Paula

“We have art lest we perish from the truth.”

German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, 1844–1900

Paula Marvelly is the creator and editor of The Culturium – a beautiful site that explores the connection between spirituality and the arts. She has also written two books: The Teachers of One, a series of interviews with modern spiritual teachers; and Women of Wisdom, a collection of writings by key women in religious history. Paula lives in Sussex, England and has studied the philosophy of non-dualism since she was 21.

With Paula’s permission, some illuminating extracts from her work are reproduced below.

On the nature of reality

“All religions and faiths contain an esoteric heart, a mystical belief that I AM is in fact synonymous with God. However, cultural differences have meant that the presentation of this fact is as diverse as there are waves on the sea. There is, however, a consensus of interpretation: that the unmanifest, the Absolute, the primal Source from which the universe came and will ultimately return, is perceived as masculine; and that the manifest, the created world, the dance and drama of daily life, is perceived as feminine. Needless to say, these are all concepts. But useful concepts to work with, until there is a complete understanding that God is in fact everything, the masculine and the feminine, and yet, at the same time, ultimately beyond both.”

(Women of Wisdom, ‘Prologue’, Watkins Publishing, 2005)

“In order for there to be any real sense of I AM, the eternal subject within all of us, free from dogma and prejudice, there has to be an abandonment of all analytical reasoning and objective knowledge. Only through the realm of direct experience and intuitive sensibility can there ever be a taste of the true Self.”

(Women of Wisdom, ‘Prologue’, Watkins Publishing, 2005)

“Is it really possible to formulate into words something ultimately indefinable, indescribable and utterly beyond all human comprehension? It is an interesting dilemma. And yet, the teaching of Advaita (“not two”) is essentially the philosophical framework that attempts to do just that – to make some sort of sense of the mysterious universe in which we live.”

(‘Foreword’ to Dennis Waite, Back to The Truth, John Hunt Publishing, 2007)

On the importance of art

“In today’s climate of increasing religious prejudice, which has resulted in protracted anti‑Semitism and anti-Muslim sentiment, the capacity of creative initiatives has proven time and again to be the most powerful means in which to bring cohesion and universal consciousness to all.”

(The Culturium, ‘Abraham: Out of One, Many’, 24 November 2019))

“In the aftermath of such a devastating tragedy [the fire at the Notre‑Dame Cathedral in Paris in 2019] … we are once again given testament to the intimate connection between art and spirituality and the way in which they are intrinsically seared into the human soul.”

(The Culturium, ‘Bill Viola & Michelangelo: Life Death Rebirth’, 28 April 2019)

“[T]he very heart of all authentic artistic endeavour [is] the capacity to transcend egoic agenda and drink deeply from the archetypal pool of creativity that unites all of humanity.”

(The Culturium, ‘Josef Pieper: Only the Lover Sings’, 14 April 2019)

On the value of travel

“When I am weary of worldly commitments and the capriciousness of the human condition, by the grace of some inner calling I know not whence, I set off once again on my travels in search of beauty and being and the source of life itself.”

(The Culturium, ‘The Monasteries of Meteora’, 3 February 2019)

“Perhaps travel is a fruitless exercise in that you always take your mind with you wherever you may be. And yet, whilst I believe this to a certain extent, a change of scenery can jolt us back into reality by flooding the being with unspeakable beauty, nourishing the heart and purging the soul, leaving little room for the petty and mundane problems of our so-called normal lives. The trick is to retain the isness of this pristine moment by carrying it within ourselves at all times.”

(The Culturium, ‘Sacra di San Michele’, 4 June 2017)

“Wherever I travel, I always take a small kettle, teapot and loose green tea so that I may partake of my favourite refreshment.”

(The Culturium, ‘The Monasteries of Meteora’, 3 February 2019)

On the spiritual journey

“I … reflect again upon … whether anything has changed over the past two decades of my spiritual questing and something … [I was told] on a week-long silent retreat … floats into my mind:

It’s not that you find the right answers but rather the questions start falling away.

Indeed. How weary I am of words and their complicated agendas, subtexts and scope for misrepresentation. For it is only in the cessation of thought that peace and bliss and harmony can ever be truly appreciated, be it surrounded by religious artefacts in a beautiful Italian monastery or else stuck in traffic, fumbling for euros in a heated queue for the [toll].”

(The Culturium, ‘Sacra di San Michele’, 4 June 2017)

“[A]s I pack my things to leave [an ashram in India], I reflect on something I have read in one of Ramesh’s [Ramesh Balsekar, a late Indian sage] books that I have brought with me. First, there is a mountain, he says. It is perceived as being real because there is total involvement. Second, the next stage, is that there is no mountain because everything is seen as unreal, not having a self-subsistent reality. Finally, the last stage, is that there is a mountain. It is perceived as being real because consciousness is seen as manifesting as a mountain.

It reminds me of … a quote from the Four Quartets by T. S. Eliot:

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”

(The Culturium, ‘Rendezvous With Ramana, Part III’, 23 July 2017)