© 2010, David J. Bookbinder.

STONE MANDALAS

I've been reflecting on what draws me to these images of stone walls. Recently, I suffered a Posterior Vitreous Detachment (PVD), during which the gelatinous part of the eye separates from the retina. In most cases, this happens with almost no symptoms, and in a few others it tears the retina. In my case, it left numerous large strands and blobs of fibrous material clinging to the retina, and many small particles circulating in my eye. There is no easy treatment for this issue, and I have other risk factors in my eyes that may make the existing options unworkable. So I must learn to live with this and, in time, to see more with my inner eye.

The notion of seeing with my inner eye has reawakened a question I have had since childhood, which is on the nature of "aliveness" of seemingly inanimate objects, such as rocks, which form the base on which we live, and from which soil is created, and which undergoes amazing metamorphoses over the eons, but which we tend to think of as inert. If, on the other hand, the entire Universe is alive, then so must be stones. What, I wonder, is their consciousness like?

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