婚姻学堂
我们大部分人都不断地逃避自我。由于艺术提供了一种使人尊敬而又简易的逃避方法，所以它在许多人的生活中扮演了一个重要的角色。渴求忘我的欲望使得有些人走向艺术，另一些人沉溺于酒精中，还有一些人则遵循神秘而异想天开的宗教教条。
一旦我们意识中或无意识中利用某种事物以逃避我们自己，我们便会沉迷于其中。我们依赖一个人，一首诗或任何其他事物，借此以消除烦恼和忧虑。虽然这种依赖能暂时使人有充实之感，却在我们的生活中制造了更进一步的冲突与矛盾。
有冲突之处，创造的状态便无法存在。因此，正确的教育应该帮助个人面对他的问题，而非崇尚那些逃避的方法。它应该帮助个人去了解冲突，铲除冲突，因为惟有如此，创造的状态才能出现。
脱离了生活的艺术，并没有多大的意义。当艺术与我们每日的生活分离，当我们的本能生活(instinctual life)和我们在画布上、大理石上或文字上的努力之间有了鸿沟，艺术就成了我们想要逃避现实的那种肤浅欲望的表现。要跨过这条鸿沟是有困难的，尤其是那些有天分的而且艺术老练的人。然而，惟有跨过这条鸿沟，我们的生活才会完整，艺术才能完整地表现我们。
心灵有制造迷惘的能力。如果我们不了解心灵的存在方式，则所谓寻求灵感只是自欺欺人而已。灵感的来临，是当我们对它开放胸怀之时，而非当我们向它媚求之时。借着任何的刺激而尝试去获取灵感，足以导致形形色色的迷惘。
除非一个人觉悟出生活的意义，否则他的能力或天赋便会用来强调自我及其欲望，如此便促使一个人孤立，以自我为中心。他感到自己是个超越的存在体，一个优越的人，这一切都滋生了种种弊害，引起无尽的争斗和痛苦。自我是由许多实体(entities)集合而成，每一个实体都和其他实体相抗衡。自我是种种相互冲突的欲望战场，“属于我的”和“不属于我的”之间的不断挣扎之处。一旦我们强调了自我，强调了“我”和“属于我的”，则在我们内心和世界上将会有日益增加的冲突。
一个真正的艺术家是超越了自我的虚荣以及自我的野心。具有优越的表现能力，然而却陷于名利之中，就造成一个充满矛盾和争执的生活。赞颂和阿谀一旦受到重视，便会鼓舞自我，毁灭了感受性，而对任何成功加以崇拜，显然都危害了智慧。
促成孤立的任何脾性或才能，任何形式的自我(self identification)认同，不论它如何使人刺激兴奋，都扭曲了敏感性的表现而带来了不敏感。当天赋成为私人的东西，当重点放在“我”和“属于我的”之上——“我”作画，“我”写作，“我”发明——则敏感性便麻木迟钝了。惟有当我们在与他人、与事物、与大自然的关系中，觉察到我们自己的思维与情感的每一个活动时，心灵才是开放的，柔韧的，不受自我保护的需求和追逐所束缚。惟有此时，才能不被自我所阻碍，对丑的事物与美的事物才能有敏锐的感觉。
对于美和丑的感觉并非来自迷恋之情，而是来自爱，是当自我所制造出来的冲突不存在时。当我们内心贫乏，我们便沉溺于各种外表形式的卖弄，沉弱于金钱、权力和财物之中。当内心空虚时，我们便聚敛物质。如果我们有钱，我们便购置了自认为美的东西，充塞于我们的四周。由于我们对这些东西过于重视，因此发生于世界上的许多不幸与毁灭，我们都难辞其咎。
贪取之心并非是对美的喜爱，它是起于渴求安全的欲望，而置身于安全之处即无法敏感，渴求安全的欲望制造了恐惧。贪取之心出发了一种孤立的过程，在我们四周筑起抵挡的围墙，而这些围墙阻碍了对一切事物的敏感。一件东西不论如何美丽，它不久便失去对我们的吸引力——我们见惯了它，于是一件原来充满喜悦的事物变得空洞沉闷了。美仍在那儿，并未消失，然而我们不再对它开放胸怀了，它被我们每日单调的生活所吞灭了。
由于我们内心枯萎，忘了何谓仁慈体谅，忘了如何观看星辰、树木、水中倒影，因此我们需要借着图画、珠宝、书本以及无穷尽的娱乐以获得刺激。我们不断地寻求新的刺激，新的战粟情绪，我们渴求日益繁多的感官刺激。这项渴求与它所获得的满足，造成心智和情感的厌倦与无聊。只要我们寻求是感官刺激，被我们称之为美或丑的事物便只有极肤浅的意义。惟有当我们能够重新面对一切事物，才会有恒久的喜悦——然而一旦我们被自己的欲望所束缚时，那便不可能了。渴求感官刺激与满足，阻碍了对恒久常新事物的体验。感官刺激能以买卖购得，但是，对于美的爱却是不可能的。
当我们觉察到内心的空虚，却不逃避它而躲入任何的感官刺激时;当我们完全开放胸怀，高度地敏感时，才有创造。惟有此时，我们才会遇见创造性的喜悦。培养外在的事物而不了解内在的事物，必然会产生一些使人走向毁灭和悲哀的价值。
学习一项技术可以使我们获得一项工作，却不能使我们有创造力。然而，如果有喜悦，有创造的火焰，它则会发现出一种表现的方式。一个人不需要去学习表现的方法。当一个人真正想要写一首诗，他便把它写下来，如果他有技巧，那更好;然而，如果一个人没有话说，则又何必强调那仅用来表达的工具呢?当我们心中有了爱，我们就不必寻求如何组合字句。
大艺术家和大文豪，他们可能是有创造力的人，然而我们却不是，我们只是观众而已。我们阅读无数的书籍，倾听优美的音乐，观赏艺术作品，然后我们从不曾直接体验那崇高的事物;我们的经验永远需要借助于一首诗、一幅画、一位圣人的品格。要唱歌，则在我们心中必须要有歌可唱;然而，由于遗失了歌，我们便追求着歌者。没有作为媒介的人，我们便感到无所适从。可是，我们“必须”无所适从，而后才能有所发现。发现是创造力的开始;如果没有创造力，无论我们做什么，都不会有安宁和快乐。
我们以为，如果学得一种方法、一种技术、一种格调，我们将能富有创造力而快乐地生活。然而，惟有当内心充实，才会有创造性的快乐，这是无法借着任何方法获得的。自我的改进——这是寻求“我”以及“属于我的”安全的另一种方式——并非是创造性的，它也不是对于美的爱。惟有对于心灵的存在方式，以及它为自身所设的种种障碍加以时时地警觉，创造力才能出现。
虽然自由创造与自我认识并肩而行，可是，自我认识并非是一种天赋。一个人可能有创造力而没有任何特殊的才能。创造力是一种存在的状态，在此状态中，自我的冲突及其悲哀不复存在，而心灵不陷于对欲望的渴求和追逐之中。
有创造力，并非只是写写诗、雕塑像或生孩子，而是处于一种真理得以存在的状态中。当思维完全静止，真理便出现了。惟有当自我不复存在，当心终止了它的活动，也就是说，当心不再受它的自身追逐所束缚，此时思维才会静止。当心完全静止，而非被迫或被训练而沉寂，当心因自我停止活动而寂静，则创造便出现了。
对美的爱可以表现在一首歌、一个微笑中，或表现在沉默之中;然而我们大多数人不爱沉默。我们没有时间去观看飞鸟或行云，因为我们忙于种种追逐与欢乐。当美不存在于我们的心中，我们如何能帮助孩子警觉、敏感?我们尽力对美的事物敏感，却同时回避丑的事物，然而对丑的事物的回避却不敏感。如果我们想在年轻人的心中培育敏感力，我们自己就必须对美与丑的事物要敏感，而且利用每个机会促使他们观赏人所创造出来的美，以及大自然中的美，由此唤醒他们心中的喜悦之情。
EDUCATION AND THE SIGNIFICANCE OF LIFE CHAPTER 8 ‘ART, BEAUTY AND CREATION’
