Krishnamurti (K) was not much of a fan of image making by the conditioned mind. As for the artist and art he had a few things to say in his time. His approach to the arts was that the artist and his work should be holistic in nature.
Who is that person that you call an artist? A man (or woman) who is momentarily creative? To me he is not an artist. The man who merely at rare moments has his creative impulse and expresses that creativeness through perfection of technique, surely you would not call him an artist. To me, the true artist is one who lives completely, harmoniously, who does not divide his art from living, whose very life is that expression, whether it be a picture, music, or his behavior; who has not divorced his expression on a canvas or in music or in tone from his daily conduct, daily living. That demands the highest intelligence, highest harmony. To me the true artist is the man who has that harmony. He may express it on canvas, or he may talk, or he may paint; or he may not express it at all, he may feel it. But all this demands that exquisite poise, that intensity of awareness and, therefore, his expression is not divorced from the daily continuity of living’ (Total Freedom: Krishnamurti foundation of America)
Besides being holistic, there is also that question of ‘purpose of life’. At some stage in the artists career he is going to ask himself this question. When I asked the artist John Hoyland in his studio, when he was in his 70’s, (see previous article ‘John Hoyland: Today’s Turner’ from www.siriperera.com) as to why he still had to keep painting: he said because he just had too. There is something of the Truth in this answer if he is to follow the ‘movement of creative thinking’ as Krishnamurti points out. Once you are riding on its wave, you know you have to keep going, to keep looking, to keep creating because with it you are fully in touch with the very process of creation and existence. ‘Fully alive’ as K points out later in this text. But first there does not seem to be common ground in our search for purpose.
The artist is looking for it through his art, ‘(he) will tell you that it is self-expression through painting, sculpture, music, or poetry; the economist, if you ask him, will tell you that it is work, production, cooperation, living together, functioning as a group, as society; and if you ask the religionist he will tell you the purpose of life is to seek and to realize God, to live according to the laws laid down by teachers, prophets, saviors, and that by living according to their laws and edicts you may realize that truth which is God. Each specialist gives you his answer about the purpose of life, and according to your temperament, fancies, and imagination you begin to establish these purposes, these ends, as your ideals.’
K says that we create an illusion, a false environment by conditioning, we live in it, and we look in there for the Truth, the purpose of life. We tend to ‘work towards an end, a purpose. You wade through this turmoil to the goal, to the end, to the haven of refuge, to the attainment of ideal; and these ideals, ends, refuges have been designed by economic, religious, and spiritual experts.’ There is no common ground.
And so for the artist what is his Truth of purpose before he finds his expression. Perhaps it begins and ends in the same place:
‘The very inquiry into the purpose of life indicates the lack of intelligence in the present; and the man who is fully active – not lost in activities, as most Americans are, but fully active, intelligently, emotionally, fully alive – has fulfilled himself.’
What he means by ‘fully active’, ‘fully alive’: with total observation, without conflict in the mind, primed up for watching through being aware of your space, without judgement, without being conditioned, and always remaining in the center. You have to come to this state of being ‘fully alive’. The enquiry into the end is futile, as he says there is no such thing as an end and a beginning: there is but the continual movement of creative thinkingand more importantly it is that movement right now. What you call problems are the results of your ploughing through this turmoil toward a culmination. The ideals you look for are set up by the false environments that you have created for yourself. So essentially what you are doing is already trying to arrive at an ideal, which you will discover, is something not of an ideal after all. They are ‘just escapes from the present turmoil.’ There is only that ‘movement of creative thinking.’ Dealing with the environment as it is just now. The creative intelligence deals with just that, without the experts who create the false environments for you to be in and make purpose and initiate beginnings and ends and goals you grind yourself towards. So according to K, the end purpose and only purpose is learning to be fully in the present. To bring yourself to that point and stay there, you look at the movement that is you, in you, your mind, your daily activities, and watch them without judgment, to be in complete awareness, to only observe, to watch the cycles that repeat themselves because of lack of observational understanding and see how they come to an end when you follow them and see them clearly. ‘The observer is the observed’: what you observe is you and not outside of you. You are not separate from it. There is no method in the process. It is a naturally occurring process of observation, just as you are, watching your mind and everything around you. Bringing to an end the unnecessary process of psychological thinking and protest, so it does not get into the structure of the image. The noise of the mind then flattens out when these are gone. You are then left with pure awareness, just observing, completely understanding every movement, both externally and internally. Being complete and one with the environment and hence living in complete harmony with the vast space of the universe. And making art from here. Totally free to discover the NEW. Total freedom.
