Art As A Spiritual Practice

There has never been a time like today, when human beings have had so much choice in things to do. It’s also never been easier to become a jack of all trades, master of none . Besides the ubiquitous internet, we have a myriad of distractions in video games, cable TV/Netflix, recorded music of every type imaginable, books and magazines (both in print and digital), and a pace of living that has often become more of a competition to get as much done before you die, than it really is a life to live and enjoy. We are drowning in an age of information. Even just 100 years ago, there was so much less to do, so much less assaulting our brains and senses. We live in large communities and cities, yet we don't even know our neighbors. We are connected, yet not connected. This is where your Practice comes in I came across this article about Going Deeper, Not Wider . Please take a minute to read it before continuing here. Going deeper , this is what Art As A Spiritual Practice is all ...

The ideas of practice and discipline are 2 of the most misunderstood ideas we have. How many people have a feeling of dread just reading and thinking about those 2 words? There is such a negative connotation to the idea of both practice and discipline, like they are some sort of punishment one must perform. “I must have discipline. I must do my practice. I must because I have to.” Photo © Cynvision Photography First, let's look at these 2 words and the meaning behind them: Practice means to “perform an activity repeatedly or regularly in order to improve one's proficiency.” While discipline often means punishment of some sort, as in being forced to do something, one root of the word is disciple , as in being a student, coming from the  Latin  disciplina , meaning “instruction given, teaching, learning, knowledge.” Thus we need to understand both practice and discipline as a desire to learn, a desire for knowledge, a desire for improvement. Part of our problem i...

I came across this quote today, from Maurine Stuart, Zen master of the Cambridge Buddhist Association, writing in Subtle Sound,   “The essence of our practice is forgetting the self. As we become less self-conscious, we become more open and more warmly present, and what we discover as this melting down takes place is that what we really are is the pure, clear, lighted mind itself—nothing else. So the . . . goal of our practice is to conduct our lives from this clear, lighted mind, this always just-beginning mind.”  In this hyper Facebook/twitter/instagram/internet world, it seems like everyone is trying to draw attention to themselves.  “Look at me! Look at Me!”   There is this collective competition to be seen, to be heard. As both a writer and a musician, I of course want to be seen and heard. This is my vocation after all, to communicate with words and sound. This becomes a conundrum for me.  The path is the path… Self promotion is never easy ...

Sound . What is it's nature? Where does it come from?  For the purpose of this blog post, I'll talk about sound , but you can easily substitute whatever art or endeavor you are involved in. For me, sound is often the medium I work in, but it can just as easily be words, like right now. I also work in various other areas like design, music production, composition, and various cross collaborations. There was a time I saw all these as separate from each other: right now, I'm a writer. Later I will be a musician. Tomorrow I will be a graphic designer. But as I evolved along the practice , I came to see that everything was actually the same thing. The same ideas and energy can be  manifested in a different outer forms.  Once I realized this, I was just me . I didn't have to become the writer, or the musician, or anything else. I am just me . But what about the  sound? But what about the sound (or words, or designs, or photos, etc.), where d...