“White and Silver Headphones” | Anthony Satori
“When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive – to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.”
– Anais Nin
To Be Alive
Black-and-White Photography
Equilibrium and Harmony
“Venus de Milo” | Anthony Satori
“Elegance is often confused with superficiality, lack of depth. This is a serious mistake: human beings need to have elegance in their actions and in their posture because this word is synonymous with good taste, amiability, equilibrium, and harmony.”
– Paulo Coelho
Thoughts Which Are Prayers
“Prayer” | Anthony Satori
“There are thoughts which are prayers. There are moments when, whatever the posture of the body, the soul is on its knees.”
– Victor Hugo
Everybody Needs Beauty
“Meerkat” | Anthony Satori
“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and places to pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to the body and soul.”
– John Muir
The Tao of Forms
“The Tao of Forms” | Anthony Satori
“When you do not dwell in ego, then things will of themselves reveal their forms to you. Your movement will be like that of water, your stillness like that of a mirror, your responses like those of an echo.”
– Chuang Tzu
The Myth of the Rainy Night
“Piano Keys” | Anthony Satori
“I looked. George Shearing. And as always he leaned his blind head on his pale hand, all ears opened like the ears of an elephant. Then they urged him to get up and play. He did. Shearing began to play his chords; they rolled out of the piano in great rich showers, you’d think the man wouldn’t have time to line them up. They rolled and rolled like the sea. He played innumerable choruses with amazing chords that mounted higher and higher till the sweat splashed all over the piano and everybody listened in awe and fright. They led him off the stand after an hour. Shearing rose from the piano, dripping with sweat; these were his great days before he became cool and commercial. He went back to his dark corner, old God Shearing, and the boys said, ‘There ain’t nothing left after that.’ When he was gone, Dean pointed to the empty piano seat. ‘God’s empty chair,’ he said. God was gone; it was the silence of his departure. It was a rainy night. It was the myth of the rainy night.”
– Jack Kerouac
This text is my own compilation of two entirely separate accounts that Jack Kerouac wrote describing a single rainy night when he and “Dean” (Neal Cassady) watched George Shearing play piano at a jazz club. The more I combed through each of the two descriptions, the more I found them to be almost perfectly complimentary to each other. Eventually, it even started to seem as if Kerouac had deliberately structured them this way: consistently presenting certain elements of the experience in one description that he had left out of (or shaded differently in) the other, and vice versa. Being an avid appreciator of Kerouac’s descriptive writing, I became curious to see how the text would feel if I synthesized these two descriptions into one continuous narrative. It started as a creative exercise, but as I proceeded, it almost began to feel as if Jack had quite purposefully left this puzzle to be found and deciphered later by some especially attentive (and lucky) reader, and that I had by pure good fortune stumbled upon this riddle. Whether he did it on purpose or not, I do not know. But the combined story ended up coming together in such a compelling manner, I decided to share it with you here. I hope you enjoy!
Sacred Lotus
“Sacred Lotus” | Anthony Satori
“When the ground dissolves beneath me, I float.”
– Alan Watts
When I consider this statement by Watts, I place it in what I would call the “present eternal” tense. This is, of course, not an actual grammatical tense in any existing language, as far as I know. But for me, it holds a very special place in the lexicon. It is a way to say, “This is true, right now; but it is also true in a manner that transcends the limitations of time and space.” For example, when we tell someone that we love them, from the depth of our heart, I believe that we are speaking in the “present eternal” tense. This is because true Love exists outside of the limits of time and space. Similarly, when God told Moses that His name was, “I AM,” I believe He was indicating that He, in the same way, inhabits this transcendent, eternal realm.
Now, let us consider the sacred lotus. Its roots are sunk deeply into the earth, anchored firmly in the loamy mud at the bottom of a lake, pond, or slow-moving river. The lotus flower derives stability and nourishment from the depth of its roots, and yet its blossom lives far above this stratum, perched weightlessly and elegantly on top of the water. There it lives, peacefully aloft, supported by a bed of leaves, suspended effortlessly above all of the darkness, dirt, and tumult swirling below. When the ground dissolves beneath it, it floats. This is the lotus blossom’s sacred nature, now and always. It was created to live in the sunlight, to transcend the darkness of the water below, just like we are.
The lotus flower also has the rare ability – an ability usually reserved exclusively for animals – to produce its own heat. Consequently, it can regulate its own interior temperature and thereby moderate its own internal state of being in response to, even in direct contrast to, its environment. In addition to this, a dormant lotus seed can remain viable for hundreds of years, with some documented cases of dormant seeds over even 1000 years old re-awakening and successfully flowering. It doesn’t take much to see why this wondrous flower has been a source of fascination and inspiration – as well as a mystical symbol of transcendence and longevity – for artists, poets, and spiritualists alike.
So, the next time you feel stuck in the mud, exhausted by the murky tumult that swirls all around you, remember: you are a sacred lotus. When the ground dissolves beneath you, float. This is your sacred nature, now and always.
Music in the Soul
“Music in the Soul” | Anthony Satori
“Music in the soul can be heard by the Universe.”
– Lao Tzu
The Magic of Objects
“Chair” | Anthony Satori
It is quite mystical, really, how something physical – a place, a type of flower, an inanimate object; even a color, a sound, a flavor, or a scent – can become so full of meaning and beauty, merely from having accompanied a moment in your life when you felt great joy.
Live Lightly
“Take Flight” | Anthony Satori
The fact is, life is a great mystery. None of us knows how long we have here. We may, by some miracle, still be around a hundred years from now. Or we may be gone next week. No one knows. So I say, live lightly. Glide as smoothly as you can over the bumps and dips of this world – they really don’t matter in the big scheme of things. Embrace each day as the gift that it is. Live love, live joy, and live kindness. Live compassion, live gratitude, and live courage. Watch, listen, and learn with humility. Think, speak, and act with intention. And then, when the stars align and the wind is at your back, be ready to fly when the universe presents you with the opportunity to fly.
