Peace, love, creativity: Hope of mankind; Creativity in the Orient, part two

They are as flowers. And this is a very interesting list. It will be interesting to study it from the standpoint of a Western psychologist. The way in which these are aligned with each other at college. I often write them on the board in a scattered way and ask the students to assign them together to match them. And they never come out right. We think of things in a different relationship. For example one of the permanent dates one of these flavors is love. Another is the humor of the comic. Now when I ask my serious students if they would associate those two they always say no lab they associate with such things as the wondrous or the heroic. Our perturbation of mind. But never with the comic and the humor in the Indian system these two go together.

The erotic and the humorous. Those are two of the permanent state and these are greatly favored in their play and love include love for nature animals love of parents the children children for parents. Servants for math and all that kind of thing. The next two are the heroic. And the wondrous. These represent an emotion of exaltation. And. These we ourselves have in our epics for example and in our. But they're never rendered in the sense of the tragic the next two are associated with the sentiment of agitation. And they are the odious and the Terrible. And the last two are. The wrath. And. The sorrow. These are the eight

flavors and there is a ninth called The peaceful. And here's the interesting thing. These other eight when presented should lead to an experience of the peaceful they should come to focus in this. This gives a kind of fairy land something like fairy tale world of people coming and going through their life and departing all in perfect ease in harmony with the Indian sacred texts the mark of a spirit which lives in Athol body and throws them off. A man would put on clothes and throw them off whereas we in the West dress the clothing the body the personality of the individual life. So much for the Indian sentiment.

It's interesting that as I say art involved an affirmation of life. Whereas the first art in India and the basic art of the Orient without the Buddhism. Now when we think of Buddhism we usually think of the first saying of the Buddha all life is powerful and then there is escape from sorrow or relief from sorrow relief and flowers Nirvana. And we think that perhaps this involves a life renunciation. Well it does in certain arts of India. It does in the art of the old monks. And there you have art which do not. Celebrate life but tell you how to get away from it. They celebrate the life as much of our own mediæval octave too. It becomes a didactic lesson. Not really not properly celebrating itself and life but

teaching Alas how to get out of it all. However the fundamental notion of Nirvana realization is a notion which every artist will recognize is this that one liners. Kill in one's self. Fear. For one's own life. And life and one must regard the object before one dispassionately with a friend. Think of what in the story of the evolution of life. They came forth for an alimentary canal looking for how they came into being in the service of an animal questing for food. And those guys came and they saw

looking at them also questing for food. So the main question was can I eat that or will Laddie me. And the basic sentiment of economics politics and sociology in general. These are the sentiments which when they are alive in you and the fear make it impossible for you to regard the world with watch Ellen Howard of the world. I'm fortunate in having a dollar bill in my pocket. And there is the world. Funny how I got mixed up with economics here. A lot of things come things go. Where the Wild.

Realisation is that the relationship of the mentary canal so that it is just an eye relief from the economics of an individual that nirvanic nation. And we find that certainly in India about the second century a very rich wonderful life affirming. How can that be the ultimate realisation is that these two beings looking at each other manifestations of the same life principle. And if you're looking at them now as a human being and you see two lizards fighting you don't much care which one when you can look at it dispassionately.

I suppose you are one of the little guy. Look at that this passionately too. Now when that cut takes place just suppose it was something you were looking at which you would before the cut. To have loved to eat. Then the object becomes not desirable but beautiful. Suppose on the other hand it was something that was about to eat you and you cut the string. Then the object become not terrible but sublime. The beautiful is the desirable scene with the. Play of vision and the sublime is the terrible scene that way. And so we find suddenly an Indian art these beautiful sublime form representing the wonderful collision of

life. This is the basic religious art of the Orient. Our religion has got it up with ethics and got it all mixed up with morality and got it all mixed up with one good line. As a result the Oriental point of view can be utterly horrendous. The art is not morally. It is metaphysically. The religion is not an ethical religion basically it is a metaphysical religion. And well. Now we turn from the Indian sphere Buddhism goes from India to China.

