One of the most poetic moments in the book of Genesis occurs in the Creation story when God breathes life into the earth and thus creates humanity. This imagery connects us to God and the earth completely, eternally, inextricably. We are no more or less than any other part of this marvelous world; our lives depend on it and it, on us.

I think of this passage whenever meditate--alone or under the guidance of my Buddhist teacher. This kind of meditation focuses on breathing. It is the kind of meditation that Buddha himself engaged in under the bodhi tree. It is about develop in full consciousness of all about you and within you.

It is with this in mind that I read the Creation story as a moment of inspiration for that mystery called God as well as for the life that breath created.

1. That breathing in of life is literally inspiration.

2. It is the "immediate influence of God or a god," according to the Online Etymology Dictionary.

3. To inspire is to "influence or animate [fill with life or activity] with an idea or purpose." With all this in mind, I climbed Mt. Google the other day and asked the Source of Knowledge what other sages have said about inspiration--about doing, about being alive--through the ages. I found these marvelous thoughts:

4. A supernatural divine influence on the prophets, apostles, or sacred writers, by which they were qualified to communicate moral or religious truth with authority; a supernatural influence which qualifies men to receive and communicate divine truth; also, the truth communicated.(Brainy Quote)

5. No one was ever great without some portion of divine inspiration. (Cicero)

6. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. (Aristotle)

7. Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is most important that you do it. (Gandhi)

8. Inspiration may be a form of superconsciousness, or perhaps of subconsciousness--I wouldn't know. But I am sure it is the antithesis of self- consciousness. (Aaron Copland)

9. What is grace? It is the inspiration from on high: it is love; it is liberty. (Victor Hugo)

10. Vitality shows in not only the ability to persist but the ability to start over. (F. Scott Fitzgerald)

11. When we do the best that we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another. (Helen Keller)

12. Inspiration is God making contact with itself. (Ram Dass)

13. Nature is my manifestation of God. I go to nature every day for inspiration in the day's work. I follow in building the principles which nature has used in its domain.(Frank Lloyd Wright)

Thursday Thirteen