Featured image of post Cradle to Grace

Cradle to Grace

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I made a little series of images as NFTs and of course, there are secrets.
The unlockable content is another hint, but geeks, artists, and photographers should be able to figure it out.
You only need something like a cat and a circular alphabet. 😉

https://opensea.io/collection/cradle-to-grace

  • p.s. You don’t have to buy them to enjoy or to find the poem. A little geeky exploration can reveal all of the secrets.
  • p.s. p.s. If you do find the secret(s?), please say hi but don’t share them publicly. I think it’s more fun that way.

This is literally and figuratively a poem of awakening in images

Hint:
In everything, there is more than what see with our eyes
Seven images concatenated into seven lines
And what about those bits at the end?
A simple half-turn cypher, will the final verse rend

Spoilers Follow

  • Final Hint: Look into the EXIF information for each image

  • Series: Cradle-to-Grace 01/07
  • Title: Manifesting
  • EXIF Description: My lustful and furious hunger [haarprffnel]

  • Series: Cradle-to-Grace 02/07
  • Title: The Rise
  • EXIF Description: Frenetically consuming it all [gb]

  • Series: Cradle-to-Grace 03/07
  • Title: Awareness
  • EXIF Description: Stop and the truth will cease evasion [rkcrevrapr]

  • Series: Cradle-to-Grace 04/07
  • Title: Duality
  • EXIF Description: My constant search for food then meaning [gur]

  • Series: Cradle-to-Grace 05/07
  • Title: Non-duality
  • EXIF Description: Satiation brings only temporary peace [znwrfgl]

  • Series: Cradle-to-Grace 06/07
  • Title: (r)Evolution
  • EXIF Description: Searching occupies body and mind [bs]

  • Series: Cradle-to-Grace 07/07
  • Title: Grace
  • EXIF Description: Stillness [nyy]

The poem with initially recognizable words

The poem combined looks like this at first
My lustful and furious hunger
Frenetically consuming it all
Stop and the truth will cease evasion

My constant search for food then meaning
Satiation brings only temporary peace
Searching occupies body and mind
Stillness

Decrypted

You probably noticed there are additional strings of letters at the end of each EXIF description line inside square brackets

When you decrypt those with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROT13 and con(cat)enate (append) those to one word in the final verse, it changes (dramatically I think) to this

My lustful and furious hunger
Frenetically consuming it all
Stop and the truth will cease evasion

My constant search for food then meaning
Satiation brings only temporary peace
Searching occupies body and mind
Stillness unnecessary to experience the majesty of all

Meaning

Q: Why would I do this?

A: This series of images and words, as well as the process one would go through to attain the highest and most complete understanding is intended to mimic my experiences so far with awakening.

This is intended to guide you through an experience of apparently stark differences between two schools of thought around enlightenment.

  • The first thing you see when you look deeply at the images (by looking into the EXIF metadata of the files), is that there is more information than just the obviously visual component of the image.
  • Then when you look at that information all together, you are able to quickly find a poem that describes the work you must do obtain it.
  • As you study the information more closely you will find the ROT13 encoded information.
    • It might take longer to determine how to access the information in there and some people may not even notice it.
    • But if you do, you will see a more complete poem, with a different meaning.
    • The new meaning of the poem is also a description of the path that you took to get here.

To be explicit, the incomplete verse is intended to imply that we need to work hard to find stillness, peace, and ultimate enlightenment.
The complete verse was there all along, just a bit more difficult to see. It states that we don’t need to work. Perfection is here always and is unavoidable, whether we are aware of it or not.
The complete poem is no better than the incomplete poem, and some people might enjoy the images … or not, and that’s all perfect.

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