I have just read Lethe Bashar’s post ‘On Genius’ (of Blog of Innocence). For those of you who haven’t discovered this blog yet, I would recommend adding it to your bookmark.
On Genius, Blog of Innocence
Bashar’s post is very well written and thought-provoking. I would urge you to first read the post, because what I write here is merely a response to this amazing insight that Bashar have glimpsed on, and expressed (very well) through his post.
He laments on the art critic’s presentation of genius and talent. Here is the text from the post that interest me the most:
We read, “No one writing in English today produces anything quite like them.” And then, a passage that illustrates the reviewer’s claim.The passage is beautiful; I was certainly moved by it.
But let me challenge you to another point of view, a point of view which is provisional and openly philosophical . . .What we think of as a writer’s unique and individual gifts, those sparkling sentences that critics extol–in my present understanding–are really the effervescence of language itself.
What I mean to say by that is, art in poetry or prose is language in its purest, most accessible, most fluid form, nearly on a separate wavelength. It’s on a wavelength most of us can hear, just not all of the time. When we hear it, our hearts swoon, our minds expand.
…
I believe the magical passage, the stunning work of art, is not the watermark of individual genius, but instead the reflection of a higher state of mind. The artwork is evidence of some journey. Art criticism flattens the journey, however, by making it into a vacation. Now it’s as if the artist went on a vacation and brought us back a souvenir. We grab for the souvenir at our first chance because it really is magnificent to have such a beautiful thing in our hands. Blinded by the act of possession, having stamped our names across the material object, we see no further–In this mode of appreciating art, the furthest I can see is not far enough. Fixated on the individual and her gifts, I lose sight of the deeper meaning or beauty in the work of art. By reducing art to the individual, and setting a spotlight on the hand that wrought perfection, I mistakenly short-circuit the whole enterprise of art.
Enter Elizabeth Gilbert’s TED Talk
When I read through Bashar’s post, I can’t help but to revisit and re-think about my understanding of ‘genius artworks’ and immediately this video, a TED talk from Elizabeth Gilbert (the author of Eat, Pray, Love) on Nurturing Creativity that I watched several months ago floats in my mind.
A quick google on ‘TED genius creativity individual’ lands me on the right video: Elizabeth Gilbert on Nurturing Creativity. I would encourage you to watch this video, as it is very beautiful and inspirational:
Elizabeth landed on a similar insight (through a different process) that Genius is a divine insight, and it should not be individualized. The fact that we’ve individualized and attributes it to an individual puts tremendous pressure on the individual (the artists) and leads to an unhealthy artistic culture.
The relevance of the video to Bashar’s post is just too much to of a coincidence. It’s like the two is made to complement one another, and to me, it’s two pieces of the same puzzle.
The Genius Puzzle
So I posted a comment reply to Bashar’s post and in it I wrote my vague opinion on this topic. But shortly after that, as I was about to work again on my theory on model for distributed system , two Buddhism concept pops in my head:
The first is The Ten Realms of Awareness (or The Ten Wo which haven’t wrote down in any online form, but a very simple version can be found here), and the second is Finger Pointing Away To The Moon.
Which is very interesting because the two are seemingly unrelated, and yet at that moment I can see the connection as clear as day. I wanted to reply to Bashar but I thought that since it will be one very long reply and the concept might not appeal to him or the reader of his blog, perhaps I should capture it here instead, in my own blog. Afterall, it is the perfect medium to voice my opinions on things.
So here is my attempt at putting the pieces of the puzzle together.
The Ten Realms of Awareness
So what does The 10 Realms have anything to do with great works of art? Firstly, let’s try to understand what it is:
The 10 Realms describes a model of varying level of awareness / state of mind. In its most simplistic description, it partitions the varying state of awareness into 10 level. The order from the lowest to the highest is as follow: (lowest) Hell, Hunger, Beastiality, Anger, Tranquility, Rapture, Learning, Realization, Boddhisatva, Buddha (highest). More information can be found by googling it – a brief summary can be found in this link or in this wikipedia page,
The realms are not static, meaning that one doesn’t reside in a given state of awareness / world and stuck in it for the rest of your life. In fact, we constantly jump from one world to another as our mind changes. However, across all 10 level of awareness, one will be dominant – and that is the level where you spend the most time at.
Side Note: The teaching encourage us at first to understand the concept, thus giving us the capability to analyse our own life state. And secondly, now knowing where we are, we can consciously work on various aspect in our life to make it better.
Great works of art through the lens of Buddhism
The Ten Realm of Awareness is applicable to each aspect in our live, and it’s very, very dynamic. Someone could be in permanent Realization in their professional work, but constantly fall into Anger or Beastiality in their relationship (or vice versa). So when looking at the artistic work of many creative geniuses in the past through the lens of Buddhism, we need to be very specific about what aspect are we looking at.
So here I will try to dissect the puzzle using The Ten Realm of Awareness on the aspect of artistic and literary appreciation, which is really the one aspect we want to look at right now.
