'We Are One' (Ekaterina Sky)

Meditate in pure silence to still the heart

This painting says one quiet thing, and it is the same thing the whole prayer opens with: WE ARE ONE.

I painted it in complete silence, start to finish -- following the Buddha's advice to practice noble silence for the purification of the heart and mind -- no music, no talking, only the prayer already waiting to be sealed beneath a gold disk in the center.

It is a spiral of gold turning inward to a single, silent center. Every line finds its way home to that single point.

We Are One

What is gold good for? It is good for sacred art!

If this work speaks to viewers, I would be delighted to share more details. Inquire at Cohart. A photograph can show the composition, but it cannot do what the gold does in a room.

Gold is alive. It changes as one moves, as light moves, as day moves. The painting will look different from where one stands and from where the person beside one stands, and that difference is the whole message: two true views of one thing.

Cymatics reveal the waves producing form

Many are expressions of the One, the way countless waves are all actually the one same Sea.

My deepest hope is simple: that before thought arises, the body exhales, then, underneath that beauty, there is a kind of remembering (sati, smrti).

Our Earth is not "scenery" we pass by. She is a living being [Mother Earth, Mat Zemlya, Mother Nature, Goddess Tierra] we belong to.

Ekaterina Sky is an artist working in watercolor and sustainable 24K gold leaf on archival paper. She calls her practice "impact art," work where the painting and its effect on the living world are inseparable. The paintings are the center. The murals, the conversations, the stages, the trees and the book all extend outward from them. Here's a map of that reach: beyond-the-studio

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We Are One is now available to view on Cohart or to acquire by inquiry. This is a painting with a public history: It was exhibited at Coral Gables Museum during Art Basel 2024, and it carries that provenance into whatever room it next enters. It is one of a kind, watercolor, with 24K sustainable goldleaf, the universal prayer sealed beneath the gold, and a chip to hear it aloud. It also comes with a certificate of authenticity and Earth-conscious packaging.

• See it or become its keeper: We Are One on Cohart

And I would love to know, Where have you felt that oneness most clearly? Reply and tell me.

With love,

Ekaterina Sky (contact)

P.S. See We Are One @ekaterina.sky.art

Website: ekaterina-sky.com

• The Roots of Buddhist Romanticism: Oneness
• The true nature of existence (Bhikkhu Bodhi)

SUTRA: A Cosmologist on Oneness

Lokayatika Sutta (SN 12.48 PTS: S ii 77 CDB i 584) translated from Pali by Ven. Thanissaro Bhikkhu; edited by Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

What is the true nature of existence?

The Buddha was once staying in Savatthi when a Brahmin cosmologist [1] went to see him. When he arrived, he exchanged courteous greetings, and after an exchange of friendly greetings and courtesies, he sat respectfully to one side. Sitting there, he said to the Buddha:

"Now, then, Master Gotama, does everything [2] exist?"

"'Everything exists' is the first form of cosmology, Brahmin."

"Then, Master Gotama, does everything not exist?"

"'Everything does not exist' is the second form of cosmology, Brahmin."

"Then is everything a Oneness?"

"'Everything is a Oneness' is the third form of cosmology, Brahmin."

"Then is everything manifold?"

"'Everything is manifold' is the fourth form of cosmology, Brahmin. Avoiding these two extremes, the Tathagata [the Buddha] teaches the Dhamma [the Liberating Doctrine, in this case Dependent Origination] down the middle:

1. From ignorance as a requisite condition come formations;
2. from formations as a requisite condition comes consciousness;
3. from consciousness as a requisite condition comes name-and-form;
4. from name-and-form as a requisite condition come the six sense bases;
5. from the six sense bases as a requisite condition comes contact;
6. from contact as a requisite condition comes feeling;
7. from feeling as a requisite condition comes craving;
8. from craving as a requisite condition comes clinging;
9. from clinging as a requisite condition comes becoming;
10. from becoming as a requisite condition comes rebirth;
11. from rebirth as a requisite condition comes aging and death, disappointment, sorrow, lamentation, pain, and despair.
12. Such is the origination of this entire mass of disappointment and suffering.

1. "Now from the remainderless fading and cessation of ignorance comes the cessation of formations;
2. from the cessation of formations comes the cessation of consciousness;
3. from the cessation of consciousness comes the cessation of name-and-form;
4. from the cessation of name-and-form comes the cessation of the six sense bases;
5. from the cessation of the six sense bases comes the cessation of contact;
6. from the cessation of contact comes the cessation of feeling;
7. from the cessation of feeling comes the cessation of craving;
8. from the cessation of craving comes the cessation of clinging;
9. from the cessation of clinging comes the cessation of becoming;
10. from the cessation of becoming comes the cessation of rebirth;
11. from the cessation of rebirth comes the cessation of aging and death, disappointment, sorrow, lamentation, pain, and despair.
12. Such is the cessation of this entire mass of disappointment and suffering."

"Magnificent, Master Gotama, magnificent! It is just as if a man were to set upright what had been overturned, to reveal what was hidden, to show the way to one who was lost, or to carry a lamp into the dark so that those with eyes could see forms, in that very way has Master Gotama — through many lines of reasoning — made the Dhamma clear to me.

"I go for guidance to Master Gotama, to the Dhamma (Teaching), and to the Sangha of monastics. May Master Gotama remember me as a lay follower who has gone to him for guidance from this day forward as long as life lasts."

