"To fashion stars out of dog dung, that is the Great Work. To take a negative experience and, by comparing it to something worse, make it feel good, is the great skill."
All things are aggregations of atoms that dance & by their movement produce sound. When the rhythm of the dance changes, the sound it produces also changes... Each atom perpetually sings its song, and the sound at every moment creates dense subtle forms.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the connection between physical matter and the music of existence, suggesting that everything in the universe is interconnected through vibrational patterns.
Alexandra David-Neel's quote expresses the idea that all matter is composed of atoms that are in constant motion, creating a rhythmic dance that produces sound. This represents a deeper philosophical standpoint that everything in the universe is interconnected and continuously changing, and that these changes affect the essence and nature of reality itself. The 'song' of each atom symbolizes its unique contribution to the larger fabric of existence, suggesting a harmonious relationship between the physical world and its underlying vibrational energy.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
During a philosophy lecture discussing the nature of reality and existence.
More from Alexandra David-Neel
All quotes →To the one who knows how to look and feel, every moment of this free wandering life is an enchantment.
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