In contrast to the way in which Christianity goes into another. And Christianity always cutting down the guards who are already in Buddhism accept the God that are already there and simply and. The realisation the manifestations of this mystery so that when Buddhism went into China there was no problem in uniting with the Chinese world or religious life. The Chinese which I mentioned before that way were simply the manifestation of the void in the world and the great Chinese were simultaneously Buddhist and Taoist. Now the Tao. It in all things it shows itself in the conflict of force or the force of energy the force of inertia and the two

forces in balance. The whole work of the artist is to render a realisation of those forces showing themselves through the optics of the world. So that you behold objects as manifestations of the permanent presence of the tower. They come they go but the permanent presence from which they come which is unnamable is what you are experiencing who they are. This is from China then that went to Japan in the sixth century. Japan at that time like Europe at that time was a comparatively barbaric primitive world. It had never had the thought which inspired the Buddha. All life is powerful. This is not a thought that primitive and barbaric early people have lived with them is a grand thing. So they took

the positive side of Buddhism and applied it to the mysteries of life all around them and the native Japanese religion called The Way of the god. Join Buddhism in a wonderful jump. The basic thought is. The prophecies of nature cannot be evil. This is exactly the opposite to the doctrine of the Bible where Nature found nature has to be corrected. The nature of gods have to be wiped out. In the name of this one transcendent God who is not in nature but created nature and is apart from it. Here the prophecies of nature your nature the world nature cannot be evil and the aim is to put oneself in to act hard with this nature

which is exactly what we had in the Chinese. They are then much further. Here's the point. Put him in accord with nature. There's a wonderful thing in one of the Japanese attack. The helper cannot carved. In Wood in dome or in the human heart. Anything better than him. The first work of the artist is to deepen his own experience of the innocent and the movement of nature. Now in India. This was carried on through meditation through. Reading about the deity whom you were going to depict invoking the

deity by reciting his name you name him and the site that the deity was and then in your artwork you translate your vision down or words. In Japan the eyes are open. One is going to depict bamboo. One must find the rhythm of the bamboo know what that is. Live with it watch it feel it even eat it. In China. There are what are called the Canon. The six principles of bar work for Japan as well. The first of the six canon is rhythm and when you are observing bamboo to get the rhythm of the bamboo observing a bird to get the rhythm of the bird rendering

anything to get its rhythm and in the imaging of it to render that rhythm rhythm is the first instrument. The next principal of the Chinese canon which you detect in every Chinese or Japanese painting of worth is what is called tannic structure. The line might be a good continuous organic living line. It must itself be alive not the imitation of something alive it must carry the very rhythm the rhythm. The third. Principle is true to nature. Day with it. That doesn't mean you literally photograph it. You stay with it in terms of its nature and in your composition if you have a bird it must have be a bird

must be bamboo. The bird on the bamboo the nature of each is right there. Thought principle is that of color as a whole in the areas of color. Also included in that is light and dark and light which render the mysteries of energy and inertia. Then and this is a marvelous thing and I notice that in Japanese photography Now in contrast to much of our own there is a wonderful tact for this particular principle. The place of the object on the canvas or on the amount of the silk there is a kind of art that called one corner. Where you have a simple little object in a great place in just such a way that its influence will affect the

path. And finally there is the matter of style that the style that you use the sort of lines and so forth might be in accord with the rhythm of the object depicted. Now when you look at the works of China and Japan particularly Japan. You compare them with the classical works of the Greeks. One of the most conspicuous contrasts is this that whereas in the Greek works and ours in general from their symmetry is the balance you have balanced objects from a center in the Orient. There is art the metrical balance. Off between to be off balance. So with life the way life is off balance this is regarded as a basic principle that the harmony the rhythm should be active not perfect symmetry.

