[OceanofDharma] The Mark of Genius

[cgimian at suchns.com]

Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week 

July 24, 2007

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THE MARK OF GENIUS

When realized artists work on their production, they are completely filled with 
what they are doing. At that level, a person doesn't have any other mind than 
being an arist, 100%. Complete concentration is involved when somebody is 
executing a work of art. That is the mark of a master. The mark of genius is 
none other than that you put 100% of your being into the situation, and you can 
do so. It turns out to be seemingly almost accidental, as in Shakespeare's 
work, especially his early work. He was almost to the level of being a hero by 
mistake, by a very fortunate mistake. In a positive sense, such a mistake is 
possible. It involves a lot of power and concentration as well. So we are 
talking about a sense of contact, a sense of concentration, and a sense of 
mindlessness when a person is executing a work of art of writing poetry. At the 
time that you are writing poetry, you don't think. You just do it.

>From "The Doha Tradition," Talk Twelve of THE TIBETAN BUDDHIST PATH. Naropa 
Institue, July 1974. Edited from an unpublished transcript.


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All material by Chogyam Trungpa is used by permission of Diana J. Mukpo.

 

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