Form Follows La Palapa

Close to where the Lotus Petal Condo is located is this funky house. Now I have to get into the country to get a pic of the original Mayan Palapa.

Form Follows Emptiness

Today I changed rooms in my hotel and i changed the name of this blog. This name seems to fit better what i am writing about these days, Impermanence / Smart Design / Zen Living. Its a kind of Buddhist commentary on that Architectural dictum of Form Follows Function. From the Wiki

Origins of the phrase

The origin of the phrase is traced back to the American sculptor Horatio Greenough[2], but it was American architectural giant Louis Sullivan who adopted it and made it famous. Sullivan actually said 'form ever follows function', but the simpler (and less emphatic) phrase is the one usually remembered. For Sullivan this was distilled wisdom, an aesthetic credo, the single "rule that shall permit of no exception". The full quote is thus:

It is the pervading law of all things organic and inorganic,
Of all things physical and metaphysical,
Of all things human and all things super-human,
Of all true manifestations of the head,
Of the heart, of the soul,
That the life is recognizable in its expression,
That form ever follows function. This is the law.[3]

Sullivan developed the shape of the tall steel skyscraper in late 19th Century Chicago at the very moment when technology, taste and economic forces converged violently and made it necessary to drop the established styles of the past. If the shape of the building wasn't going to be chosen out of the old pattern book something had to determine form, and according to Sullivan it was going to be the purpose of the building. It was 'form follows function', as opposed to 'form follows precedent'. Sullivan's assistant Frank Lloyd Wright adopted and professed the same principle in slightly different form—perhaps because shaking off the old styles gave them more freedom and latitude. There is a song for teaching this[4].

Back to the name change, Emptiness is the ground of all being that Form arises within only to dissapear within. The dualistic relative acting out its play within the non dual absolute. I am kind of covering all ontological blogging bases here i know. Its complex thats for sure but its also a simple 3 word sutra that reminds me not to get attached to what ever i am getting caught up in, what ever form is arising within this emptiness, it ain't gonna last. Of course a true understanding of The Heart Sutra would tell you that Form is Emptiness and emptiness is form. But i am not that profound.

Mi Casa Camino

A month on the road, well a month since i left northern Europe for the Caribe. This is not really a road trip although i have a journey coming up next month to Guanajuato. Its more about how to establish yourself comfortably in another country as a traveller / resident doing something you love that is different from what you normally do. And that for me is teaching kids film/drama studies which i have resumed at a school here in Playa. Its also about being somewhere warm, having access to a beach, daily swimming, fresh fruit , living simply and integrating with another culture. For me thats Mexico. Last year i hung out with a bunch of other ex pat long term hotel residents living here for their own diverse reasons. I also got to know the local Mayan community around me, which continues to be a wonderful experience that settled travel brings. I can see that with the people i meet here like me others have made their own settled / nomadic adjustments to life. One interesting encounter came recently from an email address inscribed inside the book cover of a John Le Carre novel i had picked up from El Mundos. I wrote, the person answered , we caught up and discussed just this, the nomadic/settled life, how to adjust , how to simplify , how to de clutter, how find the books you want to read, how a traveler deals with extended sojourns in other countries, how to be content.

Two forces are operating, one is to settle down and acquire, the other is to release, then pack light and move, airport. The settlers and the nomads. In one sense i am lucky, i am able to work in Europe over the summer save enough money to keep me in Peas, Rice & Monte Cristo No 2s over winter in the Caribbean . I don't have family responsibilities, although i question the decisions in life that have led to my current solitary existence, and one oppotunity in particular that slipped away. Those forces act to a greater or lesser extent in all of us, mostly sub consciously. They are vestiges of our nomadic genes trying to over come our more recent civilizing urge to be in one place. The second is about 10,000 years old and the 1st is probably 3/4 million years old. If you have been a nomad the older you get though the more you do want to settle, and to have loved ones around you on a day to day basis. The more i understand about the possibilities of an organically designed eco house lifestyle the more i want to find that piece of land again and touch this earth lightly*I know for me its somewhere in the sunny tropics, speaking of which we have had about 2 weeks of solid rain here, kind of monsoonal in its intensity, i have a theory that its the energy of an unformed Hurricane slowly dissapating over the Eastern Yucatan. Bummer for the beach. Hey ! there is no perfect place, but there is contentment.
* Glenn Murcutt A very smart in tune Architect