I recently realized that in order to get where I want to go artistically, I need to up my meditation game. My art practice is about letting the flow of creativity stream through. I need to make more internal space for that to happen. It's a happy goal, and already bearing fruit in my everyday life. I'm shrinking my head and growing my heart. Art and meditation have so much is common. Like art, meditation requires bravery to confront the feelings that come up while practicing. I've always been convinced this is the reason so many artists have been heavy drinkers and generally debauched. It's is because the meditative quality of making art creates space for those painful past moments we run from in daily life to surface. Art helps process and heal these moments just as meditation can, but only if they are held close and felt. If an artist has the courage to do this, making the work will be transformative for them. The energy of the artist's transformation and healing will be captured in the art and passed on to viewers.
My favorite poem about the potential of the meditative state by Zen monk Dogen from the 13th century:
Midnight.
No waves,
no wind, the empty boat
is flooded with moonlight.
by Dogen
xoxo