Zen Pencils by Gavin Aung Than for February 22, 2016
February 15, 2016
February 29, 2016
Transcript:
Consider again that dot. That’s here, that’s home, that’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was… …lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines. Every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every ‘superstar’, every ‘supreme leader’, every saint and sinner in the history of our species… …lived there… …on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. The earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph… …they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. POLAND CZECHOSLOVAKIA AUSTRIA Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. PUBLIC LIBRARY SILENCE in the LIBRARY LIBRARIAN The UNIVERSE NON-FICTION SPACE, SCIENCE GALAXIES MILKY WAY Our planet is a lonely speck in the enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. THE WAR OF THE WORLDS H.G. WELLS The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. JOHN CARTER OF MARS by EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS Visit, yes… Settle, not yet. MARS and its canals PERCIVAL LOWELL Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand. It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image… …of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility… …to deal more kindly with one another. ROOFTOP EXIT And to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot… …the only home we’ve ever known. CARL SAGAN
Masterdrail almost 9 years ago
This man is a genius.
comixluver almost 9 years ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_1February 14th, 1990…. it took the Solar System portrait including the ‘pale blue dot’. Also on the gold record, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_Golden_RecordIf you want the contents of our Time Capsule To The StarsNasa uploaded the audio to SoundCloud.Carl Sagan chaired the committee that decided what went on the recording and laid out the cover ‘art’.
Crabbyrino Premium Member almost 9 years ago
Inspiring. Thank you.
old.man.k almost 9 years ago
I’ve been trying to put names on all the faces in the group near the top. There are a few I don’t recognize. Anyone like to propose a list?
Rocky Premium Member almost 9 years ago
+1I love this strip. It makes you think.Whether you want to or not…
mr_sherman Premium Member almost 9 years ago
Spiritualists encourage us to love ourselves and each other. Religionists put rules on that love.
emptc12 almost 9 years ago
The next step is being inspired enough to read Sagan’s books.
Laynegg almost 9 years ago
Beautiful art work and thought provoking words. Thank you Gavan Aung Than and Carl Sagan!
Vet Premium Member almost 9 years ago
You would be surprised how many of us have known this way before Sagan.Just no one was listening, no one seemed to care.I remember golfing back in 1970. I was teamed with a unique group. A Soviet negotiator, his interpreter, and the American counterpart. They were discussing Strategic Arms Limitation. SALT discussions.I was a 17 year old high school student. Seen the Apollo landings and all. They discussed the atomic bomb and who wants this and who wants that.The Soviet guy turned to me and asked….“What do you think young American?”I lined up my putt, reading the green, listening to the wind, feeling the world around me.“I see it this way” I began “This is the only place around we have to live on. There is no where else to go if we destroy it. We all lose. No winners.” I stroked the putt right into the cup hearing the ball rattle around. “You are up sir, I for one will miss this game of golf.”SALT I was signed in May 1972. We stepped away from that precipice.
Strider Keninginne Premium Member almost 9 years ago
How easy is it to forget that not only Hitler waged a war of conquest, but Stalin and Mao Zedong did too, yet the two Communist tyrants were successful where the Nazi tyrant was vanquished. Compared to Stalin and Mao, Hitler comes in third in the mass murder hall of shame.
Though I cherish this ‘pale blue dot’ as my earthly home, I’m only journeying through life to a heavenly home. A home beyond time’s boundary and the limitations of physical life, where there is no evil, no wearisome toiling after things that one can’t keep forever, and complete rest.
Strider Keninginne Premium Member almost 9 years ago
I’m not.
bfrg45 almost 9 years ago
4th row man I couldn’t name: Socrates.Question marks mean I’m not sure — confirm or correct, please.
Kind&Kinder almost 9 years ago
As the Dalai Lama has said many times when asked about faith and practice to construct a good life, forgive and be kind to one another—do what seems right.—that’s enough. St. Ellen says that, too.
As for Zen and the universe:: “If I have my tea….ahhhhh! If I don’t have my tea…….ahhhhh!” Beautiful artwork, Gavin, based on a brilliant man’s words.
Chrystos B Minot Premium Member almost 9 years ago
Bravo, Carl Sagan, and Bravo, Gavin! Very moving; good sustenance for the heart as well as the mind. I also appreciated your roster of saints and sinners – very cool to see Ben Franklin, Ghandhi, Bruce Lee, the Beetles, Mark Twain, & so many others on the same page. Makes Sagan’s words more -- epic, I suppose is the word. You really bring a level of awareness to my comics page that is refreshing! Kudos 2 U, and have a wonderful day!
nawsa Premium Member almost 9 years ago
jopfef almost 9 years ago
Absolutely, breathtakingly AWESOME.
Thank you, Gavin Aung Than, for this reminder.
ART Thompson Premium Member almost 9 years ago
Charlie Chaplin giving Napoleon the stink eye.
bfrg45 almost 9 years ago
So we’re just missing 1 man. I’d swear he’s familiar, but I can’t put a name to him.Top row: Lawrence of Arabia, Martin L. King, Che Guevara, Nelson Mandela, Chris Columbus, Oscar Wilde.
Second row: Genghis Kahn, Vladimir Lenin, Abe Lincoln, Anne Frank, Bob Marley, John Kennedy, Muhammad Ali
3rd row: Caesar, Beethoven, Shakespeare, Aung San Suu Kyi, Elvis
4th row: Ringo, Paul, Lady Di, Charles Darwin, Emily Dickinson, Michael Jackson
5th row: John, George, van Gogh, Ben Franklin, Mark Twain, Gandi
6th row: Joah of Ark, Dalai Lama, Mao, Joseph Stalin, (?), Bruce Lee
7th row: Hitler, Michael Jordon, Marilyn, Leonardo da Vinci, Amelia Earhart
Front row: Einstein, Teddy Roosevelt, Jesus, Buddha, Napoleon, Charlie Chaplin
William Powers almost 9 years ago
Seems to me that the only thing that could prevent mankind from self immolation would be development of a method to remove unprovoked aggression out of the DNA of homo sapiens and that in itself would be unprovoked aggression.
There will always be madmen seeking power and obeisant’s to take up arms on their behalf. As we destroy ourselves don’t worry about this third rock it will keep on spinning for another 4.5 billion years until our Sun gives her up.
xwsmithx over 8 years ago
@bfrg1513If you ever come back to this page, I’m pretty sure your missing person is Isaac Newton. The woman in the 2nd row I’m not convinced is Anne Frank. The first person I thought of when seeing her is Anne Bradstreet, relatively obscure compared to the others, but the Colonial style collar is what suggested it to me. That one I won’t swear to.
xwsmithx over 8 years ago
Now that I look again, you’ve identified Steve Jobs (see the iPhone?) as the Dalai Lama while the Dalai Lama is between Stalin and Newton.