[OceanofDharma] Constant Self-Expression

[cgimian at suchns.com]

Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week

July 28, 2007 [This is being sent on the road. Apologies for formatting problems.]

CONSTANT SELF-EXPRESSION


When you are painting or composing music, you have no mind. You just don't think. You are inspired. You are more concerned with the boundary of course, where your mind begins to function in a habitual way. But when you are in the center, inside the boundary, you have no thought, no mind. It's a complete state of existence, meditation, or whatever you call it. With artistic creation, that's the kind of situation we are talking about. At that level, there's no room to think about whether what you are doing is for the public or whether it's personal. It's just constant self-expression. A lot of works of art have been ruined by self consciousness. As an artist, trying to be good is not so good.

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 Edited from an unpublished transcript.