What is called the world is only thought.
—Ramana Maharshi
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You are not what you think yourself to be, I assure you.
The image you have of yourself is made up from memories and is purely accidental.
—Nisargadatta Maharaj
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You are not what you think yourself to be, I assure you.
The image you have of yourself is made up from memories and is purely accidental.
—Nisargadatta Maharaj
For nothing is fixed,forever, forever, forever,it is not fixed;the earth is always shifting,the light is always changing,the sea does not cease to grind down rock.Generations do not cease to be born,and we are responsible to thembecause we are the only witnesses they have.The sea rises, the light fails,lovers cling to each other,and children cling to us.The moment we cease to hold each other,the moment we break faith with one another,the sea engulfs us and the light goes out.—James BaldwinFor Nothing Is Fixed
If anyone asks youhow the perfect satisfactionof all our longingwill look, lift your faceand say,Like this.
When someone mentions the gracefulnessof the night sky, climb up on the roofand dance and say,Like this?
If anyone wants to know what "spirit" is,or what "God's fragrance" means,lean your head toward him or her.Keep your face there close,Like this.
When someone quotes the old adageabout clouds gradually uncovering the moon,slowly loosen knot by knot the stringsof your robe,Like this?
If anyone wonders how Jesus raised the dead,don't try to explain the miracle.Kiss me on the lips,Like this. Like this.
When someone asks what it meansto "die for love," pointhere.
If someone asks how tall I am, frownand measure with your fingers the spacebetween the creases on your forehead.This tall.
The soul sometimes leaves the body, then returns.When someone doesn't believe that,walk back into my house.Like this.
I am a sky where spirits live.Stare into this deepening blue,While the breeze says a secret.Like this.
When someone asks what there is to do,light the candle in his hand.Like this.
How did Joseph's scent come to Jacob?Huuuu.
How did Jacob's sight return?Huuuuu.
A little wind cleans the eyes.Like this.
When Shams comes back from Tabriz,he'll put just his head around the edgeof the door to surprise us.Like this.
—Rumi
Coleman Barks version
Many colors have been described as rough or sticky, others as smooth and uniform, so that one feels inclined to stroke them (e.g., dark ultramarine, chromic oxide green, and rose madder). Equally the distinction between warm and cold colors belongs to this connection. Some colors appear soft (rose madder), others hard (cobalt green, blue-green oxide), so that even fresh from the tube they seem to be dry. The expression “scented colors” is frequently met with. And finally the sound of colors is so definite that it would be hard to find anyone who would try to express bright yellow in the bass notes, or dark lake in the treble…
Color is a power which directly influences the soul. Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the hammers, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand which plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul.
This essential connection between color and form brings us to the question of the influences of form on color. Form alone, even though totally abstract and geometrical, has a power of inner suggestion. A triangle (without the accessory consideration of its being acute — or obtuse — angled or equilateral) has a spiritual value of its own. In connection with other forms, this value may be somewhat modified, but remains in quality the same. The case is similar with a circle, a square, or any conceivable geometrical figure [which has] a subjective substance in an objective shell.
The work of art is born of the artist in a mysterious and secret way. From him it gains life and being. Nor is its existence casual and inconsequent, but it has a definite and purposeful strength, alike in its material and spiritual life. It exists and has power to create spiritual atmosphere; and from this inner standpoint one judges whether it is a good work of art or a bad one. If its “form” is bad it means that the form is too feeble in meaning to call forth corresponding vibrations of the soul… The artist is not only justified in using, but it is his duty to use only those forms which fulfill his own need… Such spiritual freedom is as necessary in art as it is in life.
—Wassily Kandinsky (1866 - 1944)
Concerning the Spiritual in Art
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If you expect any benefits from your search, material, mental or spiritual, you have missed the point.
Truth gives no advantage. It gives no higher status, no power over others; all you get is truth and freedom from the false.
—Nisargadatta Maharaj
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