cambridgeshire. Dynamic Cornish landscapes by celebrated St Ives artist David Mankin.
NEW FORMAT Now in A4 size art book format and high quality thick paper, a delight to hold in your hand. Also available as Emag for iPad etc.
Cover image: Liverpool Bay by Ratnagarbha
Featured Image: Storm Over Zennor by St Ives artist David Mankin
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WILL URTHONA BE USING CHATGPT??
Answer: no never, don't worry!
Here are my test results. Its not good enough to get you through an O level, let alone write for a literary magazine. And it would be against everything we stand for to pretend something written by AI was by a human being.
So I decided to test out the literary abilities of ChatGPT. Result: creative writing ability is very poor indeed. Essay writing ability quite impressive.
Write me a short detective story about Sherlock Holmes in which a dead body is discovered in a locked bank vault. The dead person is unknown to the bank staff and no one can understand how it got there. The clue is a portrait of Mary Queen of Scots found in the dead man's pocket.
CHATGPT: It was a dark and rainy day in London when Sherlock Holmes received an urgent message from the manager of the city's largest bank. A dead body had been discovered in a locked vault, and no one could understand how it got there. The bank staff was puzzled, as they did not recognize the dead person, and there was no sign of forced entry or foul play.
As always, Holmes arrived at the scene with his trusted companion, Dr. Watson. Upon examining the body, Holmes found a clue in the form of a small portrait of Mary Queen of Scots tucked into the dead man's pocket. He recognized the portrait as a rare and valuable artifact, which could only have been obtained through illegal means.
With this information, Holmes set to work, questioning the bank staff and combing through security footage. He soon discovered that the dead man had been posing as a wealthy client, using forged documents to gain access to the vault. It seemed that he had been planning to steal the Mary Queen of Scots portrait, but had somehow become trapped in the vault and died of suffocation..... (That's about it)
MY ASSESSMENT: Hmm, not exactly compelling...
Write me a short story about getting lost on Ilkley Moor in the style of Emily Brontë
CHATGPT: The moors were wild and desolate, with nothing but the sound of the wind and the rustling of heather to break the silence. Mary had been walking for hours, her feet growing sore and her spirits sinking with each passing moment. She had set out early in the morning, hoping to enjoy the beauty of the moors in peace and solitude, but now she found herself hopelessly lost, with no idea of how to get back to civilization.
As she trudged through the heather, Mary thought of home and the warmth of the fire waiting for her there. She wondered if her family would even notice that she was gone, or if they would simply assume that she had gone out for a walk and never return.
The moors stretched out before her, an endless expanse of grass and heather that seemed to go on forever. Mary felt her spirits sinking further with each step, and she began to fear that she would never find her way back. ( She is rescued by a shepherd) As Mary sat by the fire, her body and soul renewed by the warmth and comfort of the shepherd's cottage, she knew that she would never forget the wild beauty of the moors, or the kindness of the stranger who had saved her life. For in that moment, she had learned that even in the midst of darkness and despair, there was always hope, always a glimmer of light shining through the mist.
MY ASSESSMENT: Really, the little moral points it adds in are most tedious and very far from anything that Emily would have written... A ten year old could do better....
OK now the essay: List the key poets who saw active service in the 2nd world war, and in each case explain the features of their poetic style:
CHATGPT: There were several key poets who saw active service in the Second World War. Here are some of them, along with the features of their poetic style:
Keith Douglas: Douglas was a British poet and soldier who fought and died during the Second World War. His poetry is known for its gritty realism and focus on the experience of war. Douglas's poems often describe the horrors of battle in vivid detail, and he was critical of the romanticized view of war that was popular at the time. His style was characterized by its plain language, its use of irony and dark humor, and its unflinching honesty about the brutality of war.
Alun Lewis: Lewis was a Welsh poet and soldier who served in North Africa and Burma during the Second World War. His poetry often deals with the themes of love and loss, and he was deeply affected by his experiences of war. Lewis's style was characterized by its lyrical quality, its use of vivid imagery, and its exploration of the emotional impact of war on soldiers and civilians alike.
Henry Reed: Reed was a British poet and soldier who served in North Africa and Italy during the Second World War. His poetry often deals with the experience of war from a soldier's perspective, and he was critical of the way that soldiers were treated and portrayed by society. Reed's style was characterized by its wit, its use of irony, and its ability to capture the often absurd nature of war.
MY ASSESSMENT: And more similar on other poets. Not bad for a first attempt. Might pass at O Level for a short essay. OK I thought I will give it a helping hand, and ask it to elaborate on a feature of Douglas' style that I myself had spotted. This is the best attempt so far.
