Pacifism.


68

Pacifism


The true artist and creative person should be like a pacifist. 

Think of the young child, who for the very first time finds itself with a sheet of paper and some beautiful coloured paints or crayons. It matters not whether the paper is on a table or an easel the thought of what they are about to do lights up the face of the child. They may be surrounded by other children each with their sheet of paper and their supply of colours.

The child becomes lost in the moment, there is no thought of competing. Each child is about their task. The thought of stealing an idea from the one next to them never enters the head. The child has one thought and one thought only, what will I put on this paper.

Each throws themselves into the project, now and again looking at what the other is doing, possibly, like the one further along, laying aside the brush to use a finger. Each using the talents and ideas of the others but each producing on the paper their ideas and inspiration.

Each creative person, like a child, should give all the passion they possess, for their art, for whatever it is they are doing.

What is true for the artist is true for every other walk of life. It is true for the leaders of nations, for parents and teachers. it is true for us all.

Lao Tzu tells us that we should never resort to violence or be offensive to one another. We should act humbly in all things, and use the talents of one another, working together in harmony.

When we act thus, we are at one with all things and with Tao.

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