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Breath Water Silence

from Words and Silences by Brian Harnetty

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lyrics

Breath, Water, Silence
Merton Archive Tape 213-09

Sunday morning, April 30th. The bells ringing down in the monastery for lauds. It’s a dark, grey morning. It may rain later. I want to record some thoughs, again from Ibn al Arabi on Islam, and on the elation of the Lord to creatures, and the relation of the Lord to nature.

Nature is described by Ibn al Arabi as “the breathing of God” -- all being is grounded in the divine breath.

The prophet says, “he who wants to know the divine breath must try to know the world, for he who knows himself, knows his Lord.” We seek our Lord, then, in the midst of the creatures which he has breathed out, and which he breathes out around us, and he breathes us out also. And then he will breathe in and take us all back into himself, and we will realize that all the time that we were he.

More morning sounds, a bright morning. The sound of water dripping in the bucket is to be heard beside the wren and the other birds out there. Um, for Ibn al Arabi, water is the most appropriate symbol of life. He says, “The secret of life is in the act of flowing peculiar to water.” The watery element is, for him, is the most fundamental element. Of course what he’s saying there, he’s simply expressing an intuition, of dynamism, movement and becoming in all things. A sense of vitalism and life in everything. Corresponding to his idea of God’s mercy breathing into everything. Of course the breathing would suggest that air is the most subtle element as some of these other metaphysicians would have said. In any case, for him water symbolizes the life that runs through everything. And to be immersed in water is a baptism in life, to be baptized in life. I would say that would be a very good symbol of the hermit life. To be totally baptized in the silence and the flow and the reality of life and thereby to know the full reality of existence.

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from Words and Silences, released October 7, 2022

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Brian Harnetty Columbus, Ohio

Interdisciplinary artist using sound and listening to foster social change. Recordings on Winesap, Karl, Dust-to-Digital, Atavistic, and Scioto Records.

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