Equality.

5

 Equality.




How often we hear others make comments about those who produce works of art or create things of beauty from materials others see as everyday things. They often say how they wish that they had such a talent, they believe that such a talent is a gift. 

But if it is a gift then we are forced to ask the question who is it that arbitrarily makes such gifts?  Surely a creator being would not gift some and not others?

Lao Tzu speaks of the Tao not taking sides. The heart of creation treats all alike and the spirit of possibility flows freely through all things. If we study the lives of the Masters of Art, those who have created those works that will be cherished for many years to come, we will discover that from a very early age they honed their craft until they were able to say in paint what others had learned to say in words.

Saints and sinners are not created in the womb and born as such. They come about because of the choices they make. They may be guided foolishly by others but the choices they make they make themselves.

Lao Tzu points to a set of bellows and explains they are empty yes, but they are capable of starting great fires. The more it is used the more it can produce. So it is with the creative process the more we practice and the more we use it the better we become. It does not come easily, there will be times we will feel we have failed but there will also be times when we feel we can do no wrong. The less you work and practice the less you will achieve. The more you consider it will seem the less you understand.

The more you put into practice what you have learned the better you will be.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Be Calm

Image
63 Be Calm   Life seems to be lived at a frantic pace, everything has to be done, and everything has to be done now. It was, not so very long ago, that the attention span of a human being was considered to be twenty minutes. Recent figures say that now the attention span of a child is down to fifteen. Teachers have now to prepare lessons keeping this in mind, changing the activity more frequently than before to allow them to hold the students' attention. In sharp contrast, Lao Tzu tells us that nothing good is achieved from rushing around. A simple statistic seems to give some support to this. When the speed limit on motorways was reduced by ten miles an hour there was almost an instant drop in the number of deaths on the roads. We gain so much more when we take life at a slower and simpler pace. How can the mind be fed and inspired by the beauty of life around us, if we are in too much of a rush to see and take it in? How can we learn from one another if we do ...
Read more

Solitude.

Image
42 Solitude. "The sage takes such things and makes the most of it. Embracing his solitude." I could have made those two sentences into one by adding the little word, by. Lao Tzu on more than one occasion speaks of times of solitude, here he goes a stage further and says he embraces it as if it was a dear and precious friend. The creative person will be familiar with the thought of embracing solitude. Most creative things are accomplished after and during times of working alone. Some may find it helpful to be part of a group, working together and sharing the experience, but even those moments are just an interlude to the many hours closed away in the studio or at the workbench. The writer, sitting at the keyboard hour after hour putting words from the mind and moving them into flowing and captivating prose. It often seems that we live with a fear of solitude and silence. Some say it is the loneliness of such, but that may be too simple. We seem to be in...
Read more

Yin - Yang.

Image
28 Yin - Yang To be truly creative the artist of either painting, music, sculpting or composing must know the strength of the male and grasp firmly to the sensitivity of the female. To know and to sense both the Yin and the Yang. It is in knowing and sensing this marvellous harmony of the universe that the creative person finds the joy of the Tao as the creative process flows and streams. Lao Tzu says when we grasp both the Yin and the Yang we become again like a child. In this state of being, we can create with real freedom. He goes on to speak of the uncarved block of wood. In the hands of the creative, living with the Tao, it can become so many wonderful and useful things.                                                                               The artist who ...
Read more