The mind has to first naturally find its way to this space. Naturally and not through a method, as intangibles obtained through a method is not permanent. They only exists when the method is in use. The destructive patterns come naturally to an end. This is bringing something naturally to an end, by just ‘watching’ it. The stillness comes as a result of this ‘watching’ while being completely alert to things at all times. Initially you might have to remind yourself to be alert, but with time it comes naturally, like breathing.
When Elton john was asked why does he still keep writing songs, when he does not know what he is worth and will never have to worry about his next cup of coffee, he said, ‘ because I am trying to find that ultimate song’. Is it what he is saying is that he is still looking for that ultimate something NEW song that will stand out of all the other songs that is in existence, and transform us forever with the NEW. Then I feel this is not going to come from thinking, but by being empty minded in the now, calm, noiseless, steady, and then suddenly there it is, sitting in you mind, like magic, and not knowing where it came from. Thinking yourself into something uses tools that are already in existance, your past, your hopes for the future, all coated with your experiences and hence conditioning. How can the new come from data that is already known. Freedom from the known is also a point that K puts forward in his talks. The new has to come from non existence, from nothing. But being one with all and to allow this to happen, the device of mind has to be primed to receive. Your living space that your mind has created to live in, is an illusion, and if you live in an illusion and you look for the Truth using the coordinates of an illusion, you are looking outside the realm of the naturally true.
The process and the purpose is: to be, so all is known without thinking, and action to manifest a discovery.
You have to get to stillness first, before you start making timeless art. Finding the new and adding it to the front-line of art. In the process, transforming viewers who come across the work. There can be no other purpose in this ‘futile’ obsession. The artist to be in contact with the universe by being as close to the structural energies of nature. To recognise conditioning in himself, to live outside the illusion, to be free of all that is known so that the new is accessable and to be totally free to create art that is timeless. Making work that will always be true to its time because its presence is that of the very essence of nature. I like to finish with a quote from a book by Karen Armstrong on ‘Buddha’, that before Christ ascetic from today’s Nepal and yesterdays India, around 300 BC who found that quiet center:
‘‘Nibbana (enlightenment) is a still center; it gives meaning to life. People who lose touch with this quiet place and do not orient their lives toward it can fall apart. Artists, poets and musicians can only become fully creative if they work from this inner core of peace and integrity.’
We have to finally ask ourselves: are we, yes us, creating a brave new world for ourselves. We are all responsible for both the tangible and the intangible part of existence. This wholeness, the totality of existence, is brand new at any moment, created by us, as we bring it into existence. Everything, all the good and the bad, keeping in mind that there is no good and there is no bad as they are all part of the structure of existence (especially in the arts: so called ‘bad’ art, shows the way for the ‘good’ art, and if you see the truth in this you would price them equally and enjoy it for its power to point the way forward) AND THAT there is only that,’movement of creative thinking.’ The front-line of existence being created by: artists, economists, teachers, guru’s, mystics, killers, parents, muggers, presidents, kings and queens, drug dealers, microsoft, corner shop owners, schools etc. and at any moment, you look at it and you see what you got and you work with it. Never the same from one moment to the next, constantly being made and the artists, I would like to think, has a very positive part to play in this creation. And they will know what it feels like to ride the wave of the creative experience.
And to end this:
There is no guide to truth (in Art)
Is God to be found by seeking him out? Can you search after the unknowable? To find, you must know what you are seeking. If you seek to find, what you find will be a self-projection; it will be what you desire, and the creation of desire is not truth. To seek truth is to deny it. Truth has no fixed abode; there is no path, no guide to it, and the word is not truth. Is truth to be found in a particular setting, in a special climate, among certain people? Is it here and not there? Is that one the guide to truth, and not another? Is there a guide at all? When truth is sought, what is found can only come out of ignorance, for the search itself is born of ignorance. You cannot search out reality; you must cease for reality to be.
J. Krishnamurti, The Book of Life