Saturday in Dumbo: Lamas, Little Lamas, and the Buddhist Center

December 30, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

I was walking through Dumbo, Brooklyn this past weekend and stumbled upon a Buddhist Center affiliated with a monastery in Nepal. Since then, it has become increasingly surreal that on that particular day, at that particular time, I found this place. Mostly because life has been confusing lately. It has simultaneously presented itself as both overwhelming and under-whelming, for a series of obscure reasons. It should be crowned “complex uncertainty” and its royal symbol should be a foot and a […]

Categories: Meditation, Photography • Tags: better oneself, Brooklyn Buddhist Center, Buddhism, Buddhist Center, challenges, Dumbo, human spirit, kathmandu, Little Lamas, Little Monks, meditation, mental health, Nepal, New York City, Portrait Photography, reflection, self reflection

Dear National Geographic: I found her too. Your biggest fan, Jenna.

December 5, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

NatGeo posted a photo this morning of a Nepalese woman I photographed when I was there in May. I even took a selfie with her (see below) and she TOTALLY PHOTO BOMBED it. I thought that was superb of her. As you see above, I posted my image on Instagram and tagged NatGeo. I fully admit that I expect them to see it, call me, and insist I pack my bags for Bhutan and Burma. Is that a stretch? Maybe […]

Categories: Photography, Traveling • Tags: aaron huey, instagram, kathmandu, national geographic, Nepal, Photography, women in nepal

Nepal: Evenings of hot lemon water, honey and fresh ginger

November 21, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

I close my eyes and remember Nepal: I like the evenings of hot lemon water, honey and fresh ginger. I like the orange bursting from the woman’s cloth wrapped around her neck. I like the man and his family who welcomed us for lunch everyday. I like the patterned umbrellas floating around the Stupa. I like the dogs in the streets and want to take care of them. I like the doorways and the strangers that sit in them. I […]

Categories: Photography, Traveling, Writers & Writing • Tags: Buddhism, finding meaning, good company, gratitude, hot lemon water, human spirit, kathmandu, love, Nepal, Photography, Portrait Photography, Stupa, travel photography

Virginia Woolf, “Let me sit here for ever with bare things”

October 31, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

You may remember my Nepal:Shop Ladies post from June 7th. I was so proud of my blog that day when I received the Congratulations! email and learned it would be promoted on the WordPress Freshly Pressed site. I knew my photographs and poems would reach thousands of people. Visitors were so kind with their words and I was elated the Shop Ladies touched the blogging community in such a way. How lovely the image below would have been with the […]

Categories: Photography, Writers & Writing • Tags: bodha, Buddhism, buddhist prayer, fabric shop, Freshly Pressed, full frame, gratitude, human spirit, kathmandu, mantra, monastery, Nepal, nepalese shop, Photography, prayer beads, reflection, Shop Ladies, solitary, solitary moments, travel photography, virginia woolf, woman, woman with beads, wordpress

Inter-being: a reflection on emptiness

September 5, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

I recently finished The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching by Thich Nhat Hanh. It is a wonderful little book offering a clear framework on traditional Buddhist thought: a perfect little refresher that was easy to read on the subway. What made this book special, however, was Thich Nhat Hanh’s own personal teaching on how to transform suffering with Buddhist thought. It is a great book if you are interested in learning more about Buddhist philosophy and how to apply it […]

Categories: Good Company, Traveling, Yoga • Tags: better oneself, Buddhism, deeper meaning, emptiness, good company, happiness, healthy living, human spirit, kathmandu, live to the fullest, meditation, mental health, Nepal, non-self, Photography, reflection, rich life, self reflection, soul, Thich Nhat Hanh, Tree of Life, yoga, yoga philosophy

Two parts: finding the sublime in Nepal & van Gogh’s quest

September 4, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

  I am certainly no artist (which was confirmed by a teacher who once described my images as “lacking any charge”), but I do love this image. On my last day in Nepal, we walked for miles up through the mountains to get to Kopan, a beautiful monastery overlooking all of Kathmandu. When we arrived, we couldn’t believe how far away our journey’s starting point was in the distance. As we traversed up the winding roads, each twist and turn revealed […]

