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There is such a thing as
unconditional expression
that does not come from self
or other. It manifests out of
nowhere like mushrooms
in a meadow, like hailstones,
like thundershowers.
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche
 
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chögyam trungpa rinpoche
presence is the key to
living artfully
Art is a rather vast subject. In connection with human
development all together, art includes the practice of meditation,
learning about ourselves and discovering the nonexistence of our ego. We
sometimes speak of art as “secular.” In my vocabulary, the word
“secular” means “without dogma.”
This means that we can relate with our bread-and-butter
situation, with our breakfast, lunch and dinner. In fact, breakfast,
lunch and dinner are sacred. That everyday sacredness is where the
concept of art comes from. It is spiritual but not necessarily
religious.
Art is environment. Education is the mind which relates
with that environment. Whatever we do in the course of our
life—depositing money in the bank, cashing a check, making business
deals, cooking breakfast, preparing a party for our friends, buying a
new hat, mending our clothes, stopping at the gas station to fill up our
cars—any activity that is part of the spectrum of our life is art, very
much art. Art is environment because we are capable of doing all those
things properly.
Often we couldn’t care less about these things. We just
do them randomly. Our attitude is to do them mindlessly and get them out
of the way. Sacredness is our capability for doing all those things with
awareness. You have the capability of eating breakfast, you have the
capability of mending your clothes; you have the capability of putting
your clothes in the washing machine and your dishes in the dishwasher.
You have all those capabilities and you don’t mix things up. You know
what you are doing. You have that much awareness.
All your activities are regarded as expressions of basic
intelligence or basic goodness. You possess the discriminating-awareness
wisdom that allows you to do what you want. If you go to a lecture, you
don’t think you are going to a gas station or a restaurant. You know
where you are. That logic may seem very small and naïve, but it makes
sense. You manage to arrive at a particular place at a particular time,
you wear certain clothes and you sit in a particular seat. You listen to
the speaker and try to understand what is being said. That in itself is
creating a work of art. It is an expression of what in the Buddhist
tradition we call prajna, which means “the best of knowledge.” Basic
integrity means knowing what you’re doing. In the creation of art, that
basic integrity or knowing takes place very powerfully, along with some
sense of your basic goodness. Everybody is good; everybody possesses
basic goodness—for the very reason that you are here, alive. You are
willing to share the feast of your intelligence and your sanity with
others, and that is astounding and extraordinary. On the other hand, it
is very ordinary.
We have an expression, “ordinary mind” and another
expression, “the best of mind,” or “the greatest insight.” Both mean
exactly the same thing. They both come to one conclusion: whatever you
do is an expression of basic goodness in you. You might be skeptical
about that, but at the same time, in your heart, you are tickled and
open and wondering. You possess that kind of presence, which you
project—all of you. You have something going on that in simple, ordinary
language we call “basic goodness.”
It makes you feel good. A baby may cry, but she cries
very wholeheartedly.
Art is not merely being able to do your music or your
painting or your little arrangements or installations of this and that.
The kind of art we are talking about is big art. It is having basic
goodness in an environment, which in itself is a work of art.
~
Extracts from a talk on art given by Trungpa Rinpoche at Naropa University in 1979
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Source:
http://www.elephantjournal.com/
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Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and his students founded
Naropa University in 1974 as a place to present Buddhist teachings
and practice, and also as a place where various artistic, spiritual and
academic disciplines could come together in a sparky environment that
merged intellect and intuition. At Naropa, Rinpoche gave many talks on
Buddhist iconography and making a genuine meditative or contemplative
connection to art, which he called “dharma art.”
Shambhala Art was founded by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche with his students,
and continues under the guidance of his son, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche.
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