“Ocean Cave” | Anthony Satori
“The ten thousand things are insufficient to distract the sage’s mind – that is the reason he is still. In the midst of darkness, he alone sees the dawn. In the midst of soundlessness, he alone hears harmony.”
– Lao Tzu
“Three Snowmen” | Anthony Satori
How often do we take the time to really look at things, even something as simple as a holiday card? If we were to slow down, we might see and appreciate some pretty remarkable details. Such as the fact that the placement of each and every one of the gold-colored “snowflakes” on this card’s image was arranged by someone’s hand. Or the fact that the design of the center snowman’s scarf is a combination of red- and blue-checkered patterns with small gold diamonds placed carefully among them. Or we may notice that among the background of blue-lit snow, almost invisible upon first viewing, you can see the silhouettes of fir trees painted softly in the shadows. Every detail of this picture was carefully chosen, painted, drawn, and glued, and the feeling it elicits is one of happiness, peace, and warmth. How easy would it be to receive this card, to look at it once, and then to merely discard it, without ever taking the time to ruminate on its composition, let alone the journey it has taken?
This picture has followed such an amazing path – from an inspiration in someone’s mind, to a creative thought carefully formulated into an image, to an expression finally manifested in colors and shapes carefully laid out on the page. Even after its creation, it continued its adventure through multiple organizations of various sizes and forms – perhaps a card company, a print shop, a distributor, a warehouse, a supermarket – moving every step along the way through the hands of, and in the care of, another person or set of people. And then, at long last, it was chosen by a person, just for you, and it was sent on its final race through the postal service, tousled among all of the bills and envelopes and catalogues and coupons, to finally land in your hands, right now, in this moment. These three happy little snowmen have had quite a journey!
Let us resolve, then, to slow down and to take the time to soak in the beauties and subtleties hiding in plain view all around us. Let us make a deliberate choice to appreciate the meaning and wonder bursting forth in the details of even the smallest, seemingly insignificant objects and experiences that come our way. Let us make a point to inhale deeply of the life-energy in everything around us – nature, art, music, food – and, most importantly of all, let us strive to appreciate the beauty and life-force pulsing from within ourselves and from within everyone around us.
“Zhuangzi” | Anthony Satori
“A wise man knows that it is better to sit on the banks of a remote mountain stream than to be emperor of the whole world.”
– Chuang Tzu
“Sketchbook” | Anthony Satori
“Creating a life that reflects your values and satisfies your soul is a rare achievement. In a culture that relentlessly promotes avarice and excess, a person happy doing their own work is usually considered eccentric, if not subversive. Cultivate resources within yourself that bring you happiness outside of what others define as success and failure. To invent your own life’s meaning is not easy, but I think you’ll be happier for the trouble.”
– Bill Watterson (creator of the comic strip, Calvin and Hobbes)
“Lightning Storm” –|– Anthony Satori
“The sensation of ‘I’ as a lonely and isolated center of being is so powerful and common-sensical, and so fundamental to our modes of speech and thought… that we cannot help but experience selfhood except as something superficial in the scheme of the universe. I seem to be a brief light that flashes but once in all the aeons of time – a rare, complicated, and all-too-delicate organism on the fringe of biological evolution, where the wave of life bursts into individual, sparkling, and multi-colored drops that gleam for a moment only to vanish forever. Under such conditioning, it seems impossible and even absurd to realize that my ‘self’ does not reside in the drop alone, but in the whole surge of energy which ranges from the galaxies to the nuclear fields in my body. At this level of existence… my forms are infinite, and their comings and goings are simply the pulses or vibrations of a single and eternal flow of energy.”
– Alan Watts
“A Fish in Water” –|– Anthony Satori
“We do not hear nature boasting about being nature, nor water holding a conference on the technique of flowing. So much rhetoric would be wasted on those who have no use for it. The man of Tao lives in the Tao, like a fish in water. If we tried to teach a fish that water is physically compounded of two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen, the fish would laugh its head off.”
– Al Chung-liang Huang
“Sand Turtles” –|– Anthony Satori
I was at the beach a few days ago, and I walked to the top of a sand dune so that I could get a more expansive view of the ocean. It was beautiful to watch, from atop this small hill, the blue waves crashing on the shore, and I breathed the salty air deeply into my lungs. After a few moments on the dune, I looked down and noticed the footprints of all the people who had been there before me. It became clear that numerous others had quite recently made this journey, possibly with a similar intention and desire, and as I stood there looking at and enjoying the beauty of the ocean, I felt a connection with all of them.
Among the footprints, a certain set stood out to my eyes. They looked like sand drawings of sea turtles. It was fun to imagine these turtles walking about, milling around my feet, enjoying the sun and the sand. And, much like when you are having a picnic and you see an ant (just one ant) and suddenly you see a hundred ants, a thousand ants, all of whom were invisible to your eyes before you saw and identified the first ant, I suddenly realized that I was essentially surrounded by literally dozens of these sand-formed sea turtles, and I was delighted. They were everywhere! A sea turtle party was happening all around me, and I had only just now noticed it.
And it was then that I realized the most surprising part of all. They were my own footprints. That’s right. My own shoes had been forming these sea turtle sculptures all around the top of the dune, dozens of them, and I had presumably been leaving them everywhere else I had been on the beach that day, as well, without even knowing it.
Where you are headed in life matters. Goals matter; destinations matter. However, as we often hear (and yet so easily lose sight of), the true quality of life really does arise from the journey. It is about being present and awake, in this moment. It is about feeling gratitude and appreciation for every good thing that exists around us, right now. And I think my experience that day at the beach helped to illustrate another way that we can make the most of our journey: that is, to be aware that we are leaving an imprint on the universe with every move that we make along the way, with every word that we speak, with every step that we take. If we walk mindfully, and choose to infuse goodness, virtue, and beauty into every day, into every interaction that we encounter, into every moment that we engage with the world around us (no matter how insignificant that engagement may seem), you may suddenly find yourself delightfully surrounded by a crowd of beautiful sea turtles of your own creation, without even realizing that you had been leaving them in your tracks all long. And you will be enheartened with the knowledge that, in some manner or another, you’ve made every place you’ve been a little bit more beautiful and meaningful, just by having been there.
“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
“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
“Heart-Shaped Rock” –|– Anthony Satori
The thing about walking in sand is that you simply cannot rush. Each step takes time. Each step requires attention. You can choose a destination 10, 20, or even 100 feet away, but each step will only take you incrementally closer – slowly, deliberately – and you must make each stride mindfully and with care, so as to keep your balance and to keep yourself moving in the right direction. It is an exercise in patience. It is an exercise in presence. It is an exercise in Zen.
Sometimes you may think, “I will double my effort, triple it, maybe even multiply it five-fold.” But every such increase, even the most emphatic, tends to add at most maybe 5 or 10 percent to your speed – certainly not enough to be worth the additional expenditure of energy, not to mention the attendant elevation of stress, both physical and mental. Therefore, in the end, you eventually discover that your best strategy is merely to take it slow, to expend a reasonable amount of effort with each new step, and to move forward with calm, intention, and purpose – at the pace the sand will allow.
One of the delightful benefits, of course, of walking in sand in such a mindful manner is that sometimes you see things that you might have missed otherwise. Like a rock… shaped like a heart.
Satori Circle | Art & Culture 