Let things take their course
Yesterday I went for a long, unplanned walk in the countryside. Along the way, I came across objects I hadn’t been consciously looking for. They appeared right before my eyes. A sense of wonder welled up within me, mixed with a feeling of being moved by these wondrous things appearing before me. It was a simple, withered plant on a pile of garden waste by a lake in the woods.
Whilst in nature the withering of a plant is usually associated with its destruction, Zen Buddhism regards precisely this moment of transformation—in which the true nature of a form of existence becomes visible and all essential aspects of life manifest themselves—as central.
After pausing for some time in this contemplation, a sense of the sublime came over me. It humbled me and yet lifted me up at the same time. It constrained my mind and yet carried it beyond itself. It triggered a feeling that bore a resemblance to fear, yet was also a source of joy. Touched by the sacred, on the path to my innermost self, my primal source. Comfort and support, a brief inner peace, an encounter between the present and eternity, a deep divine spark.
I sensed what Rudolf Otto described as the numinous: an intense, non-rational feeling of the divine or the otherworldly, which simultaneously evokes awe, wonder and fascination.
At this point, I would like to thank Brother Jakobus Geiger OSB, monk at Münsterschwarzach Abbey. Through our long conversations, I have now gradually developed this perspective, which will remain a lifelong task for me. Walking in nature without a specific aim, in a contemplative manner; not seeking things, but pausing, seeing, smelling, hearing, simply letting everything come to me, in order thereby to establish a deep inner connection with nature, and thus to be able to add a new dimension to my work.
I would like to conclude here with a quote from Leo Tolstoy and a comment on it by Arthur Miller
-What we seek in a work of art is the revelation of the artist’s soul, a divine spark-
Arthur Miller:
- This spark of God is ignited in the encounter with the sacred. It responds to the sacred and kindles a fire within us-
Thank you, Kirsten, for the portrait of me