Categories: Art, Photography, Traveling • Tags: aesthetics, beauty in art, emotion in art, express myself forcefully, expressive art, good company, gratitude, human spirit, kathmandu, kopan monastery, letter to theo, letter writing, mountains, nature, nature photography, Nepal, peasant study, Photography, post impressionism, spiritual in art, sublime, sublime in art, sublime landscape, Theo van gogh, travel photography, Vincent van Gogh

“Keep going, keep going, come what may” – Vincent van Gogh

August 29, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

I must continue to follow the path I take now. If I do nothing, if I study nothing, if I cease searching, then, woe is me, I am lost. That is how I look at it — keep going, keep going, come what may. But what is your final goal, you may ask. That goal will become clearer, will emerge slowly but surely, much as the rough draught turns into a sketch, and the sketch into a painting through the […]

Categories: Photography, Traveling • Tags: better oneself, challenges, healthy living, human spirit, kathmandu, meditation, meditation challenge, Nepal, Nepal countryside, Nepalese farms, nepalese woman, Portrait Photography, self reflection, travel photography, Vincent van Gogh, vincent van gogh quotes, yoga

Nepal: Doors and Doorways (continued)

July 23, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

“Re-examine all you have been told. Dismiss what insults your soul.” ― Walt Whitman

Categories: Photography, Traveling • Tags: doors, kathmandu, Nepal, Photography, travel photography, walt whitman

Having enough. Being enough. That’s enough!

July 18, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

“I exist as I am, that is enough, If no other in the world be aware I sit content, And if each and all be aware I sit content.” – Walt Whitman Matt Lombardo, one of my favorite teachers at Jivamukti, discussed the idea of contentment yesterday in class. More specifically, he delved into the word enough and what it ultimately means to subscribe to the idea of having and being enough. Accepting our world as such is a very […]

Categories: Meditation, Photography, Traveling, Yoga • Tags: better oneself, challenges, contentment, grateful, gratitude, having enough, healthy living, human spirit, jivamukti, kathmandu, live to the fullest, matthew lombardo, Nepal, Photography, Portrait Photography, self reflection, self-empowerment, yoga, yoga teacher

Vincent van Gogh: “It is so beautiful, I must show you how it looks”

July 11, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

“When Van Gogh was a young man in his early twenties, he was in London studying to be a clergyman. He had no thought of being an artist at all. He sat in his cheap little room writing a letter to his younger brother in Holland, whom he loved very much. He looked out his window at a watery twilight, a thin lamppost, a star, and he said in his letter something like this: “it is so beautiful I must […]

Categories: Art, Photography, Traveling • Tags: art, being an artist, brenda ueland, creative impulse, creative inspiration, human spirit, kathmandu, Nepal, Photography, spirit, van gogh, writing a letter

Nepal: She is many moons, every moon

July 9, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

Earrings curve into golden rings as her waist wraps into certitude. Steadily, she crosses brick and stone, leaning into her midday walk, like a blossom curling into willowy sunbeams. Inhale, she steps, exhale she pauses. Her heavy foot lifts, her rounded body bends, her head hangs low. The mountains are near – their magnetic peaks, flirt with fickle clouds. A silver umbrella tucks into her jeweled palm, fingers clutch a sturdy, black cane. She is many moons, every moon, this […]

Categories: Photography, Traveling, Writers & Writing • Tags: kathmandu, Nepal, old woman, old woman with cane, Photography, poetry, Stupa

Rilke: “Life is Right, In Any Case”

July 2, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

“It is always what I have already said: the wish that you may find patience enough in yourself to endure, and simplicity enough to believe; that you may acquire more and more confidence in that which is difficult, and in your solitude among others. And for the rest, let life happen to you. Believe me: life is right, in any case.” ― Rainer Maria Rilke

Categories: Photography, Traveling, Writers & Writing • Tags: believe, countryside, creative writing, find patience, human spirit, kathmandu, nature, Nepal, nepalese woman, Photography, poetry, quotes on living, Rainer Maria Rilke, travel photography, writers

Nepal: “The best things can’t be told” & Polaroid Photography

June 27, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

There was something about Nepal that I haven’t been able to capture with words, so I have relied on my photography to tell an unspoken story. Heinrich Zimmer said, “the best things can’t be told” and sometimes I can’t help but agree. Words can be powerful, stirring, inspiring, and provocative, but let’s be honest: sometimes they fall on their face, get up, shrug their shoulders and proclaim they don’t have anything left to give. Good old writer’s block!  What a […]

