++120x90cm+.jpg)
“Rejoice”
(Satsang Series)
(Acrylic)
Size:
90x120cm
THE IDEA BEHIND THE PAINTING:
People often think that
meditation is sitting like a statue of Buddha.
While sitting is a training for meditation, meditation is really a
lifelong discipline and one cannot sit like Buddha all your life. Life goes on... and on. Meditation is being aware in the Now. Sitting like Buddha is a device to train one
in meditation. Meditation is a
discipline of life.
There are many different
ways of teaching meditation and some people may not agree with what I say
nevertheless this is my knowing of meditation. I was fortunate to spend time in India where
meditation is a major focus. There are
probably many other readers who have spent a life time in monasteries and
ashrams and have different approaches.
However we all have to follow our own truth. My truth is being present in the Now and
stilling the mind. This is my meditation
where I can function in life in awareness and stillness.
There are many devices to facilitate
one to get a “taste” of meditation, but the end result is paradoxically, very
simple but difficult to achieve as are most profound truths.
On a continuum, the Western world
functions at the far extreme from what would be regarded as a meditative
life. The West likes to think, think and
think. There is very little heart
activity – it is all in the head. The
internet feeds this obsession. But who
knows, this obsession may in itself lead to meditation. Computer scientist, Jaron Lanier is a pioneer
in the development of virtual reality and a Silicon Valley veteran. He raises provocative questions regarding
consciousness. Here is an excerpt from
his book “You are not a Gadget” (2010).
“You can propose
that consciousness is an illusion, but by definition consciousness is the one
thing that isn’t reduced if it is an illusion.
There’s a way that
consciousness and time are bound together.
If you try to remove any potential hint of mysteriousness from
consciousness you end up mystifying time in an absurd way.
Consciousness is
situated in time, because you can’t experience a lack of time, and you can’t
experience the future. If consciousness
isn’t anything but a false thought in the computer that is your brain, or the
universe, then what exactly is it that is situated in time? The present moment, the only other thing that
could be situated in time, must in that case be a freestanding object, independent
of the way it is experienced.
The present moment
is a rough concept, from a scientific point of view, because of relativity and
the latency of thoughts moving in the brain.
We have no means of defining either a single global physical present moment
or a precise cognitive present moment.
Nonetheless, there must be some anchor, perhaps a very fuzzy one,
somewhere, somehow, for it to be possible to even speak of it.
Maybe you could
imagine the present moment as a metaphysical marker travelling through a
timeless version of reality, in which the past and the future are already
frozen in place, like a recording head moving across a hard disk...”. (from
“You are not a Gadget” by Jaron Lanier, p.42, 43).
He goes on to articulate his experience when he is in a fully realized
immersive virtual reality experiment. “The body and the rest of reality no longer
have a prescribed boundary. So what are
you at this point? You are floating in
there, as a centre of experience. You
notice you exist, because what else could be going on? I think of Virtual Reality as a
consciousness-noticing machine”. (from “You are not a Gadget” by Jaron
Lanier, p.187).
Wow!
We are on the verge of a new world and I am here for
the ride – not to make predictions.
“Rejoice” represents my
focus of experience where thoughts (which are shown as undefined shapes) float
in the rose coloured sea of my consciousness.
I observe them without judgement and let them go. Thoughts are a natural phenomenon. Eventually the mind stills. That does not mean I don’t think. Of course when I have to complete a task my
mind is focused on the task. That is
natural. It’s the conscious awareness
that is important.
Art Techniques used to achieve this:
The genre of
this painting is Spiritual (or perhaps even Esoteric). In Western art history, the Religious genre
in paintings took up a vast swath from early Christianity until the
philosophical period called the Enlightenment.
(not to be
confused with the word Enlightenment used in meditation.). Religious paintings were used by the early
Christian church as a form of educational propaganda when most of the masses
were illiterate. In India, Hindu
painting and sculpture are still richly appreciated and hold a central position
in the Indian ethos. Buddhist art is
celebrated as strongly today as in past times in parts of S.E. Asia and India. However religious, spiritual and esoteric art
in the Western world tends to be almost nonexistent today.
The style of
“Rejoice” is abstract expressionism. Its
composition is not complex but arbitrary.
The overall painting is balanced
with no major points of focus. This
gives a sense of timelessness. It’s form
is flat with a sense of space. The tone is low.
The palette is complimentary – red and green. The rosiness of the predominant colour echos
the uplifting meaning of its title. The
painting is not signed and can be hung any way.
The title is relevant to the subject.
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