That Note-to-Self Buried in the Pile and Forgotten
Take time to contemplate something until it gets in deep.
Continuing with the conversation on Stick-to-itiveness…
Today I want to discuss the technique of using contemplation to embed wisdom in the mind. The thing is, our current culture has lost its ability to hold attention for a long enough period of time to actually get something done in a thorough way, in a deep way. Everyone it trying to move too fast, accomplish too much, and take in information in excessive amounts without being able to digest any of it. Everything becomes a blur when the attention is darting here and there from one unrelated shiny thing to the next. This is dysfunctional and leads only to dysfunction. The mind has to function properly to be sustainable. Sustainability is the basis of stick-to-itiveness; the practice of purposeful persistence.
The arts require deep, penetrating vision and rigorous effort over long periods of time. This requires the development of strong concentration and the ability to contemplate deeply and to eventually quiet the mind enough to achieve a meditative state which opens the way to creativity.
This does not mean that the artist needs to be sitting around in a cross legged position all day. It just means to be able to work without distraction, be able to focus the mind, be unperturbed and sufficiently quiet to forget about yourself long enough for creativity to flow through you when you work. This is a skill and a discipline that must be developed and cultivated.
As artists we are actually developing these skills when we discipline our selves to learn how to draw or to paint or develop any other skill in any medium of the arts. But while being technically well practiced and skillful eventually makes one a mastercraftsman, it doesn’t not necessarily make one an artist. The development of creativity is what takes someone from craft to art.
Coming to the subject of contemplation which is to consider one particular thing for a long time in a serious and quiet way. One way to do this is the take a saying, a short succinct statement that has a very concentrated, penetrating insight and spend time with it.
We tend to just read things, take them in, and then move along to the next thing. This does not constitute contemplation. You will want to create a program for yourself to take a one-liner, something that is meaningful to you that you want to incorporate and become a part of your foundation that helps you to keep going along the chosen trail that you want to pursue and then spend a few hours or the whole day holding that saying in your mind and repeating it to yourself and then watch for circumstances during the day that the saying may apply to and help to deepen and round out your understanding of the statement.
In wisdom traditions these kind of sayings or maxims or proverbs are given from teachers to students for them to use to contemplate upon so that the student can learn how to look at a certain singular thing and then explore it until they discover its many angles and implications that are not always apparent at first glance. Often they are given as a kind of medicine to unlock certain blocks in the student’s ‘flow’ or heal shortcomings in the character.
In the Hindu tradition this might be the repetitive use of a mantra.
It the Zen tradition these might be koans that are designed to unlock the student’s deeper intuitions that are below or beyond intellectual speculation. Often these are paradoxical statements that are riddle-like and defy the intellect’s ability to solve them and can only be solved with intuitive insight.
In the Sufi tradition they say every Sufi story has seven levels of meaning and that the mureed or student has to contemplate and develop spiritually in order to penetrate and understand the deeper more subtle meanings. The Sufis also use wazifas - the constant repetition of certain words or phrases in a mantric like way.
In various traditions there is the contemplation of the breathe, just paying attention to when you are breathing in and when you are breathing out. Often done with a count so that you can tell when you have lost awareness or your awareness has been disrupted. Then you start over as soon as you notice.
These are ancient forms of learning how to stay focused, stay awake and stay aware. It is a discipline, a practice to help adherents to plumb the depths of their own being. If no one else, artists should definitely be practicing these kind of disciplines to help unlock and unblock their creative flow.
Beautiful, Cecil!!!
🙏