NOTE 1. The cosmological (lokayata) schools of thought reasoned from what they saw as the basic principles of the physical universe in formulating their teachings on how life should be lived. In modern times, they correspond to those who base their philosophies on principles drawn from the physical sciences, such as evolutionary biology or quantum physics. Although the cosmologists of proto-India at the Buddha's time differed on first principles, they tended to be unanimous in using their first principles — whatever they were — to argue for hedonism (sensual enjoyment as the highest meaning and) as the best approach to life.

NOTE 2. "Everything" may also be translated as "The All." Concerning this term, SN 35.23 says, "What is The All? Simply the eye and forms [the thing that sees and the seen], ear and sounds, nose and fragrances, tongue and flavors, body and tactile sensations, intellect and ideas [mind and mind-objects]. This is termed "The All." Anyone who would say, 'Repudiating this All, I will describe another,' if questioned on what exactly might be the grounds for this assertion, would be unable to explain and furthermore would be put to grief. Why is this? It is because it lies beyond [our] range." For more on this topic, see The Mind Like Fire Unbound, Chapter 1.

"LET US LOVE " by Ekaterina Sky | COHART

Save the planet with Kat: NY Climate Week

What does "Art for Impact" mean?

I spent last week in New York City for Climate Week. Some of it was at the UN (United Nations), where was a participant and listened to people work through targets and timelines.

Some of it was on a stage at the Sheen Center, where I was asked a question I thought I already knew the answer to.

The panel was Art for Impact, and the question was simply, "What does that mean?"

The czar's former empire became a union

I found myself talking about the old Soviet Union (USSR), which tried to overtake Buddhist Afghanistan with its Bamiyan treasures. Because if we look back at the USSR, artists were forbidden.

Writers could not write certain songs or paint certain images. A poem could get one sent to Siberia to a gulag to freeze and be forgotten. None of that happened because anyone thinks art is decoration.

Climate Week NYC 2026 | September 20–27, New York City, USA

Beauty attracts attention. Art makes an impact.

It happened because people in power understood something about art that the rest of us have largely let ourselves forget. The people in power are not afraid of it because it is beautiful. They are afraid because it works.

I have been turning that over all week. Art is not a way of illustrating what we already know or believe. It is one of the few things that changes what a society comes to know, see, or believe without asking anyone's permission.

Every law that has ever protected a forest began as a feeling held by enough people at the same time. Art is how a feeling like that becomes shared, so that once enough of us are carrying and sharing it, it stops being an opinion; it becomes something everyone simply assumes and takes as obvious.

That is what I mean by "impact art." It is also what those rooms at the UN are quietly waiting for. Targets are written by people, and people keep them or abandon them depending on whether what is being protected feels worth the trouble by the time a deadline arrives.

• 

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The frameworks are real and necessary, and I'm glad they exist. What decides their fate is whether enough of us care when they come due. That part is not written into any of those documents. It is the part I think artists are for.

I've talked about fire for days, so I won't repeat myself. Only that on stage I realized I had spent the month painting the same thought. I learned it in Altadena, site of the massive Eaton Fire (2025).

Mural prayers preserved behind gold

Six months after that wildfire started by careless SCE (Southern California Edison), I was invited to paint a mural with the community. As we worked, people embedded their prayers on the wall, our wooden canvas, that I then preserved behind gold paint.

[That massive Eaton Fire mural now sits prominently inside the north wall of The Free Store inside The Collaboratory on Woodbury in Altadena.]

The Eaton Fire Collab, Altadena, LA, CA

One woman pointed to her friend across the mural in the making. She had lost her home to fire and had not smiled in six months. There she was with a brush in her hand saying, "I should paint more."

• HELP: Ekaterina Sky's Altadena Eaton Fire mural | Wisdom Quarterly and Dharma Buddhist Meditation

One of the prayers inside the Eaton Fire mural

No target was written that day, but something changed anyway.

The UN panel also asked, "What is the hardest part?" On purpose I look at what is happening to the living world. And more than once it has taken my hope away. One night, I could find no light at all. All I could do was be grateful for one breath, that single breath, then the next.

• How did the wandering ascetic Siddhartha become the "Enlightened One," the Buddha by mindfully meditating on in-and-out breathing?

The Buddha had a big heart for everyone.

I think that is the whole practice. We do not have to wait until something is nearly gone before we love it. The Earth's wildlife is still here. The soil. The people. The flora, the fauna. Gratitude is not a soft feeling; it is where protection begins.

This is why clean air and clean water (rivers and oceans), healthy soil and healthy trees (forest) have never sounded like a modest thing to receive or hand down. They are our entire human inheritance.

Most of what holds them is still standing. The people living alongside forests have protected them for generations without ever needing instructions, only support.

There's one more thing before I go. Artful Impact is back, opening the new season with Robert J. Dellinger on why climate science needs storytellers, which turns out to be the same question I was asked on stage. But Artful Impact approaches it from the other side.

Life Force Trees | 165 Trees Per Person

Here is what I would love from you, readers. Tell me about a piece of art that changed something in you and what you did afterward. This second part is what I am collecting. Post it below in the comments.

With love,

Ekaterina Sky, Impact Artist

P.S. If this message makes you want to put your hands into something right now, see 165 Trees: ourlifeforce.org.

Speaking: Invite Ekaterina Sky to speak on the environment and artful impact

• Ekaterina Sky (ekaterina-sky.com) edited by Dhr. Seven, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly