This article was originally published in our private group on January 2, 2021.
Permission to use this image for this article has been granted by Danielle la Porte. All rights belong to Danielle la Porte.
I would like to say a few words about the Nia principle “Life as Art”, which, in times when the freedom to do whatever you like is reduced.
First, a word on “Art.” Art originated out of life. It is an expression of life. And then there is the utilitarian side of life, the functionality of action. What kind of life do you live? Is it one in which you have an opening into its expressive aspects? Or one that is occupied with the utilitarian aspects? I for myself know that I move between both - and that in many cases the utilitarian can take over. That is why I dance. To recover the beauty and individuality of myself in the moment. However, “Art” does not just have to be experienced in the form of dance, music, or painting. Life itself can be art.
Life as art is experienced in a variety of ways. It can be a moment when you make a mental snapshot of the congruities or incongruities before you, seeing the juxtapositions as art. It can be the inherent force of creation experienced. It can be times when you look back on your own life (or that of another) and see how individual sculpting and crafting has resulted in a life of specific, individual contours. In Asian calligraphy, the calligraphy was said to be a manifestation of how an individual had cultivated his spirit - for which reason, not only the practice of penmanship was important, but the improvement of character. Even if, in Buddhist thought, a pure inner being is presumed, the expression of this untouched core requires honing and discipline. Also along these lines, dance guru Gabrielle Roth said: “It takes much discipline to become free.”
Art is inherently governed by limitations, and artists through time have submitted to them. The chosen medium is, of course, in itself limiting. Some of the most interesting pieces of art, however, are created through the application of even stricter limitations - ones which you have deliberately chosen, or conditions that the world has provided. Then the mind is forced to transcend its habitual pathways, and worlds open up.
Sometimes limitations are imposed on us from the outside. There are people who are able to create masterpieces within these limitations, and there are others who die because thir minds cannot move beyond them. In his book Man’s Search for Meaning, Victor Frankl connected survival to a sense of meaning in life despite extreme personal deprivation. Key to being a creator under imposed conditions of limitation is sensing freedom of choice - the choice to think beyond borders, limitations, restrictions.
Lives are shaped and end as individual forms. Sometimes we see lives that have been intentionally sculpted by those that have lived them. These individuals have taken what they love and desire and worked on it through actions encoded by their personal morality and character. In these cases we can say, “your life is your art.”
It is the turning of the year, and yet we live on a continuum.
New Year it may be, but I am the same me. And this me I can nurture and respect and allow and nudge, loving it all the while better than ever before.
