Sunday, March 20, 2016

We breathe as the ocean breathes















(Pencil on paper, by am, Life Drawing in the Fine Arts Department in the evenings at Western Washington University in the late 1980s)

"In Celtic thought the body is an echo of the soul.  It is born and dies, and in that sense is passing like an echo, but it carries within it the sounds of the eternal."

"While we may cherish our various rich religious inheritances, the essence of our being cannot be contained by the boundaries of religion.  The soul is neither Jewish nor Christian, neither Muslim nor Hindu.  It defies the limitations of any one tradition.  As the 14th century mystic Meister Eckhart says, 'the soul is naked of all things that bear names.'"
(J. Philip Newell)

5 comments:

Tara said...

Indeed, how could we possibly define the soul with our paltry words? Or our man-made religious affiliations.

That is a lovely drawing -- interesting and unusual angle. Life drawing teaches so much, doesn't it?

dritanje said...

"we breathe as the ocean breathes" - lovely words and very relevant for me lately as I've been walking beside the sea. And wishing I could always live within the sound of the ocean waves.

am said...

Thank you, Tara and dritanje!

Forest Dream Weaver said...

I like the simplicity of your composition. The sea connects us to the soul of the Earth I think. I am it and it is me......it's beyond words!

am said...

Forest Dream Weaver -- Thank you for stopping by and commenting. Have you seen Anish Kapoor: Walk with Ai Weiwei?

http://anishkapoor.com/1076/walk-with-ai-weiwei-17-09-2015