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YogaIsLife
641 Posts |
 Posted - Nov 23 2008 : 08:29:31 AM
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Something I've been wondering: how does yoga relate to artistic output? I think art is intimately coupled with emotions, feelings. In deep meditation (inner silence) what we want is to transcende mind, and thus the ebbs and flows of the emotions and thoughts (intimately coupled once again). So, one would think that we are running away from artistic expression by cultivating the witness. Do you think this is so?
I used to make music and had some nice inspired moments in the past (the actual word and meaning of inspiration is related to breath, as if you are infused with brand new spirit that takes you beyond your limits). But what I found is that I am getting less and less interested in songwriting (as my life stability increases) and using it as an expression of myself, and I think this is all due to increased detachment from emotions. So, although my life is more stable, I seem to have lost in artistic output. (Or is it just changing form?) I think it is usually the most overwhelming/raptured/intense emotions that usually leads to the truest art, or is this false? Don't we need to be able to let go and fly in the wings of emotion to be able to create art? (I think so, otherwise all will be quite stale).
Does the cultivation of the witness kills the artist in us? Is artisitc expression and stability doomed to be divorced? If one thinks of the many cases of artistic geniuses that had quite chaotic and broken lifes - sometimes leading to self-destruction - one would think this is the case. |
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Shanti
USA
4854 Posts |
Posted - Nov 23 2008 : 12:47:45 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by YogaIsLife
I used to make music and had some nice inspired moments in the past (the actual word and meaning of inspiration is related to breath, as if you are infused with brand new spirit that takes you beyond your limits). But what I found is that I am getting less and less interested in songwriting (as my life stability increases) and using it as an expression of myself, and I think this is all due to increased detachment from emotions. So, although my life is more stable, I seem to have lost in artistic output. (Or is it just changing form?) I think it is usually the most overwhelming/raptured/intense emotions that usually leads to the truest art, or is this false? Don't we need to be able to let go and fly in the wings of emotion to be able to create art? (I think so, otherwise all will be quite stale).
Does the cultivation of the witness kills the artist in us? Is artisitc expression and stability doomed to be divorced? If one thinks of the many cases of artistic geniuses that had quite chaotic and broken lifes - sometimes leading to self-destruction - one would think this is the case.
Hi YogaIsLife,
It may be difficult to see this right now, but this is just a phase. Please do not be disheartened, it will not last forever. It is what Yogani, in his Self Inquiry book, describes as a phase of dispassion.. but it is just a phase. As you open more you will find yourself in your true nature, so if you are the artistic kind.. you will enjoy your art with passion, but without attachments and expectations.. this will make your expressions more beautiful than ever. Then your art (and by art I include music, writing, dancing etc.) will take you into samadhi every time you get involved in it. It will be a true expression from within.. a flow of silence.. beyond your mind.
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mikkiji
USA
219 Posts |
Posted - Nov 23 2008 : 1:06:59 PM
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Maharishi used to tell us that the Divine was the source of all potential, and especially he stressed that the godhead was the source of all creativity and intelligence, the home of all possibilities and the foundation of all orderliness and structure in life. When we tap into the silence at the seat of our activity, we have contacted the bedrock of our creative potential. I have experienced this in my own endeavors.
Michael |
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YogaIsLife
641 Posts |
Posted - Nov 23 2008 : 3:49:52 PM
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Thank you Shanti and Michael for your comments.
I hope what you say is true Shanti, it sounds true. It might be just a phase indeed. This phase of dispassion (a fruit of meditation) is actually very important to me right now as I was too sensitive to everthing, too scattered and instable. So it is good. But at the same time I can't help but wonder about its effect on creativity as it seems like it was this sensitivity that kind of allowed me to easily fly in the winds of creativity. Now I feel no urge or impulse or need to sit down and write a song (I used to wake up in the middle of the night and just pick my guitar and something would come out!). I feel I have no special message to convey, no real pain to express, nor extreme happiness, just peace and acceptance of what is. But maybe you need those states of rapture (kundalini/ecstactic conductivity?) for art, I don't know.
I have had some songs come to me in the past (I see it like this, rather than me making them) that were truly special, I felt as something was talking through me. Even now, when I play those songs (about 4 made in the same period and within the same state of mind/spirit) I feel the energy they evoke each time, it is a special feeling. I haven't had that truly since then and maybe I won't have again but I would like to. It is very much like what people call enlightenment I think, you can have glimpses of it and then you lose it and then you crave it back. But the more you crave the less likely it probably is that it will happen again. So better relax into the moment I guess. A hard thing to do sometimes, when you crave something badly. Meditation does seem to help with this though.
Thanks again for your helpful posts. All the best. |
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Yoga and artisitc expression
