Spirit
[Latin]--- Spiritus
breathing, breath, air
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What is breathing but a rhythm of exchange between one apparent entity and the greater whole?
Rhythm, then is the more fundamental idea. If we think of breathing (ACTIVE breath, rather than mere air) as rhythm, then "spirit" is the active principle or cosmic movement of rhythm that gives the universe a life-like pulsation quality.
I simply do not like the idea of a dead universe from which life somehow emerges. I prefer to think of life as a local consequence of some grand predisposition which is dynamic and dispersed throughout everything.
"Strange", you might say, that I do not use the name "God", but I DO NOT. Again, I feel more attracted to what I sparsely know of as Taoism or Buddhism, without claiming either as my absolute dictator.
"Spirituality", then, is an AWARENESS of my smallness, a SENSE of the infinite that I am connected to, a PERCEPTION of my finiteness amid the infinite, a RESPECT for my relationship to a unity, a HARMONY with this infinite, eternal FLOW.
Now there is both smooth flow and violent flow in my sense of spirituality. Creation, or the coming into being of things, happens in both types. My catastrophism paintings can be read as a metaphor for this idea of "creation from destruction". Again, I do not mind this. In fact, I encourage this reading of my efforts, for the sake of adding a positive spin to culture.
I believe that a sense of spirituality adds a positive spin, if we can accept different expressions of this sense, just as we accept different expressions of what we call "art".
Best regards,
someguy
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