On the one hand, you have the creative process – music or art. And then you have the finished product – the piece of music being played, or the piece of art that someone is looking at.
When you ask, “Can art or music inform the ego about Presence?” – the ego knows nothing about the Presence, so it cannot do anything about it. It takes some opening in the ego to be receptive to the latent power in music or art that has come from deep within. There’s a lot of music and art that doesn’t necessarily come from that depth, but the ego is trying to be smart. Let’s talk about a piece of music or a piece of art that comes from a relationship with silence or presence. To some extent, the work of art or piece of music still carries this energy field. It can bring a person into contact with the inner, deeper dimension. A small opening is required. If there is only ego density, the transformative potential of art or music is not realized. You need a little opening in the viewer or the listener, and then listening to music or looking at a work of art can be quite wonderful. If only for a moment, it can be transferred to the alert calm from which it originally came. It’s a beautiful thing.
Another aspect is losing yourself – digging too deep, almost sinking into the soil from which creativity springs. In the creative process, you always need a balance so that you don’t lose yourself in Being. It can happen to an artist, it can happen to some people who have a spiritual awakening—suddenly immersed so deeply in Being that they lose all interest in action. This happened to some spiritual teachers who spent several years without doing anything.
For example, Ramana Maharshi in India had to be fed for several years because he would not even take food. He was so absorbed in Being that he just sat there. People recognized something extraordinary in him – something they wouldn’t have done in the West – and put food in his mouth. But there was definitely a loss of balance, he could no longer function in this world. This is of course an extreme example. Gradually, after a few years, he began to function again and managed to regain the balance between dealing with external things and connecting with Being. To a slightly lesser extent, this happened to me when I completely lost interest in “doing” and drifted for two years. This was not a “problem” for me, only for those who were watching or knew me. Thus, a loss of balance occurred for a while, but gradually the balance was restored. I didn’t have a teacher as such, so it turned out to be a natural process.
As long as you go inside and give form to that which rests in the formless, use it – so that through you it comes into this world of form. Don’t stay there and lose yourself in it – it’s not necessary.
Music is a wonderful way to connect with inner silence.
However, it is important for the student not to become dependent on anything external in order to reach the state of Presence. While music can help, balance is also needed. If you can only be quiet when you listen to a certain kind of music, it’s not quite right because it depends on something external to connect with it. Use it as an aid and it’s the same as a spiritual teacher or spiritual teaching – listening to a tape or watching a video can be a great help, but don’t become completely dependent on it. All good spiritual teachers will say when the time comes, “Enough is enough.” The real teacher is in you. What you see in me, what you find so valuable in me, must be in you – otherwise you would not see it. A good teacher always guides you back to yourself and does not encourage any kind of addiction.
Knowing what is helpful, using it, but not becoming addicted. Eventually you will have to go there without any help. You can still rate teachers and teachings. I love listening to other spiritual teachers, when they come from deep, I get great joy and think “Wow, that’s so amazing.” Or reading a spiritual book that comes from the deepest – there is still great joy in it. It has nothing to do with need, it enjoys a slightly different expression of the same profound truth. This is amazing.
Sometimes simply holding a place of Presence activates other factors that seem to come in from the outside to change the situation. You have activated the intelligence of wholeness. This is not necessarily done through this form. That’s why people talk about synchronic things, suddenly a helping factor comes in, suddenly the right person appears, the right thing happens. It’s almost a miracle if you don’t know it’s natural, it seems like a miracle at first because most people aren’t used to it.
Also, you can see him anywhere – no matter what form he’s hiding in. You can see the truth shine through wherever it hides. It might be hidden in some ancient religion, very deep. You see it there, it shines through – there may be a lot of mythology around it, a lot of cultural beliefs around it, and yet you can see deep down there that it’s the truth, it shines through the mythology around it and so on. This is who you are.
