“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
“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.
“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” –|– 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” –|– 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
“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
“Revelations” –|– Anthony Satori
“I want to work in revelations. I want to fish as deep down as possible into my own subconscious in the belief that once that far down, everyone will understand, because that far down everyone is the same.”
— Jack Kerouac
We, as human beings, have far more in common with each other than we have differences between us. And when an artist works in “revelations,” their creative expressions can become beautiful and powerful conduits for the universal elements of human existence. Experiencing art of this nature becomes no longer about “thinking.” In contrast, such revelatory art is meant to circumnavigate the rational, linear brain altogether, giving rise instead to vibrations — much like mysticism, meditation, or prayer — which resonate directly with one’s mind, spirit, and soul, and which bring with them the promise of an unparalleled purity of experience and comprehension. If the human race is to seek any best hope for the future, it will come from us finding and exploring these universal truths and values, and from cultivating the connections and bonds that arise from them.
“Leaves on Blue Water” –|– Anthony Satori
“Have you also learned that secret from the river; that there is no such thing as time? That the river is everywhere at the same time, at the source and at the mouth, at the waterfall, at the ferry, at the current, in the ocean and in the mountains, everywhere; and that the present only exists for it, not the shadow of the past nor the shadow of the future.”
— Hermann Hesse
“Internal Peace” –|– Anthony Satori
“One cannot reflect in streaming water. Only those who know internal peace can give it to others.”
— Lao Tzu
“Fountain” –|– Anthony Satori
“They both listened silently to the water, which to them was not just water, but the voice of life, the voice of Being, the voice of perpetual Becoming.”
— Hermann Hesse
Satori Circle | Art & Culture 