“There is a moment where everything becomes fire” says Heraclitus (a Greek philosopher). “The stars are flames … the sun being the brightest and warmer … the soul is the spark that sets alight the essence of the stars”.
The flame is the visible manifestation of the very principle of life. By extension it also portrays the divine spirit and feeds the imagination of the beholder.
The flame appears in virtually all cultures and has contradictory meanings. Indeed, if it can set alight the world it can also end with this same world. Krishna, in his eternal dance, is surrounded by flames and holds in his hand the flame that ignited the universe as well as the flame that devours all.
Now you take the floor : what do you associate with the flame?
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Flame = Spirit + Light
The Sowing of Meanings by Thomas Merton
See the high birds! Is their’s the song
That dies among the wood-light
Wounding the listener with such bright arrows?
Or do they play in wheeling silences
Defining in the perfect sky
The bounds of (here below) our solitude,
Where spring has generated lights of green
To glow in clouds upon the sombre branches?
Ponds full of sky and stillnesses
What heavy summer songs still sleep
Under the tawny rushes at your brim?
More than a season will be born here, nature,
In your world of gravid mirrors!
The quiet air awaits one note,
One light, one ray and it will be the angels’ spring:
One flash, one glance upon the shiny pond, and then
Asperges me! sweet wilderness, and lo! we are redeemed!
For, like a grain of fire
Smouldering in the heart of every living essence
God plants His undivided power –
Buries His thought too vast for worlds
In seed and root and blade and flower,
Until, in the amazing light of April,
Surcharging the religious silence of the spring,
Creation finds the pressure of His everlasting secret
Too terrible to bear.
Then every way we look, lo! rocks and trees
Pastures and hills and streams and birds and firmament
And our own souls within us flash, and shower us with light,
While the wild countryside, unknown, unvisited of men,
Bears sheaves of clean, transforming fire.
And then, oh then the written image, schooled in sacrifice,
The deep united threeness printed in our being,
Shot by the brilliant syllable of such an intuition, turns within,
And plants that light far down into the heart of darkness and oblivion,
Dives after, and discovers flame.
from Nasa : moon, sun, stars
htpp://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
I came to think of the Fenix-bird which both dies and is reborn in the flames.
Paulo, estou acabando de ler “O MAGO” e adorando. Você é mesmo o máximo!!!!!!!! Apesar de conhecer vários livros seus, adorei saber mais sobre sua vida. Já vi você várias vêzes , no calçadão de Copacabana, passeando , como um simples mortal…mas faz um tempinho que isso não acontece, infelizmente. Mas deu pra peceber como você é simpático e verdadeiro. O livro só veio corroborar minhas opiniões. Parabéns, mais sucesso (se é que é possível), muita luz e paz no novo ano. Beijos de uma leitora e admiradora forever
Patrícia
Adorei a história da “NHÁ CHICA”. Quando criança, também visitei a tal casa, em Baependi.
A flame is passion, and I find it odd that it would be questionable for something else. (laughs)
The flame for me is the key moment when a creation starts to exist. Is the moment zero, the “NOW!”.
It is also happening when we let free our energies to come out of us.
Also when we let energies to come into us.
It’s “the primordial creation BOOM”.
(Fire is distructive only if we do not control it).
i associate FLAME with LOVE :)
To me the flame is the element which protects existence
flame, olimpic,torch relay,beijing,2008
le chiedo lo sforzo di tradurre se mai si dovesse trovare a leggere questo commento. Sono italiana, ho sedici anni.. E diciamo che non vado molto d’accordo con l’inglese! Ho molti dei suoi libri in giro per casa, e ne ho appena terminato uno: brida. Devo dire che mi ha lasciato un po’ turbata.. Non so ancora il motivo di questa sensazione, lo scoprirò più tardi. è inutile cercare di fare chiarezza ora, non ho ancora realizzato che questo blog è suo e che leggerà quello che sto scrivendo! Le volevo solamente dire grazie per tutti i consigli che non sa di avermi dato, e per tutte le parole che ho letto nei suoi libri: puntualmente mi regalano brividi. Non mi resta che augurare a lei e a sua moglie Christina un intenso 2009…
When the flame burns low
We must be mindful
And trust its strength
The light dims, so we can see more clearly
The shadowy places
Where our fears and unasked questions hide
The intermediate blur of light with the darkness
Rolls up a fog of uncertainty
Is someone betting I won’t last this fight?
The quivering light yields to the dark sometimes
Only to grow back from its diminished state
Slowly resuming a steady glow
When the flame burns low
We must be mindful
And trust its strength
11.
