“Sat, chit, and ananda:
‘infinite being, infinite awareness, infinite bliss.’ Does the ordinary,
decent, secular American aspire to that? Does he see it as within his register?
There’s a special circle in Dante’s hell that is populated by souls whose only
fault was that their aspirations were too low.” –Huston Smith, Parabola
Magazine, Dec. 2016.
I heard this quote in a dharma talk given by Bussho Lahn on
Sunday morning at the Minneapolis Zen Center. Smith’s words echoed in my mind
later at the Minneapolis Institute of Art
while I stood in front of this sculpture titled “Rendevous.” Created in 1981
from Indiana limestone by Apache artist Allan
Houser (1914-1994), the sculpture was positioned near a colorful, woven
Native American blanket.
I felt transfixed, just drinking it all in. I mean, talk
about being, awareness, and bliss! At least for the moment, my aspirations were
definitely not too low. And several days later, while drawing and painting the scene
with pen and gouache, I experienced it all over again: sat, chit, ananda.
Art, religion, meditation, nature, music, literature...there are so many ways to raise our aspirations.
