Looking for answers, Pakse, Laos, 2005 by Phil Douglis

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Looking for answers, Pakse, Laos, 2005

A study in contrast, this photograph compares the conscious process of thought to the unconscious. Two monks, side by side on the altar of a Buddhist temple, show different ways to find answers to their questions. One dreams, the other wonders. It is an incongruous juxtaposition of attitudes, and an incongruous place to sleep. At least that’s how it seems from my Western point of view. I am sure Laotian monks think otherwise.

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Phil Douglis		24-Jul-2006 16:33
Thanks, Emi -- in order to grasp cultural incongruities, we must first have a grasp of the cultures themselves. As we travel, the incongruities become apparent. I have been to Southeast Asia four times. As I increase my knowledge and understanding, I see things that I might have missed before.

Guest		24-Jul-2006 04:22
Rob has got a very good point, cultural incongruity, a new thing for me to learn. Emi

Phil Douglis		16-Aug-2005 16:19
You explain in detail what I hinted at in the last two sentences of my explanation. The cultural context a viewer brings to an image such as this one will govern meaning. I find that teaching expressive photography to a multi-cultured audience of viewers is not only enormously challenging, but very rewarding. I am continually learning to see my own images with new eyes.

Guest		16-Aug-2005 05:20
In the land of "mai pen rai" (Thailand), this is a common image. Bored monks waiting for the next "customer" to come along and take the next step on the path to enightenment, or to remember lost loved ones, or generally to seek a peace on an issue that burns within, seems incongruous with a sleeper and a thinker, easpecially, as you say, in western eyes. For a Laotian or Thai, it would be quite odd to think that this is odd, and therefore the cultural incongruities paint a far deeper picture and thought process than what we see in the physical alone. I love the flower in the background fallen over. "Mai pen rai" (never mind). Rob

Phil Douglis		12-May-2005 20:53
Thanks so much for the perceptive comment, Kal. You add still another interpretation to this image, which as you see, has received a lot of attention. At times we all feel like these fellows -- lost in thought, aware of the inevitable passage of time yet powerless to do anything about it. The clock is an important part of this image, just as the headless Buddha figure and the sleeping monk. There is much for us to ponder here. In a way, all of us become the monk at right as we look at possible meanings of this image.

Kal Khogali		12-May-2005 14:43
Hi Phil. I think the clock is relevant, because it's existence, the inexhorable continuity of time seems to lead to this Monks dispondency. His colleague has already given up. I also think that it is perhaps (to me) competing to be the main subject, not by intent, but because of the rule of 3rds and it's style (my eye moved from the monk to it then to the sleeping monk). And that is the where the incongruity lies fro me; the clock is modern, square and doesn't seem to belong, but as you said, it is key to the message in the image, without it I don't see the image as powerful. I have a long, long, way to go, I feel like the Monk. rgds, Kal

Phil Douglis		17-Apr-2005 20:00
If my photographic interpretations of the lives and beliefs of others can move you to see your own life in a fresh way, they will accomplish all I intend them to do, Ruth. Thank you so much for sharing the impact the ideas I express in this image have had on your own thinking. If art can play a significant role in our lives, such things as you discuss here would be great start! This image began as simply a characterization of thought, conscious and unconscious, expressed through incongruous relationships. You have internalized it, taking it to a much deeper and personal level, by relating it to the inexorable passage of time and the ever changing juxtapositions that flavor our existence. If this be therapeutic for you, I am all for that. I agree, Ruth -- our travails are indeed magnified by our own perceptions -- the universe will continue to evolve, regardless of our petty concerns.

ruthemily		17-Apr-2005 19:36
Clara's thought was my thought too. i looked at this before reading your caption to see if i could figure out the incongruity for myself, and that is what i came to. juxtaposing the upright, focussed statue of Buddha with the slouching monk, and the one who has simply given up and gone to sleep. we have interpreted the sleeping monk in different ways, for sure. you see sleep as rest and unconscious thought and dreaming...i seem to see it as laziness. the clock was another thing i found incongruous, but i read the comments and realise the significance in the constant reminder of the life cycle. that in itself has challenged a strong thought of mine. i really detest clocks and time as i find it is a concept that only serves to make me feel limited, restrained and introduces lateness as yet another thing to feel guilty about. but, as i generally do with Buddhist thought and ideas, i understand the idea that it is a reminder of the continual cycle of life. i have a fascination with sun and moon rises and settings and also with the changing of seasons, because they remind me that no matter how hard things get, life goes on. your photos are therapy to me, Phil. your ideas help me to resolve complicated thoughts and feelings. the concept of incongruity in general is helping me to realise that life is full of juxtapositions and things that "shouldn't" fit together....but actually, this mish-mash of contrasts is what makes images, and on a wider scale life, more interesting. i am learning to let go of my worries. i just have to keep breathing, and everything will take care of itself. but enough of that tangent and back to the photo... my last thought regarding the clock was that the slouching monk looks impatient, waiting for something. head on hand, fed up perhaps of things not being how they envisaged they would be.

Phil Douglis		08-Mar-2005 23:23
Thanks, Clara, for adding still another fascinating interpretation to this image. Contrasting the slumping and slumbering body postures of the monks to the upright body postures of the Buddha figures is a wonderful way to express an age of decline! If I had only known!!!!

Guest		08-Mar-2005 16:58
The incongruity is between the body postures of the year 2005 monks and the body postures of the ancient buddhas behind them. According buddhist scriptures, we are fully into the age of Dharma (doctrine) decline. The image shows it.

Phil Douglis		05-Mar-2005 01:44
I love the way your mind is working here, Zandra. You read this image as you would read a story. It has a beginning, a middle and an end for you. The incongruities here are indeed asking you questions, and you proceed to answer them. The clock seems superfluous. It's not. Clocks are a part of Buddhism. It reminds Buddhists that time is constant, inevitable, a marker of the cycle of life itself. Buddha's head may be gone here, but his presence is very much in the mind of the conscious monk. As you say, this monk is full of questions and doubts. Like you, he seeks meaning. As for where that meaning lies, either within or without, nobody can know. Not even he knows. You are right, Zandra. More thought will be needed here to figure out what existence is all about. As for the fellow next to him, his search for answers rests, at present at least, in his unconscious. I presume you found this image an adequate trigger to thought? If so, I have succeeded once more in triggering your boundless imagination.

Guest		04-Mar-2005 20:09
A clock when there is no need for a clock. A chopped of head of Budha. A munk, not only reading...but sleeping by his feet. Another munck whom seem to wonder...how did i end up in this world, among those elements. It is as if the clock , the Budha and the sleeping munk are all asking him questions. As if he needs to find the meaning with their existence...and by so find the meaning as of his own existence. He seem to have come to the phase where he has just realaised that the answers lies within himself, not in the material world. He seemed a bit worried as realaizing the world is not as simple s it may apear by just looking at it breifly. More thoight is needed to come to an understanding of the elements and ther meaning.

Phil Douglis		27-Feb-2005 20:27
A very thoughtful comment, Mo. You are right about monks having no need for clocks, yet the clock is always ubiquitous in Buddhist temples, a reminder that time is inexorable.

monique jansen		27-Feb-2005 08:52
Incongruous also the chopped of buddha head, the clock marking time, whereas for these monks there does not seem to be any need for a clock. I do not feel their lives are regulated by a clock, they are not completely of our world, but in a temple of thought, meditation and wonder.

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