Between Beauty and Meaning
Adeyinka Bello and the Eloquent Radiation
3
Academic, political activist and social media figure Adeyinka Bello
in her office at Lagos State University
Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems
"Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge"
The first essay in this series, "Between Beauty and Meaning : Adeyinka Bello and the Eloquent Radiation 1," explored the celebration of life demonstrated by the picture of Adeyinka Bello also central to this essay, concluding by contrasting two different Buddhist perspectives.
The second essay, "Between Beauty and Meaning : Adeyinka Bello and the Eloquent Radiation 2," engaged with the same theme through the same picture, this time in relation to Western esotericism and Hinduism.
This essay goes further in identifying with the image with the aid of both the Western esoteric expression and an expansion of the Hindu conceptions from part 2, in relation to the sense of joy projected by Bello's unqualified laughter, focused in the brilliant white of teeth open in joy, their radiance foregrounded by the tender red of lips evoking the rain freshened glory of ripe apples, her neck pulsing with urgent life, a palpitating life force evoked by the strategic position of the crimson necklace at the juncture of the delicate pillar of neck and robustness of body.
The balance of colours, flashing white teeth, light red necklace and earrings, harmonizing with deep red coloured lips, rests on the absolute vitality represented by brown skin, projecting a visual force radiating through beauty both forceful and delicate.
This burst of joy suggests to me William Gray's invocation from the Western esoteric Office of the Holy Tree of Life :
"Since we were created with a shout of laughter, let spiritual happiness and holiness be truly one."
Incidentally suggesting "Satcitānanda," the Hindu idea of the unity of being experienced as consciousness intensified by bliss.
This is a sense of the vitality of life force expressed as profound pleasure, a relationship between the deepest fulfillment and cosmic being.
This idea is also suggested by a line from Jayaratha's commentary on Abhinavagupta's Tantraloka, Light on the Tantras, Ch. 8, verse 2:
"(I) salute the universe, which is Bhairava's visible body, the condensation of the flood of the juice (rasa) of consciousness that has assumed a defined form."
The expression depicts, in terms of the universe, the abstraction that is consciousness as the limpid flow of juice, concrete yet dynamic, evocative of the pleasure of a drink going down the gullet.
The cosmic totality is thereby depicted as alive with sentience, purpose and personality, being the body of Bhairava, the condensation of the juice of consciousness as it emanates from Him.
A related sense of the creative power of joy is expressed with graphic force through Adeyinka Bello's radiant teeth, mouth open in laughter, her entire form projecting a life enhancing presence, her laughter resonating with even greater profundity within a timeless stillness, in the transfixed moment represented by the photograph.
That laughter is as the creative force of the cosmos, the primal nexus that is the creator exploding into being in a paroxysm of joy, delight at the stupendous idea that is existence bursting from Her, manifesting as the white hot heat of exploding matter at cosmic genesis, the vibration of life within being, expressed inimitably within the spark in each human eye.
Also published on Facebook.
Edited from first publication of 29 October 2013 at Adeyinka Olarinmoye: Aesthetics, Thought, Action.
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