Those who have power over their hearts...

[zerostao]

no hero here..the thought of mastery over my heart and understanding the "science of emotions" are concepts i cannot grasp.almost finds my fear.(does strike fear) controlling emotions? or suppressing emotions? probably not best. but i dont want my emotions controlling me either.

this thread has gems sprinkled all thru it and i really liked the opening post. for me ART is so much more than some contrived gimmick/device employed to trigger an emotion or emotional response. that is child's play and so many do it.

art and entertainment are 2 different things, right or no? i hold art to a higher ideal & standard than craft. relativism is unavoidable for sure. what i call art does change my awareness profoundly. is it rare? yep, that is what makes it art. does the tao care about art? there is one book i read recently by Chang Chung-Yuan called

Creativity and Taoism. back to the original post and the question which sage advanced in spiritual journey has conquered his emotions..that is close , right?

my imagination shows a seasoned xingyiquan purist who has attained the essence of the art.

great thread, i need to stay away from emotion/heart threads or practice my sword forms to the point my sword is so sharp it can cut away the clingings of emotions.

my guess is i will be practicing as long as it takes you to crack mystery. time is art

[suninmyeyes]

"the way he moves... the way his silence speaks to me..."

Lets dance

[zerostao]

The reason I fell in love with knitting was because it was so meditative. The feel of the needles in my hand. The sound of the needles hitting each other softly. Then, I saw "works of art" by fiber artists. Art! Made with needles!

R_V i sense that you innately understand also when i said time is art ?

i think an artist can truly create in whatever they are doing as opposed to simply manufacturing. example i used to have a job title of "knitter" but where i was merely trying to produce for more pay. and this motivation had me putting great effort into that. still it was never close to a level of art that you are experiencing.

[Everything]

From my level of wisdom I can only say that someone who is able to take all attachments lightly, he will be able to control his heart. As long as one has attachments they will interfere with you during meditation.

 

When these thoughts pop up, if you can be indifferent to them and see them when they arrive instead of indulging with your mind while not even being aware of it when it happens - herein lies a big difference of level.

 

When I started out I could not even notice when the attachments popped up until after several minutes of intense mind-activity with the attachment. Today, usually when somehting pops up in my head I can notice it in a few seconds and push it out rather quickly. Now I am talking about meditation sessions of an hour or more. For five minutes is a different situation as five minutes does not require much endurance.

 

An even better level is when nothing pops up whatsoever, that should happen when one has reached a very high level.

 

Which attachments does a normal person have?

 

The seven emotions and six desires from Buddhism include most of the troubles...

 

http://www.mandarinbook.net/chinesewords/monosyllabic/buddhist_emotions.php

 

Six desires of Buddhism:

 

Fame

Gain

Sex

Food&Drink

Comfort

Mental pleasure

 

 

Just let go of everything and look inwards every day, gradually one will do better and better I believe.

 

This is an exhausting, arduous process but if one really has made up one´s mind it is not hard to do it, one just needs some time.

Yes, this is how we empty our minds, become healthy, mentally and perhaps even emotionally and physically in turns. It is extremely important that we meditate and relax our minds and bodies from time to time to reduce the effects of stress has on us in our daily life.

 

This was not what I was referring to. I mean how, after this mastery, can we provoke emotions within our selves. How can learn to understand and feel every emotion there is to feel? How can we feel it and base our arts on it?

I can certainly make dull lovesongs when I'm in a neutral mood, even more boring joyful songs when I'm sad.

Edited January 20, 2011 by Everything

[Everything]

An artist can draw from emotions,feelings,nature,inspiration..And portray those or tryto use it for magical or healing purposes or whatever other reason.It depends on personality of an artist and nature of the artwork.

If "you"need to sweat off some emotions and use art as a vecihle -it is great,but one can be more constructive or get inspiration directly from wisdom for example and translate that etc.It depends where inspiration comes from.Also to take in consideration subtle differences between emotion and feeling and inspiration.

Being in love is not emotion per se.Love IMO is a force that brings out emotions becouse it like mix betwwen spiritual glue and bleach.That didnt sound very poetic ,but eh.

Its force is so powerful and connecting that it brings everything that rejects that connection(emotions,ideas,beliefs..)to the surfice.Love is not something new that suddenly comes ,it could suddenly be remeberd more forcefully for example becouse of beuty of the way he moves and the way his silence speaks to me.We are not sharing emotion here ,we are loving and becoming it at the same time.edit:sorry my spelling is terrible sometimes

So the more we move towards the tao the more we must let go of art? I hope not... I was thinking more in terms like this: "One goes into the Tao, isolations, an inner journey and takes a new inner core essence as his treasure to head into life in the companionship with this treasure so that you may spread it all about.

 

I know that Tao has little to do with Art, but we can still use the wisdom to control our hearts so that we may make better art, like Love for example. Creating this kind of art will spread your love to all around you. How? We let go of our attachments of the one we love and who it is that is loving. We then seek to love everything, and understand that we are everything aswell. This is real love that is eternal and leaves you with a feeling of happiness that lasts far longer then the love for just one person.

 

Have you tried this idea with love for mastering your inner heart, or do you still feel love only for the opposite gender?

[Everything]

I think I understand what you're asking. Using art as an example, if someone in love produces love songs, someone melancholic produces solemn songs and someone who is jovial produces songs that are joyful, what songs would someone who has returned to the tao produce? What kind of writing or paintings or poems would them make? Is that what you're asking, but also with respect to wider inspiration as well, not just art. If it is, then I don't know, amusingly.

 

As for my understanding of art, I think what you're saying about it evoking emotions sums it up for me. Something that attracts me, that tugs on something inside is art to me. I could stare for hours at butterfly's wings, some kungfu forms, photographs of some people, or places, some paintings entrance me and I have a monolithic library of music that is full of bits of this and bits of that, because I only take the bits I like and leave the bits I don't. But then that makes what "art" is, highly relative to each person. Since everyone will be attracted by something different, it's as relative as beauty.

 

That's my two pennies anyway, I don't know what the Tao thinks of art. Probably doesn't.

Someone of the Tao would produce happy, joyful songs. Because emotional mastery leads to happiness, and happy people can make anry and fearful songs just as good as they can make happy songs, but they prefer to spread out their love for everything by making happy songs, ofcourse. Unless the piece requires that something other then a joyful mood has to be composed.

So yeah, that is kinda what I'm asking, but more in terms of "how do we control our hearts? Our own emotions. So that we can become more happy, and in general have acces to more emotions without attachments or being controlled by it. That is emotional mastery, and the inner journey is a way to go there.

[Everything]

Maybe a deeper kinesthetic satisfaction arises when creating, in physical form, one's deepest dreams?

Yeah, this is true for creating art. If I'm in love, I create love, even if I do not intend it. If I'm in love, I create a beautiful world all around me, even when things are pretty ugly out there. Your deepest dreams become reality when feeling love, and if the reality is not in accordance with your perception of it, you will naturally work towards changing it, without effort.

 

Most of the time, when in love, I get the love back from the person I'm in love with, because thats what I believe in. Most of the time, when I'm sad, I make other people cry to the use of music, because thats what I believe in that moment. When I'm angry, I get other people to be angry aswell. Emotions are very contagious, it may seem invicible but that doesn't mean its not there. Well... Here on forums we'll have to be content with emoticons.