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art and awakening
getting past the words
default hot potatoes
Words are wonderful when they serve as pointers. The problem is that
we tend to ascribe 'realness' or 'thingness' to words,
forgetting their sole function as symbols representing
shared concepts. In order to get beyond the word it's
necessary to plant one's feet firmly within its accepted
meaning, and explore what that meaning might be pointing towards. Art and
awakening are two words that are hot potatoes for some
reason, and without signing up for the task I seem to have
had a default preoccupation with both concepts all my life.
This little essay tries to express what I've learned, or
rather what I've unlearned. I'll begin with a couple of
definitions:
art
putting things
in their 'right' place, in order, in the spot where they
sing with a rightness independent of one's cultural
conditioning; a cellular-level rightness which is recognized
by the body.
awakening
the irreversible apperception that no independent entity exists
who could possibly awaken or become enlightened, or be other
than whatever this is, here and now.
Art - art as that creative process of finding the 'right' place, rather
than the art product - was a consuming passion for the first
half of my life. Hey, I even married (and un-married) a guy
called Art, and he's as passionate about creating as I am!
It's likely that my later pre-occupation with the concept of
'awakening' was seeded in the magical experiences that
occurred within the creative context, but its flowering
would only happen later in life, when concerns with career
paths faded.
health and creativity
During the decades spent teaching art and design and immersed in
creative practice in my studio, it became obvious to me that
overall health in human beings appears to be nurtured,
fostered and sustained by enthusiasm and wonder, accompanied
by the urge to move, to make.
Finding one's health (wholeness), purpose, self-esteem and
fulfillment seems to depend on these qualities, and artistic
work - perhaps more than most other activities - offers a portal through which
they may be accessed. Developing and refining artistic
skills which cultivate and express these qualities would
surely be the aim of a curriculum for art and design
education in a holistic context.
Experiencing Life as a work of art is possible when the process of
creating becomes a consciously-held intention, a matrix
within which we refine our focus on the details of that
which we desire to create. But these are merely fancy words
until we come to understand who or what we truly are
within the big picture – the macromatrix. That's where
awakening comes in.
loving what-is
Understanding and healing occur when there is acceptance and appreciation of
the what-is of our Life. Love
for our Life returns us to Wholeness. In that Wholeness we
wake up from the myth that we were ever separate from the
Wholeness – which brings a huge new understanding. We know
that there cannot be, logically or rationally, anything
apart from Wholeness, and consequently, that we cannot
possibly exist as a separate, independent entity. We are
that Wholeness.
Enthusiasm and wonder then arise spontaneously, and we
are compelled to create and celebrate as they bathe our
perception of the world and its "ten thousand things".
free-will?
Our desire is the desire of Wholeness. Our creations are the
creations of that Wholeness. Free-will is something we
pretend to 'have'. But since there's no separate entity
apart from Wholeness, the will that appears to be 'ours' and
'free' is in fact the will of the Wholeness. The will of
Wholeness, or Creation, is energy – ubiquitous, amoral and
impartial energy. It is ceaselessly moving and ceaselessly
making. We say it moves according to 'our' thoughts. We say
we must change, or focus 'our' thoughts in order to create
what we wish. But what we come to understand is that the
impulse which seems to be attributable to 'me' is
(without permission or control) doing all the things we used
to take credit or blame for! Impulse, intention, focus and
application of 'will power' are all actions of the Wholeness
that we are. And whatever is created via those actions is
created by Wholeness.
art is a way
Will is happening, will cannot not happen so long as there are conscious emanations
of Wholeness (called sentient beings) being Lived by that
Wholeness. Life's ex-pression of Wholeness is the only valid
description of authentic art. We exist to express this
Wholeness, and art is a Way. A way-less way, if you like -
for the ultimate art is the realization that there is no
artist and no way.
The activities that have always interested me most in the art room or studio are
those that, rather than providing a pathway for the
production of a certain kind of image, are simply explored
as a mirror that reflects my assumptions, habits and notions
about myself, about art, and about life. Because these are
the only things that obscure the truth of one's being.
The approaches to that truth are as varied and numerous as
there are participants in the playground. And the truly
creative curriculum in the arts will be a resource of ways
to explore the most remarkable, miraculous fact that can
ever be known:
the wonder of being
alive
and the recognition that one is no-thing other than that
alive-ness.
awareness
Awareness in healthy humans is what allows the capacity for
and sense of alive-ness. Alive-ness cannot be cultivated – it is
surely there or not, and if it's not, you won't be reading
this. Awareness likewise cannot be cultivated, since, try as
we might, we cannot find it! Yet it is always present.
The presence of Awareness is only obscured by the noise of our notions
and opinions about everything. Making things is a
wonder-full way of meeting these notions. Awareness itself
then performs the remarkable deed of dissolving these
hindrances, seemingly opening itself up to more sense of itself.
Heightened awareness of all the worlds assumed to be real –
both outwardly and in the hidden recesses of the mind –
inevitably opens up new perspectives on life, and, if there
is ripeness, Awakening might 'happen'.
Without a whisper of will, without a trace of trying, life Awakens to
itself and apprehends itself as that Knowing.
Without a name, belonging to no person,
with no history, no future, containing nothing,
without preferences, abhorring nothing, needing nothing,
being no-thing:
that no-thing from which all things arise
that
which
lies beyond the words
miriam louisa simons
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