Art

Art is a tricky subject these days because anything goes. If I defecate on a paper plate in some novel way and I call it art, then by definition it is art. And I might even get a museum show. And since my achievement is so remarkably novel it must be considered high art as opposed to pretty pictures which clearly are mere decoration…wall candy we could call that. Whatever we consider to be art, it must be admitted that art is a cultural Rorschach not an objective social product: what we consider to be Art tells us a great deal about ourselves, and tells us nothing at all about Art. 

Art is an intentional structuring of the imagination through the vehicle of the senses. In our troubled times of anomie the the arts attract the endeavor of lunatics and sociopaths because opportunity exists for aggrandizement in capturing naive imaginations. Much outrageous art (though it may even be fun) is the product of such of beings. There are individuals, reasonably sane, of various talents, who wish to find for themselves some importance. These artists often do very good work; but though art may be an avenue to some degree of status, even drugged out tramps will be issued an artistic license if they are persistent enough. As far as I'm concerned, anyone who can make a living with a box of paints, or a musical instrument, or a pen, is OK in my book whatever illusions they may labor under. And lastly there are those whom Art has called to herself. 

My theory: Art is coeval with the most distant emergence of tool making, monkey-like, progenitors; and as the curiosity of these progenitors expanded into the unseen connections between things Art was there to enable the invisible to enter a world of form. Delights that never before existed, and truths beyond the reach of ordinary communication: these I believe to be the historical domain of Art. And in St Thomas Aquinas’ “Summa Theologiae” you will find a description of the responsibility of the echelons of religious orders that exactly fits my understanding of the responsibility of the artist.

Bad Art 

Lots of folks don’t trust themselves 

To know bad art when they see it 

Well, you can always tell bad art

 

Because it needs an essay to hold it up 

And a crowd of boot-lickers and apologists 

To appreciate it .

A Failure of Imagination

Strange as it may seem the world of humanity in which we find ourselves is one that has been imagined into being. Wars, art, politics, national boundaries, doctrines of every stripe, the form that the familial instinct assumes, automobiles and blenders: every aspect of what we call civilization is the product of the human imagination. And all it would take to end war, and poverty, and a wealth of other human suffering is humanity to begin to imagine in a different way. But that's not going to happen, is it.

By Decree 

Why should not the fish 

Make free use of desert sand to spawn 

 Let it be so 

And the birds 

In stately groves of kelp beneath the sea 

Let them nest henceforth 

The whales 

Do they not ache to share the meadow 

With their bovine brethren 

Let it be done 

And lastly 

Let all mankind Love one another 

Principles of Personal Growth: 101

The ordinary process of human personal growth proceeds entirely by accident and according to the whims of nature. And that’s OK. There are those however who experience a nagging absence of closure in the life that accident and nature provide: who are therefore called or pushed to an attempt to see beyond the veil of the ordinary. Well, it’s a jungle out there and even in the field of consciousness raising there are predators, quicksands, and parasites. 

One of the dangerous vulnerabilities of the spiritually curious is the inclination to be something before one has discovered what one is. One wants to be THAT without having understood THIS, and thus the blind have led the blind for millennia. The way it works is like making a topiary of a shrub. The aspiring individual encounters an attractive form in the spiritual jungle and gravitates to systems that will help them shape their Self accordingly. Some of these systems are extremely sophisticated, and topiaries are not a bad thing. However, though these forms are often quite lovely, this is certainly not the path to greatest fruition of human potential. 

There is a polarity of influences in personal growth. There is moving away from the dark and there is growing to the light, and interestingly enough both of these natural inclinations lead the same direction. The dark is not going anywhere. We will always be rooted there, and draw nourishment from its mystery. White light is the blend of all wavelengths, and if we are not distracted by red or blue or yellow it leads one way. We will never be more than we can be, and we can always be less than we are. The question is what are we, and what fruit are we destined to provide the universe. Fruit is the product of flower and comes of itself through environmental pollination. We have little influence concerning fruit. This is a crucial point. It is a tragic truth that many individuals, even those with great potential, spend their energy aping some fruit rather than gathering the light that would naturally produce the flowering of awakened Awareness. We can never be more than we can be, but we can experience at the limits of our being. And it is in living in the limits of our being that we gather the most light. And it is that light infusing the dark nature of our selves that inevitably produces the growth that leads to the flowering of awakened intelligence.

We always must begin from where we are, and nothing can be given for which there is no resting place. The first requisite is the will to be attentive: sleep, in its many forms, comes of itself. 

Didactic Bluebird 

There once was a bluebird 

Who convened a group of chipmunks 

In order to expand their horizons 

“Realize your untapped potential 

 Spread your wings and fly” 

And soon the chipmunks lined up 

And flapping their little arms jumped off the stump 

Bruising their noses somewhat severely 

The bluebird flew off 

In search of chipmunks of greater insight and ability 

And certain of the chipmunks go daily to the stump 

Hoping this time 

To get it right 

Look Ma, No Aegis!

At a certain point in the process of individuation it becomes necessary and natural for one to abandon all intellectual aegis. And in fact it might be accurate to say that where there is aegis individuation is not. And it is the element of aegis in religious institutions that is their value as well as the limiting factor of their value in the process of spiritual evolution. So long as there exists aegis in the structure of our world-view we are leaning on imaginings. Even if the principles of said aegis are unerringly reflective of what is real, so long as we cling to any aegis we have only the reflection of what is real: we have not entered the real.

If in your travels you meet the Buddha, give him a high five. If you meet the Christ, do unto him, as you’d like in return. “We don’t need no stinking aegis!”

Truth, Beauty, and Good 

Life-dreams 

Cloud faces on the smoke haze of consciousness 

Coalesce and smile

 

And slowly metamorph

Though it is our habit to restrain them 

The heart's wind is not our own 

Save it runs our mill 

And the faces in the clouds are fleshed imagination 

If we lose Truth 

 And Beauty 

 And Good 

 What are we to imagine That will satisfy .