Explain how the poetic Style of Keith Douglas makes use of stark realism but with occasional supernatural imagery of ghosts etc
CHATGPT: Keith Douglas' poetic style is primarily characterized by its stark realism and its unflinching depiction of war and its horrors. He often uses vivid imagery and direct language to convey the brutality and senselessness of war, as well as its impact on individuals. However, despite his commitment to realism, Douglas occasionally makes use of supernatural imagery, such as ghosts and spirits, in his poetry.
These supernatural elements serve to heighten the emotional impact of his poems and to underscore the sense of loss and devastation caused by war. For example, in his poem "Simplify Me When I'm Dead," Douglas uses the image of a ghost to convey the idea of a lingering presence or memory. He writes:
Make me a willow cabin at your gate
and call upon my ghost
to come again.
I will not mind the snow or rain
or storm or night;
I will be the light that guides you home.
Here, the ghostly image of the speaker serves to emphasize the idea that even in death, a person's presence can continue to influence and guide those who remain behind.
Similarly, in his poem "How to Kill," Douglas uses the image of a man being turned into a ghost to convey the sense of loss and devastation caused by war. He writes:
Being damned, I am amused
to see the centre of love diffused
and the wave of love travel into vacancy.
How easy it is to make a ghost.
Here, the image of a man being turned into a ghost serves to underscore the idea that war can strip away a person's humanity and reduce them to a mere shadow of their former self.
In summary, while Keith Douglas' poetic style is primarily characterized by its stark realism, his occasional use of supernatural imagery serves to deepen the emotional impact of his poems and to underscore the sense of loss and devastation caused by war.
MY ASSESSMENT: Well not bad but very bland. Surely even at O level something better would be expected to get good marks? And the paragraph about being turned into a ghost is far too weak, not to say inaccurate. The poet has just shot a man in cold blood having seen him in his sights for heavens sake.
Nevertheless intelligent use of it could get you a low grade pass for O level literature I would guess. Which is sobering. Let's hope the bots for spotting text written by AI get equally good...
Urthona issue 36 Unknown Landscapes will be out early in the New Year, 2023. More details here:
Urthona Issue 36 ‘Unknown Landscapes’ will be out just after Xmas. Landscapes move and uplift us in ways that are hard to pin down. Artists explore such emotional responses and bring cl…
Urthona Issue 36 'Unknown Landscapes' will be out just after Xmas. Landscapes move and uplift us in ways that are hard to pin down. Artists explore such emotional responses and bring clarity, awareness and transformational depth to the process. They help us to make the appreciation of landscape more conscious and meaningful. Painters and writers have fostered the appreciation of landscape for its own sake for hundreds of years....
Urthona Issue 36 ‘Unknown Landscapes’ will be out just after Xmas. Landscapes move and uplift us in ways that are hard to pin down. Artists explore such emotional responses and bring cl…
The encounter of Buddhism and Platonism – what can modern Buddhists and others learn from Plato? A philosophical essay by Ratnagarbha I have been interested in Platonism for as long as I have been a Buddhist. The two have always gone hand in hand for me. I find in Platonism a wonderfully articulated view of a sacred cosmos, in which number and harmonic rations, in their more mystical senses play an important part....
The encounter of Buddhism and Platonism – what can modern Buddhists and others learn from Plato? A philosophical essay by Ratnagarbha I have been interested in Platonism for as long as I have…
After Absalon by Simon Okotie The Lost Sessions by Sebastian Beaumont A brief review of two very contrasting novels written by ordained Buddhists. Neither of these writers has their work marketed as anything to do with Buddhism. Nevertheless they they both show awareness and imagination deriving from their practice of mindful engagement with the breadth of human experience. The Lost Sessions…...
http://urthona.com/2022/09/19/two-buddhist-novels/
After Absalon by Simon Okotie The Lost Sessions by Sebastian Beaumont A brief review of two very contrasting novels written by ordained Buddhists. Neither of these writers has their work marketed a…
Yesterday I was privileged to visit Ground Work, in Kings Lynn a wonderful gallery space by the Kings Lynn historic waterfront that focuses on environmental art. The current exhibition is 'Extraction: Loss and Restoration' - looking at the effect of large-scale mining and quarrying on the landscape.
Featured here from the exhibition work by Onya McCausland showing a series of paintings making use of pigments created from mineral residues generated from the processes of mine water treatment. These wonderful ochre shades have been used to create subtle and evocative abstract pieces. And they matched my raincoat rather well!
