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An integrative theory of the holographic and trans-linear dynamics of life

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Volution in Calligraphy

November 10, 2017 by Peter Merry in Connections

I came across this beautiful calligraphy by Francois Cheng while visiting Reims Cathedral in France. It was part of an exhibition that included Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. For me, it captures beautifully the volutionary dynamic, with a torus and emanation at the centre. This was the text he had put below it (translated from French, see photo of original below).

"Life creates life / and it will never end"

This famous phrase comes from one of the Great Commentaries on the Book of Changes. Like Tai Chi Chuan, calligraphy allows those that practise it to reconnect with the Breath and to revitalise oneself in the universal current of life. 

The practice is spiritual. The calligraphy triggers a dialogue between the visible and the invisible, the finite and the infinite. The line leads to the welling up of an interior world.

I wanted to depict this elan.

In the second character, identical to the first, the vertical line has what painters call a "blanc volant" (literally, "flying white"). It is a spontaneous form which comes from the running out of the ink during the composition. 

For a calligrapher the "blanc volant" is an opportunity: it allows the circulation of the Breath in the line itself.

This is how life creates life: the promise is eternal.

(From Et le souffle devient signe by Francois Cheng)

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November 10, 2017 /Peter Merry
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