The
Original
Inspiration
‘How pleasant to know I need nothing to lean on,
To be still as the waters of the autumn river!’
Han Shan
1.
Deeply in my heart, a long time ago, I always feel attracted by these Han Shan’s verses.
Although the happiness I could earn from the Western Art and from Chinese Literature is great,
it always seems to me that there is something unsatisfied. The want seems never to be fulfilled;
the need seems to be more needed.
Even though I feel I’m very rich, maybe it’s merely the richness of a beggar! Shouldn’t I ever
knock on the Van Gogh’s, Picasso’s, Paul Klee’s... doors in the West?, nor on the Tu Fu’s, Su
Tung-P’o’s, Wang An-Shih’s... ones in the East? For what am I looking? Am I looking for their
art works, their poems, and paintings... to enrich myself? And so what such a kind of man am I?
– A parasite?
Since when did we have the habit of transforming ourselves into handicapped or parasites? Is
it from our education or the honor of art that makes us the pitiful slaves? Gradually, we don’t
feel ashamed to take others’ art works as our possession and be proud of it!
Since when did we use our ‘talent’ of appreciating an art work as the sole, unique way to enjoy,
satisfy ourselves, and standardize its value with all authority of an expert? We only enjoy
another’s enjoyments. We only get inspired from another’s inspiration. We, the shadow of
others, ruminate respectfully what people had spit out. These processes are the so-called ‘art’,
which we adore and worship as the noble symbol of our civilization. The more we are stuck on
dead masterpieces, the more we enslave ourselves. The result is that most of our modern
paintings are merely superficial, garish products or worse than that, a cheap rococo imitation.
At the same time, we destroy our spiritual independence. We were fed by others’ paintings,
poems... and became addicted. Literature and art are the vital and constantly increasing
requirements. We always feel unsatisfied though we could have thousands of paintings or
poems in hands, tons of books, of art magazines in our library or earn many degrees of cultural
arts. Like a billionaire, we still crave a rice bowl in a beggar’s hands. We never live in peace,
peace with ourselves, and peace with our own, real requirements. This is the universal
phenomenon of a parasite. We used to lean on others and then we couldn’t stand up by
ourselves: we all are handicapped.
Since when did the dreaming birds disappear in our imaginary, high skies?
2.
According to the current situation, our spiritual independence is very low. The glittering facade
of our civilization cannot cover up the poverty of our spiritual life. Art, films, music, pictures,
books, magazines... not only affect our way of thinking but also replace or determine which way
or which direction we should or must think. We are merely the products of our own intellectual
efforts: the greater appearance of our civilization, the bigger poverty of our spiritual life.
The simple, main reason is in us.
We – the artists of life [*] – didn’t play our part completely. Or as I would like to say, we’re
already dead before reality and life!
We enjoyed a beautiful sunset through famous paintings, music or poems. It’s the paintings,
music, etc conduced to the sensation of pleasure. Another time, standing before the same
scene, our mind associates with the paintings, music... and we get back our desired
satisfaction. What we see from this example?
First, instead of enjoying the scene, we just enjoy the concerned paintings, music... The latter,
ironically, are really the enjoying of others! We like the others’ likes and don’t know how to like
our real ones!
Second, we experienced a thousand of beautiful sunsets in life, but we failed to recognize
them. Not only because we have a lot of paintings, poems, music... in mind, but mainly our
sensitivity is dull. The duller our sensation is, the easier the paintings, music, etc occupy our
mind.
We live, we breathe, we drink and eat, but where’s our consciousness? Where’s our own, real
boss?
Or are we dead men, in fact?
3.
‘Wake up yourselves!’ Zen Buddhism tells us.
I wouldn’t like to go further into the matter, though it’s the most important one. Limited within
concerned subject, I try to find a suitable, needed explanation.
Back to the example mentioned above, our problem is that we have a lot of knowledge in mind;
these accumulated experiences formulate the past, the backstage, which we use as a unique
way whenever we face any situations. Standing before a beautiful sunset, our past reacts to
the scene. And then Van Gogh’s, Picasso’s, Su Tung-P’o’s... fulfill our mind. We don’t
experience the actual scene but our past, our memory. This process happens to almost
everyone, in almost every case.
Our need is not to discard the mind but recover the heart. Only when our heart is refreshed,
opened, will the mind untie its abundant loads. And only when the mind is still, quiet, can it look
at the scene without interposing ideas or theories -- without any distraction. The mind must be
very quiet, not distracted by its own thought; it should be opened at the same time as the
heart, only then, can it experience the scene directly, simply, from its original source.
To focus on how to recover the heart, I think the most effective, practical way is to live directly,
fully at the present time. Like breath, we should keep our consciousness continuously in every
second. And just like breath, a breaking of our consciousness, even for a very short time, is
the same as ‘death’. Living consciously also means living in love. Because we can not learn or
practice love, we can only cultivate love-seedling by living – living-consciously-in-every-second-
at-the-present-time.
The wanting more, the intellectual efforts, the pursuit of symbols, words, images, with their
sensation... all that has to come to an end. Only then it is possible for the mind to be in the
state of creativeness in which the original inspiration can always come into being, and that is
reality.
4. [**]
Why must we lean too much on arts, music, poems...? Why does life become too heavy with all
kinds of knowledge, experiences...? And why is our mind, instead of tranquility, passiveness,
now full of ideas, systems, theories...?
Is our life very poor, very empty so that we always find something new to fulfill our need? But
what’s new today tomorrow becomes odd; our need never feels satisfied, our want wants more.
Or is life a fatal circle, we pursue our shadow, our illusion all lifetime and never catch it?
But is it true our satisfaction of sensation is the real need? Is the sense the standard measure
of our artistic appreciation? Is the beauty of ear and eye the end of arts?
All these questions will disappear whenever we return to ourselves and find out the real, own
treasure we already forgot. Like a beggar, we knock on all the others’ doors, never knowing
that we have a big diamond inside our pocket. Absolutely like a beggar, we live by all kind of
borrowings – from east to west, from ancient till modern – and take pride of possession in all
those borrowings.
Our real, own treasure is simply the vital reality around us. It is the endless, original inspiration
waiting patiently for the second of wakening, of returning home, of picking up the full, direct
consciousness we have lost very long time ago. It is our own consciousness, our tranquil, quiet
mind meeting the world outside and only then the reality blossoms in our mind and heart. The
world outside or the world inside, the observer or the observed, the experiencer or the
experienced is only one. This is the endless, original inspiration.
Life is enriched, not by accumulated borrowings, but by personal creativeness every second of
lifetime.
Living consciously, in the end, means living in reality: we live with the clear conscience that we
are living. Everything comes to us as if it was part of us, and we, from many thousand lives,
stay deeply inside it all.
Our mind, our heart, our mental and physical body – in the most meaningful sense – should
and must exist as the original source of life; as the endless, pure inspiration of life. Or as I
would like to say: we should exist as creative human beings.
p.lan
06/2004
[*] A definition from Zen Buddhism.
[**] An added section to make clear the conclusion in section 3.
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