“The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.”
— Pablo Picasso
There is a wonderful correlation between art and life. As Pablo Picasso says, art can wash off the dust of our daily lives, as does the art of spirituality. On our spiritual journey we can take inspiration from artists as to how we can craft and create the life we really want. What is life? Life is when the soul and the physical body are together. A body without a soul is not life. A soul without a body is not life. There is only life when the two come together. We need to give importance to both. In the same way that we take care of how we nourish our bodies, we need to take care of how we nourish the soul.
There are two kinds of art. One is what Plato would have described as replication, or copying. Capturing something that is three dimensional and portraying that on canvas or some other medium, as exactly as possible. The second kind of art is more abstract and is the personal expression of emotions, ideas, visions, frustrations. So, art is both copying and creating something new, imitating and being inventive.
Our spiritual life is also of observing and experimenting and then of creating something new. In the practice of meditation, we learn methods, we observe what others do and try to do the same, but the really important part is the inventiveness, the newness. Art comes from the heart and so must a spiritual life; it has to be meaningful to me, not just painting by numbers.
There are other connections between art and the spiritual life:
The importance of creativity. Each one of us is a natural creator and all it requires is to learn, listen, observe and practise. The skill is to keep alive to discovery.
As with art, there is a skill and a knack to implementation. There is a secret to it all and if we use it, we can keep connected to the self and to the Divine, and keep looking out for further secrets as we move along.
Artists always hope to share what they create. We create first and foremost for the self, but inevitably if I create a new me, then I am automatically sharing what I become, with others. The stimulus for artists is to find something meaningful to them and share that beauty to inspire, to show a new way of looking at things, to share a bigger picture. Spiritually we become more elevated by going above the everyday, and wash away the impatience, frustration and self-doubt by creating beautiful thoughts and feelings and sharing them with others.
The creative process is messy. Artists’ studios are messy, chaotic places from where beauty is created. Life is messy. When we are creating a beautiful life, things will not always be perfect, things may not work out as we would like them to. That’s art! That’s life!
Art and meditation, art and spirituality, are full of discovery. I need to keep that wonder of discovery alive, and avoid the poison of routine. I need to practise, practise, practise, and experiment, experiment, experiment. Give it my whole heart, not half a heart. We can take frequent moments during the day to give ourselves space to go into silence, go beyond the moment, to somewhere more elevated, for a few minutes. The most important time though, is the early morning. It is worth getting up a little earlier to create a space of quietness. To use that time, not for planning or considering the day to come, but to simply think of beautiful things, the goodness within the self, and the goodness of others, sending good wishes and kindness – there is power in that. At that time, I can connect very deeply with the self, with the creator within, and in that space I can also connect with the eternal Creator, the One who fashions a pure, new world of happiness. From the Divine, the One above, I can take power, inspiration and light, to create a new and beautiful life. That is real art.
Rachel Priestman is based at Global Cooperation House, in the Brahma Kumaris International Co-ordinating Office, London.