Art and the building of Monasteries.

11am. 27th March 2015.

It crossed my mind the other day that where I live would suit the final outcome of being a monastery and yet I really, outside of a public view of such, have no idea what a monastery is. Yet the idea seemed to be about creating a place of peace and quietness, two things which have come to be very valuable to me, and so the idea of it being called, this working towards and being something at the end, would suit the idea of what might be monastic.

My initial ideas were that I'd have all these little areas where artists could come and work at whatever it is that artists work at and that in return for this availability to do as they are want to do then they might spend some time on whatever else is in need of doing, as in gardens and maintenance and suchlike, to allow the thing that it is to go on.

So what is it I have and how is it that what I have could be whatever it is I choose it to be? Seems this background might actually need some description otherwise the ideas of what is might be are entirely like clouds just floating through the sky. Otherwise there is also the idea that I know what I have and can see the possibilities within and this, as a written thing on the internet, may or may not need such grounding in realities, as being the internet, is more about ideas than it ever is about realities as concrete as... actual concrete.

Either or doesn't even matter because meaninglessness, whatever that is, also has a place of distinctions worth favouring in my life and while that is also whatever it is the simple fact remains that this, the blog itself, is most easily found from the links I put in from facebook and within my own photos of what I supposedly am and do there are enough photos of where I am and what I do that a little research would answer sufficiently any questions that might arise of the where and the what this particular post may be alluding to.

But even getting as far as I have I know feel a need to go and meditate so that's what I'm going to do. This way whatever it is on the edge of my thinking will occupy those thoughts there to be let go of and as they disappear they'll possibly clarify themselves as to what words they might want to form into.

2.20pm 27th April 2015.

Though what it is in the end doesn't actually matter much and that is almost superfluous next to the simple fact I'm working towards something that when done with and finished I can leave... even if I don't leave bodily I'd be leaving it spiritually as regards the first ideas that brought this whole unfinished thing into being.

It all kinda took on a realness back in '97 when I left a built house within a warehouse which at the very end was completely empty and was beautiful. While I did want to somehow profit by that, to be able to gone somewhere else and do it again, it didn't really matter that much beside the simple fact I'd done it. It was an artwork in and of itself and the biggest one I'd ever achieved. Walking away from it and having done it, been almost allowed to do it, was enough.

Now I feel the same about this property in Otara. I see this eventual set of buildings with gardens and trees not with a mineness that can be measured and sold but as a task that when completed leads to another task and given I've always fallen on my feet no matter how much I might have forgone the normal collection of stuff as saleable commodity then it just plain feels natural to simply do what wants doing without the tediousness of making something pay.

And it is tedious. There seems such a flood of goods available to us all in western society that even having to compete within that is just plain tedious. So I've been lucky enough that I don't have to. And there's no great flood of money behind me either that allows this, no pool of left over extravagance to dip into. It's simply that I don't hardly need any money whatsoever and can wander about in my little car every now and then and quite simply just pick up the building materials from the side of the road that I might need... and that I've collected up enough relatively required items, by others, that I can sell the odd load of stuff here and there for any money that might be required.

All of this adds up to being able to give it away, not now of course because the whole things just a big mess, but eventually I could just walk away.

It might then be a Monastery or it might just be an Artists retreat but it won't really matter to me what it's called. It'll simply be something I did and enjoyed as much as possible that in the end would allow me to walk off and do something else.