Candles
The days of our future stand in front of us
like a row of little lit candles –
golden, warm, and lively little candles.
The days past remain behind us,
a mournful line of extinguished candles;
the ones nearest are still smoking,
cold candles, melted, and bent.
I do not want to look at them; their form saddens me,
and it saddens me to recall their first light.
I look ahead at my lit candles.
I do not want to turn back, lest I see and shudder
at how fast the dark line lengthens,
at how fast the extinguished candles multiply.
Constantine P. Cavafy (1899)
Constantinos Cavafys
The FLAME is the symbol of life. The element of fire. AETHER. God’s power. Zeus was punishing people with a thunderbolt. God appeared to Moses like the ‘burning bush’ but not.. burnt. The Apostles were given the Right and Power to continue Jesus teachings by .. fire in Pentecost.
For me it symbolizes the power of LOVE.
LOVE,
THELMA
Flame.. i associate with flame, the burning hearts.. the burning heart of a loving mother.. that lost her child and her man in an unequal war, unwabted war.. the father who watched his son ding in his arms… teh burning heart of a lover that was forced to say goodbye to his mate, the flames of the heart of a person with one way love.. loves some1 without him even knowing, the flame of passion when u meet the love of your life after a sepration of a life time, the flame of your heart when u hold ur 1st new born baby..
i associate flame.. with the heart, in happiness and in pain
divine passion
divine love
the fire that burns away the ego bringing us home to Love.
For me the flame symbolises knowledge. It ignites, it propels us to think. A flame is the one which makes us go forward in life. In my home I light a lamp every morning and many an evening infront of my God in the belief that it destroys the darkness of ignorance by the light of its knowlege. A flame keeps it going. But then a flame is also one which destroys (darkness) as well as ignorance….
A source of energy, giving me the strength to continue my journey…
Passion, Revenge, Justice.
Catastrophe.
Querido Paulo: y por fin LLAMA , es la respuesta tardaremos en ver lo que se nos dejo escrito en alguna parte, pero cuando llega es la respuesta…LLAMA feliz 2009
That is a new insight, Martin. Thank you.
La flamme c’est la chaleur, la vie, l’espoir, la passion, la lumière…bref…c’est celui que j’aime
We are all born with a flame, and as we grow, some choose to show it while others shield it, this is ok until the shielder realises that his flame is not growing, one flame is no good, it should be part of a fire.
Best wishes Paulo for 2009……..Martin
The flame is reflekting the image of our larges enery the love of the sun. Without it we cannot live on mother earth, given by our creator, god.
I’ve just heard this poem, (the universe works like that), so this is my answer:
what is love?
love is the passion which endureth,
which neither time nor absence cureth;
which nought of earthly change can sever:
love is the light which shines for ever.
what cold and selfish breasts deem madness
lives in its depths of joy and sadness;
in hearts, on lips, of flame it burneth —
one is its world, to one it turneth.
its chain of gold — what hand can break it?
its deathless hold — what force can shake it?
mere passion aught of earth may sever,
but souls that love, love on for ever.
~mary anne lamb
Flame-caution, warmth, heat, fire, controlled, out of control, alive.
La Llama…Iluminacion, Inspiracion, Transformacion, Transportacion…
La LLama…Fuego Interior…
Somos Verbo, somos Palabras…la palabra LLama conlleva tambien…
Un LLAMAdo…UN LLAMADO INTERIOR…UN VIAJE HACIA SI MISMO!
La llama es la luz que ilumina el camino, es la fuerza interna, es una fracción del todo que vuelve para unirse a el y por eso cada igual busca a su igual para unirse y formar el fuego eterno de amor y de vida.
The darkness can not consume the light.
The flame is the center. The power that drives all thought. Something around which everything collects, share, and grows. Picture a circle of minds sharing their ideas and thoughts with each other around a small blaze. They inform each other’s ideas and this is then spread by ripple effect… but it all begins at the warm center. It’s a heliocentric world, no? The Sun… the great fire.
Just Love!
Fire has always been a strong symbol for me. It’s the blood furnace under my skin, the birth-death-rebirth cycle in my breath. Like the flame, I am stifled without oxygen — a curious parallel, especially because I suffer from asthma. Like the flame, I want to burn hotter and brighter — I’m a candleflame dreaming of being a star.
I love the flame!The candle is an element in Romania thats very important!Specialy wen people die.No one should die withought a flame!It meens that the soul need light from fire, to find somehow in to the light!That ,I`v learnt from my grandmother and all our culture.
For me is flame very imortant wenn I need to find my inner peace,and every time wen I sit on the table to eat.It is allready a ritual that I am doing withought to think too much.My doughter helpt me to find only one word for flame:LOVE.
