This is an area that I'm very much exploring,
through my art, of how to embody Dharma through art,
and not necessarily just in calligraphy,
nor just cultural art or Buddhist art.
The Convergence of Dharma and Art
Buddhist art generally is very symbolic, it's iconographic, it's very rich.
Buddhism is very rich in arts and it supports and inspires visualization, and so on.
But what really interests me is how you use art as a practice in itself.
We question, "What is creativity itself?"
Good creativity is really an expression of freedom.
But at the same time, you need a foundation to base the creativity in.
Because if you don't have the means,
if you don't know how to hold a brush or a pen properly and use it,
and understand color and all the techniques that go along with it,
if you don't have that discipline,
then there's not a good way of expressing that creativity.
Even somebody who says they're not at all creative,
there's a little ceremony in whatever we do.
Making a cup of tea,
there's that moment of sitting down,
being mindful and pouring the tea,
because you don't want to get tea on your nice polished table.
So there's mindfulness.
And there's a certain grace about it.
And you're very much in the moment when you're doing this particular thing,
so that is a practice.
It's a practice in itself.
And of course, the Japanese have made it into a whole art form,
which is highly, highly refined.
You know, the quality of your tea bowl and all of that,
it's the same with Tibetan Buddhism as well.
The ritual objects that we have, the spiritual materialism of it all,
should be used to get us from A to B,
to get us to be liberated, to be enlightened.
And you could say that then you don't need it anymore, because you've got from A to B.
But the trouble is if you've got to B from A,
then there are all these other people still at A,
so you have to show them how to get to B!
So you need to be an example, a teacher or a lama,
or a rinpoche, to help, to guide, to teach.
To teach the lineage and tradition.
People appreciate beauty.
Beauty is something very important, it's not just "pretty."
Beauty can be in anything.
Beauty can be in something really handsome,
in a majestic way like a great big black ugly mountain,
it can be awe-inspiring, but it has its beauty in its energy.
And then on the mountainside, right down to the little daintiest of flowers,
and the way they blow in the wind, has its beauty.
So you express that through art, and that's expressing beauty.
But then you have to ask, "Well, what is beautiful?
What makes something beautiful?"
Now that's a good question in itself.
I think for human beings, because we don't like change,
we find beauty in a repetitive pattern, because there's stability there.
But it has to have a beauty in its form, in its shape.
This is where calligraphy is a good expression of that,
because each letter on its own has a beautiful form, an elegance and shape,
that makes our heart sing, we see that it's such a beautiful thing.
But what is it that makes it beautiful?
Is it the space between the marks?
Is it the intention behind making the marks, because your heart is free?
I had a really nice conversation once,
sharing a meal with Annie Lennox.
Now Annie Lennox is world-famous as a musician,
and she's made many absolutely beautiful songs,
well it depends on your taste but generally people think, beautiful music.
And I remember hearing as a teenager, when I heard this music, it would make me feel happy.
It would lift my heart.
So I said to Annie, as you do, sharing a meal with her(!),
I said, "What do you think?
When you compose music, when you sing music so beautifully,
where are you coming from with this?"
And she said, "Well, it's like freedom.
I'm in the flow when I compose that."
So what is the connection to being in the flow, what is the flow?
It means that you are unlimited,
you are not limited,
you are unimpeded by those things that kind of bog us down in creativity,
like having too much ego,
or thinking, "I want to write a nice song because I want to be famous."
That's the wrong attitude.
To be in touch with our relative and our ultimate,
to bring our heaven down through the music,
it's the same for creativity as well.
You're open and you're more in touch with something more ultimate.