When the artist creates, he objectifies.

[PDF] How and why is it, we may ask, that for the artist, the production of works of art should be a means, even the means, of higher evolution? What happens when the artist creates? When the artist creates, he objectifies. And when he objectifies, he can assimilate, and this is not unlike what happens in the process of traditional Buddhist visualisation exercises.

When, for instance, in meditation, we visualise the Buddha, what happens? First of all, we close our eyes and we see - not just think about - a great expanse of green, above that a great expanse of blue sky, in between a great Bodhi tree; at the foot of the Bodhi tree we see the figure of the Buddha in the orange robe, then we see the very peaceful features, the golden complexion, the compassionate smile. We see the curly black hair, the aura, the five colours of the aura. We see all of these things and we see them as clearly and vividly as though the Buddha himself sat before us. We not only visualise like this, but we recognise also the great spiritual qualities of the Buddha, we see expressed in the Buddha's face wisdom, compassion, love, peace, tranquillity, assurance, strength, fearlessness, and so on. And gradually we draw near to these qualities, we feel as if we were drawing near to this visualised image, we feel as if this visualised image is drawing near to us. We feel that we are absorbing within ourselves the Buddha's own qualities of love and wisdom and compassion, etc. And if we persevere in this exercise, if we keep it up, not just for a few days, but for months and maybe even for years, eventually a time comes when we fully assimilate all these qualities of the Buddha, and become one with the Buddha in that meditation experience. And when that happens, the unenlightened being, we may say, becomes transformed into the Enlightened Being and we realise our own Buddha nature.

But in the course of this practice, in the course of this process, in the course of this exercise, what has happened? What was potential in us, that is to say Buddhahood - what was there all the time, unknown and unrecognised, in the depths of our own being, in the depths of our own nature - has become actual, has become realised by us, by being first objectified, by being seen out there, even though it is in here; and then, having been seen out there, gradually assimilated more and more until we become one with it.

And the same sort of thing happens in the case of artistic creation. We have spoken of the artist as having experienced something, some higher level of being and consciousness, and then creating out of that experience. But it is not really quite so simple and straightforward. It is not that the artist has the experience itself fully and perfectly and completely first, before creating. If he had it in that way, fully and perfectly, he would not be an artist, he would be a mystic, which is something higher or at least potentially higher. No, what the artist has is at first a sort of vague sense, an indeterminate experience of something, and this is his starting point. He clarifies this, he intensifies this, in the process of actual creation of the work of art. And we may say that the original experience of the artist, the creative experience, is like a sort of seed which is pulsing with life but the nature of which is fully revealed only when the flower, that is to say the work of art itself, stands complete and stands perfect.

Art and the spiritual life:

1. Art and the Spirtual life.
2. The Artist as more Aware or Self-Conscious.
3. The Artist as Creative.
4. What is Art?
5. The Artist as wicked, immoral and selfish?
6. Nabokov and the word Genius.
7. Values that can transform our lives.
8. When an Artist creates he objectifies.

By Urgyen Sangharakshita.

[in French] [Introduction] [Buddha] [Buddhism] [Meditation] [Sangharakshita] [FWBO] [the Centre]

25 rue Condorcet 75009 Paris - 01 44 53 07 31 -

Dernière mise à jour:
04 avril, 2007.