Love
Mirela(the woman in lift)
flame…Saint Spirit, hell, my zodiac’s sign and the book “The sense of the things and the magic” of Tommaso Campanella.
Whenever I participate in anything important that touches the soul and spirit there is always a flame. I associate the flame with candles and fire. Fire for passion. The candle for peace, authenticity and touching the soul. But I always hold in mind that a flame casts a shadow and when we embrace the light we must always embrace the shadow also.
when i think flame- i feel flame, and it is that kind of the warm hot feeling that one feels once in a while some time flame would give u that hope and once that flame would give u the feeling of sadness, in my life my name means MY LIGHT and i usually feel the flame in me in the most possitive way and even i feel i can reflect my flame to my loved ones, so flame -is my most powerful energy in my life!!!
I have a very personal association with, not a flame as such, but fire. Two of the houses I was living in burnt to the ground. The first house, a wooden flat above a fish and chip shop, I was asleep in when the fire broke out. Luckily none of us were hurt. My boyfriend tried to save his amplifier from being burnt and had to retreat as it was too dangerous. The second house burnt whilst I was away visting family. Oddly enough I had locked my room (something I had never done before) so everything I owned was destroyed, including my paintings which I had intended to send off to a competition and then had lost faith. I know the second episode was related to a man with whom I was having a destructive relationship. I am the sign of Cancer, which is the primary water sign so fire for me is a very powerful thing, a purifier but also a sign that we contain within ourselves the seeds of our own destruction. And sometimes we are our own worst enemies.
nice the comparison of phoenix,love it
sure,warm,now here being very cold,a nice wood fire is a better thing.Well,I think at purification,of course,maybe poor witches burned were ment to be purified….And the smoke that raises is a sign that units land and sky,a way to arrive at Divine.A flame is called often a lover,the flame of love,that might devour,not only to warm up our souls.well,we might say flame as passion.
Just today I had this experience: I did this new meditation where I had to look deep into my innerself until everything visible would disappear. Then I had to start listening…search for my inner wisdom…at first I had to hear noises, my everyday life talking but closer listening would let me hear some beautiful sound and that sound would be my inner wisdom. And indeed I did hear something. I heard the flame. Fire burning, a sound of flames… So obviously that is my first association today, because of this new meditation of inner wisdom! It is the sound of my inner wisdom. The flame.
The Flame
Eternal
An Awesome Power
Consuming
Dispels darkness
Light of the world
For me, a flame or fire is pure passion.
Passion is that what makes me move.
It is that wat makes life worthwhile.
Love,
Mirjam
La flamme est cette lueur d’espoir qui scintille au fond de mon coeur et de mon âme pour m’accompagner sur le chemin de ma destiné.Elle me sussure chaque matin au bord de l’oreille qu’il faut aller au bout de ses rêves.
Tant qu’elle brille, la vie est en moi. Alors j’ai appris à ne plus soupirer au risque de l’éteindre pour l’éternité…..
Bien à vous, cher Paolo.
Flame is the door to transformation.
It can bring different elements together and change them into something else.
Intentions and how you use the flame will determine the end result.
I believe that everyone has to die and to be reborn, rising like the phoenix from the ashes. In this paradox one can only be immortal if he or she dies first burst into flames.
I associate flame with our resurrection.
The flame is a TRUE LOVE, Paulo! It’s the Passional Love! The sun, the stars, God, Christ, Krishna is ONLY THE SIMBOLS. We are all just human! You to!
Change. Passion. Danger. Warmth.
El elemento del fuego siempre me hace pensar en los rincones oscuros dentro de mi ser.
Y es verdad que me hipnotiza cuando lo miro, esta energia me simula los momentos de excitación que lo devoran todo.
El odio, el amor, la envidia, el deseo, la conciencia, la confusión, la falsa idea del Yo.
Así podria explicar que la llama me recuerda al Nirvana el momento donde desaparece este fuego, (donde la llama representa las pasiones incontroladas que se apagan) como extinción, calma, quietud, cese, de este elemento en nuestra mente, surgiendo la paz, y la verdad.
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirvana
freedom,dissolution and dissipation,inherent potential and ultimate realisaion
flame is something that you feel inside you. something very powerful that makes you move forward, that reminds you that you are alive, that makes you cry or laugh for no obvious reason. and what is most important it opens the door to changes.
The blue flame of longing that burns for my soulmate.
Atma-samarpan. Complete surrender, of the soul and beyond.
Renaissance.
A death and an awakening.
Chrysalis.
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