The next thing that one finds in Japan in particular it is is what it's called. Thought of poverty. Humility that art doesn't try to be grandiose or big it certainly does in India but not in Japan. Simple things. The art of living simply. You think loneliness. One is not. To follow the fashion of the time which is quite in contrast to some instruction I've lately heard given from students I'm acquainted with. You want to be an artist well go visit the gallery see what's being done there. Yes this is rather let that all go or turn inward and find yourself. And then yourself will be those rhythms which are the

rhythm of the universe so that by turning inward you're really equating yourself with the inward aspect of what is outward. These are the principles that underlie then the. Loneliness doesn't mean that you must avoid the world it means that in your conception of your work and your dealing with your work loneliness is the guiding principle. Humility. Are symmetrical flowing with life. And through all of this there comes the divine radiance which inhabits all things and I want inclusion. Let me sum that up in a little formula from India. The formula of the second syllable. This is a syllable that one pronounces that one is supposed to hear

in the rapture. This syllable which in our writing is written All M is in Sanskrit divided into you. Am 0 supposed to be made up of you. So we have a U. And they say this is called the four letter word RCC but the fourth is already I'm sure. The silence around it. Now when one pronounces one the sound from the back of the mouth and then comes forward in the mouth and then at the lip. And when it's properly pronounce one has all the sounds of. The countenance of a god is simply dropped so that Ohm has all the sounds of all the words all the words in the world

inflection. Now there are three syllables in this way. At the back of the mouth is said to be symbolic of waking consciousness our consciousness here most of us here when we are away the subject and the object are separate from each other or different from each other. What we see are heavy body that have to be lighted from without their not luminous. This is the world of science. This is the world of avarice and logic. A is not B and that is the word simply in naturalistic positivistic logic not the world of our laws and logic.

Next down to what is called the dream consciousness. Now when you're dreaming you are the dreamer but you also are the dream so that the one who creates the dream and the dream seem to be two people but they're actually one. You and your dream are the same although the dream may surprise you. So here subject an object they seem to be different from each other. The same. The dream world in the Orient is identical with the world of the god. Heaven Purgatory and Hell are. Simply the cosmic aspect. Dream in this round object an object you and have now you and Heaven may seem to be different but are

actually the same. All the gods all the heavens all the hell are within you and if you want to depict a deity or a hell or heaven it's right there right at hand. Turn inward looking far up or down there. This is the world that India deals with. Next at the lips. This is the realm of deep dreamless sleep. Here there is no object. There is no objective knowledge. There is only consciousness. Potential covered with darkness. Now the goal and the goal of art. Is to penetrate to that realm. And then you come to what is called The Silence.

There it is all around. It within it and out of which we come. And now you can depict this world or the dream world or black night. In such a way that the silence is heard. This is what poetry is. This is called the rendering of the word behind the word form. But beyond form which is no. Saying of the old Chinese philosopher meant the close at hand. People seek it far. And this is exactly the word that comes to gospel the gospel according to Thomas. Where it is said and I think this is one of the most beautiful words in our Western literature. The Kingdom Of The

Father is spread all over the earth and men do not see it. Now the goal of the god is simply to show it through and as the things are not in such a way that this thing will say Oh heavens no. So the thing was I am here. Look. There is a wonderful little poem. How marvelous. I wonder. How mysterious. I carry fuel. I draw water and how marvelous there is. Look at that all here and it could be rendered that Marvel when you realize what we all thought of as an explosion in a whirling

nebula some billions of years ago that this should be the result is it not marvelous. Then just the miracle of anything being is what is rendered to these wonderful work. Example just a little dome in a garden in a certain way. So if you look and say I never looked into the depths of the dome before. So with this center of marble we come to a final statement about what is called a target the one dot com. There's a funny little anecdote of a sage and countering another Buddhist sage on a bridge and page number two over a river. Number two said to him how deep is the river of Buddhism. Guess what the other Sage did push them into the river.

Interest or interest you heard Joseph Campbell a professor of literature at Sarah Lawrence College. As he spoke on the topic the philosophical concepts of creativity in the Orient. This was another program in the series. Peace love and creativity the hope of mankind. On our next program Lionel Abel professor of English at the State University of New York at Buffalo will discuss the tragedy of modern man. These programs

originate at the Cooper Union in New York City and are recorded by radio station WNYC. The programs are made available to the station by the national educational radio network.