Categories: Photography, Traveling • Tags: creative writing, describing events that are meaningful, heinrich zimmer, hindu temple, kathmandu, kopan monastery, Nepal, offering, Photography, Stupa, the best things, travel photography, travel writing, welcome home, writer's block, writing

Nepal: Leaning Into the Afternoon

June 26, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

Tired shoulders fold in, the week begins its repose. I lean forward, elbow to knee, and backwards into ancient spaces. Temples, doors, walls, moss-covered stone, spaces for midday recess. Knees up, knees down, the day drags on – there isn’t much left to do. Moist and weary, the air wraps around me, its sultry gaze whispers the day’s final verse. The rain is coming. * I borrowed Pablo Neruda’s title and wrote my own poem 🙂

Categories: Photography, Traveling, Writers & Writing • Tags: afternoon, Ancient spaces, Budhist, Hindu, kathmandu, Nepal, Pablo Neruda, pashupatinath, poetry, rain, resting, Temples

Nepal: Song of Rain, by Kahlil Gibran

June 13, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

Song Of The Rain VII Kahlil Gibran I am dotted silver threads dropped from heaven By the gods. Nature then takes me, to adorn Her fields and valleys. I am beautiful pearls, plucked from the Crown of Ishtar by the daughter of Dawn To embellish the gardens. When I cry the hills laugh; when I humble myself the flowers rejoice; when I bow, all things are elated. The field and the cloud are lovers And between them I am a […]

Categories: Good Company, Photography, Traveling, Writers & Writing • Tags: beauty everywhere, gratitude, kahlil gibran, kathmandu, love, monsoon season, Nepal, poetry, Portrait Photography, rain, song of the rain, travel, umbrella

Nepal: Soulful Sadhus in Pashupati

June 12, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

Having learned my grandfather passed away the previous night, I was forced to make a decision. And it needed to be a quick one. I had one final day to explore Nepal and hadn’t visited the place I was most eager to experience and photograph: Pashupatinath. Situated outside Kathmandu on the banks of the Bagmati River, this is where the sadhus reside. Coincidentally, it is also where people go to honor and release the soul of those who have passed […]

Categories: Good Company, Photography, Traveling • Tags: after death, bhagavad gita, Buddhism, death, dying, gratitude, Hinduism, holy sites, kathmandu, love, Nepal, pashupati, pashupatinath, Photography, Portrait Photography, sadhus, travel photography

Follow Your Bliss

June 10, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

“If you follow your bliss you put yourself on a track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. Follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be.” – Joseph Campbell –

Categories: Good Company, Photography, Traveling • Tags: better oneself, bliss, happiness, healthy living, inspiration, Joseph Campbell, kathmandu, love your life, Nepal, yoga

Nepal: Shop Ladies

June 7, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

I love the people of Nepal because their happiness is authentic, effortless, and humble – a true statement of how living simply can provide you with an abundantly satisfying life. Wouldn’t it be refreshing to adopt this way of living? Here are two of my favorite portraits I took so far and a quick snippet I wrote about each woman. Cloth around you, above you, below you. Antique charm, ageless grace, your breath illuminates me. You are happiness: the simple […]

Categories: Good Company, Photography, Traveling • Tags: beautiful women, Buddhism, Hinduism, kathmandu, Nepal, nepalese woman, sari, shop lady, soulful moments

Lessons from Nepal: Don’t squash that spider

June 6, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

We scream and squirm as the spider crawls back and forth on the ceiling near our beds.  It peers down at us and surely wonders, what is their problem? Did I do something? Jeanne instructs me on what she thinks I should do, and I respond with what I think she should do. She moves a chair over and tells me to get on it, slide a piece a paper under the spider and catch him in a cup.  I tell her that […]

Categories: Good Company, Traveling • Tags: animal rights, animals, Buddhism, Hinduism, kathmandu, vegetarian

Day 2, Nepal

May 30, 2013 by Jenna Filia Canty

“I like one ship — that is friendship” – Shanti- “Love is feeding those that are hungry” – Reena- Bala burns a candle on behalf of all the women of the world. In meditation, she asks us to think of how we are empowering women survivors and how that power makes us all more connected. We are giving these women confidence to move forward and make their lives better, she tells us. The women are interested in our life experiences […]

Categories: Good Company, Photography, Traveling • Tags: art therapy, Buddhists, community, gratitude, kathmandu, love, Nepal, sex trafficking, Stupa