Description
One of the most important things in life is balance—or as the Buddhists call it, the Middle Way. The ancient texts remind us that there is a time for everything, because life’s challenges rarely have a single, simple answer. Depending on our circumstances, we must draw on different virtues and forms of wisdom.
Passion and reason, for example, are often seen as opposites. We’re frequently asked to choose between them. But in truth, they are two sides of the same coin—interconnected and intertwined, not in conflict but in harmony.
The painting Reason and Passion is inspired by a poem of the same name by Khalil Gibran, which is inscribed into the painting and explores this delicate balance.
Your soul is oftentimes a battlefield, upon which your reason and your judgement wage war against your passion and your appetite.
Would that I could be the peacemaker in your soul, that I might turn the discord and the rivalry of your elements into oneness and melody……………….Among the hills, when you sit in the cool shade of the white poplars, sharing the peace and serenity of distant fields, and meadows—then let your heart say in silence, “God rests in reason.”
And when the storm comes, and the mighty wind shakes the forest, and thunder and lightning proclaim the majesty of the sky,—then let your heart say in awe, “God moves in passion.”
And since you are a breath in God’s sphere, and a leaf in God’s forest, you too should rest in reason and move in passion.
