Friday, January 13, 2012

Poems, Paintings, Cantatas, Prayers, Sculptures, Photographs, Symphonies, Axioms, Prophecies, Analects, Proverbs....

From Parabola:

Jan Lauschmann, "Castle Stairs," 1927. From Tschechoslowakische Fotografien 1900-1940.

Jan Lauschmann,"Castle Stairs," 1927. From Tschechoslowakische Fotografien 1900-1940.




In Huston Smith's bestselling book: World's Religions: A Guide to Our Wisdom Traditions he writes that fundamentally it is religion or spiritual practices that connects us to the ultimate questions:





Where are we?





Why are we here?





What does it all mean?





What, if anything, are we supposed to do?



Kuo Hsi (11th Century Chinese painter) "Clearing Autumn Skies"
 
Kuo Hsi (11th Century Chinese painter) "Clearing Autumn Skies"






‎"There is a being wonderful, perfect;

It existed before heaven and earth.

How quiet it is!

How spiritual it is!

It stands alone and it does not change;

It moves, but does not on that account suffer.

All life comes from it, yet it does not demand to be Lord.

I do not know its name, so I call it Tao, the Way,

And I rejoice in its power."





—Tao Te Ching, 25th Chapter



Aaron Huey "Sufi shrine in the city of Multan, Pakistan"
 
Aaron Huey "Sufi shrine in the city of Multan, Pakistan"






"Listen to the story told by the reed,

of being seperated.

Since I was cut from the reedbed,

I have made this crying sound.

Anyone seperated from the one he loves

understands what I say.

Anyone pulled from a source longs to go back."



—Rumi



Marc Chagall, "The Prophet Jeremiah" 1968
 
Marc Chagall, "The Prophet Jeremiah" 1968




"Hear O Isreal,

the Lord our God,

The Lord is One"



—Deut 6:4



Ansel Adams, "Redwoods," Bull Creek Flat, Northern CA, 1960
 
Ansel Adams, "Redwoods," Bull Creek Flat, Northern CA, 1960




“There are many windows through

which we can look out into the

world, searching for meaning …



…Most of us, when we ponder on the

meaning of our existence,

peer through but one of these

windows onto the world.

And even that one is often misted over

by the breath of our finite humanity.



We clear a tiny peephole and stare through.



No wonder we are confused by the

tiny fraction of a whole that we see.



It is, after all, like trying to

comprehend the panorama of the

desert or the sea through

a rolled-up newspaper.”



—Jane Goodall, Primatologist/Anthropologist (1924- ). With thanks to the Tao of Photography

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