The large mycelium painting one the wall of the gallery is by Chris Drury: 'Dust to Dust' 2021. Mural painted in dust and ashes of a mushroom spore print on the wall. Painted in situ for GroundWork gallery by the artist using silt residue rom a local quarry, Middleton Aggregates.
Current exhibition runs until 30th September.
https://www.groundworkgallery.com
The White Spring at Glastonbury has recently been enhanced with a water garden where the spring waters run out of the cistern and into the outside air.
In Urthona 36, due out this autumn, Bruce Hewett writes about his work to to preserve sacred springs, and the water courses that run from them, across the world - working with local people who venerate them. In this country he mentions both the White Spring and the very pure chalk streams of Cambridgeshire.
UNKNOWN LANDSCAPES: Kate Boucher's subtle charcoal studies evoke the essential energies of wild landscapes.
http://urthona.com/2022/07/19/shades-of-the-sublime/
Kate Boucher uses charcoal to evoke liminal transition zones, skies at dawn and dusk, coasts and mountains in shifting atmospheres of wind and cloudscape. Each of her landscapes is an intense study…
UNKNOWN LANDSCAPES
Ivon Hitchens was a 20th century English landscape painter who was a remarkable colourist. His vibrant canvases evoke spaces and atmospheres, in which subjective feelings are married with a tremendous feeling for space, light and freedom. He often painted in a panoramic format suggesting a journey through experience.
Hitchens who died in 1979 lived for many years in a caravan in woodland near Petworth, Susex. As his art developed he extended the original caravan with further improvised structures. That patch of woodland became a true cave of making...
1918
Urthona magazine’s 2022 issue, due out this autumn is themed on ‘the Unknown Landscape’. We will be exploring writers and artists who approach landscape art as a portal to that which lies all around us but is unknown and potentially disquieting. Artists who see landscapes as full of meaning albeit in an unfamiliar language.
Illustration - 'Farm House, 1956' Ivon Hitchens, oil on canvas
Waterlight – to accompany the film a photoset of a rare chalk steam in Cambridgeshire photos by Ratnagarbha
http://urthona.com/2022/02/28/waterlight-portrait-of-a-chalk-stream-in-winter/
The Mel in winter, January 2022 Waterlight is a film project inspired by a chalk stream in Cambridgeshire, the Mel, which runs between the villages of Melbourn and Shepreth. Waterlight began as a c…
UNKNOWN LANDSCAPES
Emil Jakob Schindler 'Sawmill in the Morning' 1886. I love this evocation of morning light breaking through mist by a commercial riverside with its wharves, jettys and ramshackle wooden warehouses. How much more picturesque than modern industrial units are these rough wooden boards... There should be a category for such scenes, neither landscape nor townscape but 'urban riverscape'. In mist the possibilities for atmospheric plays of light are endless and the Austrian master Schindler was adept at capturing them. Notice the illumined racks of cloud reflected in one of the warehouse windows. There is a potent sense of the mystery of the quotidian here.
The Power of Story
Human beings have always told each other stories. They inspire and guide and challenge and reassure. They speak about your place in the world and about what the world could become. They can be used on the Buddhist path as a transformative tool. No one serious about transformation can afford to neglect their power.
Urthona Buddhist arts magazine has always highlighted the power of story telling. We have interviewed amongst others Ursula Le Guin and Robert Bly. In ISSUE 31 we interviewed the great British story teller KEVIN CROSSLEY HOLLAND (pictured).
Renowned for his collections of English and Celtic folk tales, Kevin Crossley Holland has also written a best selling series of Arthurian Tales for children. In this interview he talks about his vocation as a story teller – the basic responsibilities of the art to humanity. Also about why just a few tales may touch us so deeply, seem to wake us to a deeper awareness of who we are... He talks about Malory and the Quest for the Grail and much else besides.
Order the story telling issue here:
https://urthona-magazine.square.site/product/31-urthona-magazine-issue-31-the-storytelling-issue/10?cp=true&sa=true&sbp=false&q=false
art & poetry for spiritual evolution
St Cross Hospital is a surviving mediaeval foundation set in the water Meadows just outside Wi******er. The church is spectacular. It is in a beautifully ornate and graceful late Norman style. The chancel is pure Norman with characteristic chevron patterns in he arches, the nave and crossing show touches of Gothic with very slightly pointed arches. There is a simple and noble vaulted stone ceiling throughout the whole building. When I visited the faint winter light from outside made a balanced counterpoint with the the more golden lighting within. I had just come away from visiting my father who was very ill indeed, and this was a place to lift the spirit.
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