I sat down and think about this, and I came to the conclusion that in this particular aspect of life (artistic and literary appreciation) artists would linger in the world of Learning and Realization. They are constantly pushing the borderline of realization, practising, learning, and perfecting their art.
The less artistic ones (most of us) would probably jump around in the other realms: Hell (zero interest in art); Hunger (constantly in need of the next good stuff); Bestiality (using the art to satisfy an immediate desire without thinking of the consequences); Hunger (egoistic point of view of the art work, and complete ignorance); Tranquility (neutral and unbiased appreciation of the art work), or Rapture (extremely delighted by the work of art)
People in different level of awareness basically experience the world differently. Let’s take a simplistic example of experiencing Winter.
Have a look at this picture.
There are people like that around. For instance a lot of people who are migrants from tropical origin who usually only have 2 season: Rainy and Dry, can’t stand winter.
They’re not used to it, it’s cold, it’s bitter, it’s just very, very annoying. For these people, Winter are only there to make Spring awesome and they just want to go through it as fast as possible!
Trapped in this mindset, they dwell in the realms of Hell, Hunger, Bestiality, and Anger. They suffer the cold and gloom (Hell), they hunger for the warmth of Spring (Hunger), They bitch about Winter all the time with people around them to satisfy their desire to, well, bitch about it (Bestiality) and of course, as a result they are grumpier most of the time (Anger).
Indeed, for these poor souls there is little or nothing artistic about Winter at all.
Yet, another person looked at not only Winter, but also Spring, Summer, and Autumn and marvel at the majesty of the turning of the season, and sees the beauty in ALL of the season. In fact, this person wrote a whole concerto piece for it, aptly named The Four Season, and etched his name forever in the history of classical music: Antonio Vivaldi.
So here we have two individuals that experiences Winter very differently from one another, as they both dwell in a different mental realm.
Of course, what they think of Winter is of little importance in the bigger scheme of things. And yet, these insignificant opinion plays a key part in their decisions on what to be done about it: One decided to bitch about it. The other decided to write a music to capture the experience of the four seasons, including Winter. And what a difference it is.
Experts now marvel at how Vivaldi does it, there’s even computer projects now that analyses the musical score by Vivaldi and attempt to create music that are similar to it. Obviously Vivaldi have been called Classical music Genius millions times over.
So let us now divert our buddhism lens into this artistic process: Vivaldi’s attempt to capture Winter.
The Finger That Points Away To The Winter Moon
I think the concept of ‘finger pointing away to the moon’ is the best model to illustrate this. The finger points away to the moon, in the hope that whoever looked at the finger, can then look at the moon (whose beauty is not obvious to the uninformed) and perceive its ‘heavenly glory’.
Just as religion points to the experience of enlightenment and the transcending of humanity, so does Vivaldi’s Winter piece points to the experience of Winter in the context of the Four Season.
But of course, it is not enough to describe it. Just like it is not enough to describe what the Winter piece by Vivaldi is like, one must experience it to understand its significance. And so here it is, by the grace of You Tube. If you can, close your eye and picture the last winter you experienced. The cold, bitter wind, runny nose, and so on. Also if you can, listen to at least the first one minute of the track:
… What is so compelling about this musical piece ? What do you hear when you listen to this music? Did you hear the fast-paced pitch-change of the violin, are you taken in awe by the skill of the performer?
Or are you more taken by how vividly this piece describes the cold and bitter winter? If you can hear the emotional content within the piece, one can almost picture people dressed in black/dark clothing walking out in the cold in a fast pace, body bent down to keep the chest warm – when suddenly, a gust of cold, bitter wind swept through the street, literally numbing our face.
That is how I experienced this piece – and I know that I am not the only one who interpret it this way. A lot of people describes that bit between minute 0:43 – 1:08 as ‘the bitter, cold winter gust’.Can you hear it? 3 gust of wind, every last one colder than the one before.
Side Note: Funnily enough, as I am writing this post, I did a quick search on the interpretation of this piece and found this video, which is also very amazing. In that video, part of the piece is described with expression like ‘tiptoe-ing through the cold streets’, ‘gust of cold winter wind’, and ‘teeth clattering from the cold’.
Genius ?
In Vivaldi’s case -The winter is the moon, the music is the finger. Through his work, we experience Vivalid’s perception of the beauty of Winter. And I think this is precisely what Genius is all about:
The ability to let others experience an aspect of life as experienced by one’s elevated state of awareness.
But for one so uninformed, we can be very easily distracted by the finger. And indeed we have, bickering left right and center about our interpretations of the music – a very abstract and subjective thing! Bruce Lee said it himself:
… Don’t concentrate on the finger, or you will miss all that heavenly glory!
Indeed, one can not, and most not credit Vivaldi for the beauty of the Winter, as the Winter is a divine thing.
Rather, we should -and must- give credit to Vivaldi for wanting to capture this experience, for being able to express this emotional content through his state of mind, and for capturing it so vividly as a musical souvenir for musicians to play and for us mere mortals to behold and enjoy, as it has now become a treasure for humanity.