The Art of Being
The default shape and texture of interaction as creative medium
Much advice boils down to “just have a fundamentally different temperament”.
It is sometimes possible to deeply transform one’s temperament; often, though, it is not easy. It is approximately as difficult as learning a foreign language is for most adults. As with language, immersion accelerates transformation. Living among people who already see you as the person you are becoming―who interact with you as though that temperament was already yours―is remarkably effective. Sometimes, you may discover, though, that a particular temperament will never be available to you. As a block of marble acts as a constraint on sculptural forms, so too does our incarnation. If this limitation is discovered, then releasing an artistic dream may be called for, so that a fresh and vital one can flow into the vacated space.
What follows describes the Art of Being as I practice it.
First, what is meant here by “Being”? In this context, it means the default shape and texture of interaction with the world, prior to any discursive conceptuality. It is that very first perceptible energetic configuration of emphasizing, de-emphasizing, and setting aside sensation that creates a multi-dimensional salience landscape across senses, across meaning, across space. You know that feeling where you feel a statement coming on but don’t yet know what you are going to say? Trace that to the root and you discover how specifics fall out of one’s shape and texture of interaction with the world, which could be called one’s energetic stance.
Second, why “Art”? This default shape and texture of interaction is an artistic medium that can be worked with. It can be molded in innumerable (but not infinite) ways. One’s being has genuine aesthetic properties, a particular shape and texture of responsiveness.
How does one explore the Art of Being?
Exploration: Try temperaments on. Develop an intuition as to whether you truly could transform. Discover those as-yet unilluminated possibilities in the space of interaction: a possibility, once illuminated, becomes an available action without compulsion.
There are two ways to do this:
Inside-Out: Locating. Find the merest hint of possibility in yourself of the way of being. Let consciousness fall into that place, and allow that hint of disposition to spread and magnify not only in the body but also in the perception of the world.
Outside-in: Stepping Into. Act differently, and stay in touch with how it feels. The enactment of a different way of being, ritually, in time reveals the inner phenomenology of it.
Creation: artistically create the energetic stance that is at the root of the temperament. This creation has a prerequisite of energetic facility. Having practiced many energetic exercises from different traditions will reveal energetic possibilities, much as scales reveal musical ones. The art of composing music is built upon experience with simple elements from the traditions; similarly, the art of energetic shaping is built upon experience with energy practices, often each presenting a straightforward unitary energetic way of experiencing the world. Combining these into a unique energetic vocabulary that has coherence and force is the aesthetic challenge.
An example: look upon this as you might view a particular artist’s work in a gallery. It represents a single vision at a single moment in time, and in no way indicates the artistic direction of any other artist. Picasso in his Cubist phase and ancient Chinese ink abstractions need not relate to each other; what they have in common is that they each have their own expressive vision.
Locate cheerfulness in the central channel. Let it blossom and shine, filling the subtle body with sufficient activation energy to radiate charm. The reflectance of this charm by the heart combines with the heart’s own energy to project illuminating seductive rays in all directions from the groin, heart, and eyes. The hara melts into agreeableness, and the entire being is intoxicated by the beauty it witnesses all around it in any form, whether sacred or profane.
Familiarity: meditate in the space of, and spontaneously refresh the memory of, that energetic stance throughout the day.
Confidence: If you do this for a year or two, you may become a fundamentally new person. There is no guarantee of artistic success, but there is joy and revelation in trying. An artist’s aesthetic evolution never ends. What was beautiful in one era may lose fascination in a later one. Be open to going through interesting phases of your artistic career!