“On the Wind” | Anthony Satori
“We should purify our innate well of contentment, and then external things will be in harmony with us.”
– Eckhart Tolle
Innate Well of Contentment
spirituality
Elevate Your Mind
“Seek Light” | Anthony Satori
“Artists are here to disturb the peace.”
– Madonna
I disagree.
Artists are not here to disturb the peace. Quite to the contrary, artists are here to point the way to something better, something higher. Artists are here to illuminate universal goodness, beauty, and truth. Artists are here to connect our minds and spirits by shining a light on shared human values, virtues, and meaning. To put it most succinctly, artists are here to elevate consciousness. And this, it seems to me, is quite the opposite of “disturbing the peace.”
It’s true, sometimes the expansion of consciousness can be disorienting in its exhilaration. It can have the side effect of shaking up the status quo, of waking us up from the hypnosis of complacency. But this is not the primary goal of art. It is not even its primary side effect. And if we mistake this secondary side effect for the actual purpose of art, we will miss it entirely. If we proceed under this misapprehension – especially if artists themselves engage in this folly – we will miss out on one of the most sacred and pure paths to enlightenment and enrichment that we, as humans, have available to us.
Other potential sources have failed us in this pursuit, time and time again. Religion, politics, media, education – each have failed us disastrously in this measure, at some point or another, often in what seems to be nothing less than orchestrated concert. And when we find ourselves in this state of affairs, art remains the last and best refuge of enlightenment. And when artists fail to live up to this ideal – when they fail to even recognize it – society suffers greatly.
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“Humanistic scholars and artists used to be, and were supposed to be, as a group, carriers of and teachers of the eternal verities and the higher life. The goal of humanistic studies was… to inspire the student to the better life, to the higher life, to goodness and virtue. But in recent years and to this day, most humanistic scholars and artists have shared in the general collapse of all traditional values. And when these values collapse, there are no others readily available as replacements.”
– A. H. Maslow
The Stillness Underneath
“Tree of Light” –|– Anthony Satori
“To know yourself as the Being underneath the thinker, the stillness underneath the mental noise, the love and joy underneath the pain, is freedom, salvation, enlightenment.”
– Eckhart Tolle
The Experiencing of Eternity
“Lizard” –|– Anthony Satori
“Eternity isn’t some later time. Eternity isn’t a long time. Eternity has nothing to do with time. Eternity is that dimension of the here and now which ‘thinking’ and ‘time’ block out. Understanding the relationship between mortality and something within you that is transcendent of mortality is the big job. The experiencing of eternity – right here and now – is the function of life.”
– Joseph Campbell
Grasshopper
“Buddha” –|– Anthony Satori
“When a grasshopper sits on a blade of grass, it has no thought of separation, resistance, or blame. Children seem to prefer dragonflies whose wings and bellies are as red as chili peppers. But the green grasshopper blends completely with the green grass, and children rarely notice it. It neither retreats nor beckons. It knows nothing of philosophy or ideals. It is simply grateful for its ordinary life. Dash across the meadow, my dear friend.”
– Thich Nhat Hanh
The Mystical Nature of Music
“Golden Conch Shell” –|– Anthony Satori
“Music has always been a matter of Energy to me, a question of Fuel. Some people call it Inspiration, but what they really mean is Fuel. I have always needed Fuel. I am a serious consumer. On some nights I still believe that a car with the gas needle on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music playing very loudly on the radio.”
— Hunter S. Thompson
The music of the conch shell, for many cultures, has for millennia been the means for calling together the community for celebration, ritual, or a collective endeavor of some kind. For other cultures, it has represented a musical entreaty to communicate with the supernatural world. And for other cultures still, the conch produces nothing less than the sound from which the very universe was created.
The True Fountainhead
“Drink Deeply” –|– Anthony Satori
“For true love is inexhaustible; the more you give, the more you have. And if you go to draw at the true fountainhead, the more water you draw, the more abundant is its flow.”
— Antoine de Saint-Exupery
The Scent of Old Books
“The Scent of Old Books” –|– Anthony Satori
“I have found Truth. Hearing such a boastful statement, you are probably breaking up in laughter. But I mean it. When I encountered Truth, I was startled. It was nothing out of the ordinary. Why has it taken me so long to recognize it, more than ten thousand lives? When I saw it, I was so surprised, all I could do was burst out laughing, just as you must be doing as you read this. I said, ‘I thought with a fancy name like Truth, you’d be more beautiful.’ ‘You think I’m ugly?’ Truth asked. I looked again and had to admit that Truth was not ugly. Truth then asked, ‘Now that you’ve seen me, what will you do tonight?’ I answered solemnly, ‘When I am hungry, I will eat. When I am tired, I will sleep.'”
— Thich Nhat Hanh
Portals and paths to enlightenment exist all around us. Life is filled with opportunities for us to enrich our minds with knowledge and beauty, to infuse our actions with love and joy, and to fill our hearts with compassion and understanding. And the more earnestly and enthusiastically we pursue such things, the more deeply our Being will become enlightened with all of the wonders that the Universe has to offer.
String Theory
“String Theory” –|– Anthony Satori
“You have to be in the world to understand what the spiritual is about, and you have to be spiritual in order to truly be able to accept what the world is about.”
— Mary Oliver
Immortality
“Open Wings” –|– Anthony Satori
“Our longing for immortality is good. It was put there on purpose. We were meant — from the moment of our creation — to live forever.”
— Eric Metaxas
