from 2005
Sadiq's post,"Ceasing to be an artist" gave me pause for thought with a great Oscar Wilde quote, "No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did he would cease to be an artist.
I see this, in my opinion & experience, as being true and then also not true. I think it can be true if "the artist" sees himself as being the doer of the work. At this stage he or she is lost IN himself & is in a state of ego confusion. Some nice work can arise from this, even though it can be constrained by its temporary nature. It is not a state of seeing Reality as Reality, but it is the vantage point of an unique human being. Lots of pop or folk music fit into this category, but not exclusively. Pop music can also have a transcendent character to it, too.
If the ego should come to Know itself as poor, and comes to Know Reality as Rich, then the motivations that were present before to "create" something will disappear, leaving a chasm of unbelievable emptiness.
There is a story from Attar's Conference of the Birds ~
One moonlit night
Shaykh Beyazid, attracted by the sight
Of such refulgent brilliance, clear as day,
Across the sleeping city took his way
And thence into the desert, where he saw
Unnumbered stars adorning heaven's floor.
He walked a little and became aware
That not a sound disturbed the desert air,
That no one moved in that immensity
Save him. His heart grew numb and gradually
Pure terror touched him. "O Great God", he cried,
"Your dazzling palace beckons far and wide -
Where are the courtiers who should throng this court?"
A voice said, "Wanderer, you are distraught;
Be calm. Our Glorious King cannot admit
All comers to His court; it is not fit
That every rascal who sleeps out the night
Should be allowed to glimpse its radiant light.
Most are turned back, and few perceive the throne;
Among a hundred thousand there is one."
So what is left for the "so-called artist" in this state?
Is there room for human creativity?
No! There is NO ROOM FOR YOU. If "YOU" knock on the door of the Beloved, don't be arrogant to the Creator of Love and say it is "YOU" ~ because it is NOT YOU but THE BELOVED that is the CREATOR of ALL ART.
You are nothing ~ The Beloved is ONE.
The artist in this state no longer works for the rewards that his job brings, (mind you, even the so called 'starving artists' work for the negative benefits of being unusual or shocking) the artist can work and be heedless for the outcome of this work. My wife and I once watched some Buddhist monks work on a mandala made of sand, which took them about three days to make. When they had finished, they proceeded to carry it to the near by river and dumped the sand in...
The artist in this state works because they have to. Freedom of choice is gone, the work of art that they are focused on is a realization of what is already written to be, they are just the conduit for its arrival in the place of material. The artist becomes the brush and disappears. Like the wind that comes and goes, it doesn't say "here I am!" ~ it merely blows.
I do disagree that a great artist doesn't see things as they are, though, I think a great artist disappears.
Sadiq's post,"Ceasing to be an artist" gave me pause for thought with a great Oscar Wilde quote, "No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did he would cease to be an artist.
I see this, in my opinion & experience, as being true and then also not true. I think it can be true if "the artist" sees himself as being the doer of the work. At this stage he or she is lost IN himself & is in a state of ego confusion. Some nice work can arise from this, even though it can be constrained by its temporary nature. It is not a state of seeing Reality as Reality, but it is the vantage point of an unique human being. Lots of pop or folk music fit into this category, but not exclusively. Pop music can also have a transcendent character to it, too.
If the ego should come to Know itself as poor, and comes to Know Reality as Rich, then the motivations that were present before to "create" something will disappear, leaving a chasm of unbelievable emptiness.
There is a story from Attar's Conference of the Birds ~
One moonlit night
Shaykh Beyazid, attracted by the sight
Of such refulgent brilliance, clear as day,
Across the sleeping city took his way
And thence into the desert, where he saw
Unnumbered stars adorning heaven's floor.
He walked a little and became aware
That not a sound disturbed the desert air,
That no one moved in that immensity
Save him. His heart grew numb and gradually
Pure terror touched him. "O Great God", he cried,
"Your dazzling palace beckons far and wide -
Where are the courtiers who should throng this court?"
A voice said, "Wanderer, you are distraught;
Be calm. Our Glorious King cannot admit
All comers to His court; it is not fit
That every rascal who sleeps out the night
Should be allowed to glimpse its radiant light.
Most are turned back, and few perceive the throne;
Among a hundred thousand there is one."
So what is left for the "so-called artist" in this state?
Is there room for human creativity?
No! There is NO ROOM FOR YOU. If "YOU" knock on the door of the Beloved, don't be arrogant to the Creator of Love and say it is "YOU" ~ because it is NOT YOU but THE BELOVED that is the CREATOR of ALL ART.
You are nothing ~ The Beloved is ONE.
The artist in this state no longer works for the rewards that his job brings, (mind you, even the so called 'starving artists' work for the negative benefits of being unusual or shocking) the artist can work and be heedless for the outcome of this work. My wife and I once watched some Buddhist monks work on a mandala made of sand, which took them about three days to make. When they had finished, they proceeded to carry it to the near by river and dumped the sand in...
The artist in this state works because they have to. Freedom of choice is gone, the work of art that they are focused on is a realization of what is already written to be, they are just the conduit for its arrival in the place of material. The artist becomes the brush and disappears. Like the wind that comes and goes, it doesn't say "here I am!" ~ it merely blows.
I do disagree that a great artist doesn't see things as they are, though, I think a great artist disappears.