MOST of us are constantly trying to escape from ourselves; and as art offers a respectable and easy means of doing so, it plays a significant part in the lives of many people. In the desire for self-forgetfulness, some turn to art, others take to drink, while still others follow mysterious and fanciful religious doctrines.
When, consciously or unconsciously, we use something to escape from ourselves, we become addicted to it. To depend on a person, a poem, or what you will, as a means of release from our worries and anxieties, though momentarily enriching, only creates further conflict and contradiction in our lives.
The state of creativeness cannot exist where there is conflict, and the right kind of education should therefore help the individual to face his problems and not glorify the ways of escape; it should help him to understand and eliminate conflict, for only then can this state of creativeness come into being. Art divorced from life has no great significance. When art is separate from our daily living, when there is a gap between our instinctual life and our efforts on canvas, in marble or in words, then art becomes merely an expression of our superficial desire to escape from the reality of what is. To bridge this gap is very arduous, especially for those who are gifted and technically proficient; but it is only when the gap is bridged that our life becomes integrated and art an integra expression of ourselves.
Mind has the power to create illusion; and without understanding its ways, to seek inspiration is to invite self-deception. Inspiration comes when we are open to it, not when we are courting it. To attempt to gain inspiration through any form of stimulation leads to all kinds of delusions.
Unless one is aware of the significance of existence, capacity or gift gives emphasis and importance to the self and its cravings. it tends to make the individual self-centred and separative; he feels himself to be an entity apart, a superior being, all of which breeds many evils and causes ceaseless strife and pain. The self is a bundle of many entities, each opposed to the others. It is a battlefield of conflicting desires, a centre of constant struggle between the"mine" and the"not-mine; and as long as we give importance to the self, to the "me" and the"mine," there will be increasing conflict within ourselves and in the world.
A true artist is beyond the vanity of the self and its ambitions. To have the power of brilliant expression, and yet be caught in worldly ways, makes for a life of contradiction and strife. Praise and adulation, when taken to heart, inflate the ego and destroy receptivity, and the worship of success in any field is obviously detrimental to intelligence.
Any tendency or talent which makes for isolation, any form of self-identification, however stimulating, distorts the expression of sensitivity and brings about insensitivity. Sensitivity is dulled when gift becomes personal, when importance is given to the "me" and the "mine" – I paint, I write, I invent. It is only when we are aware of every movement of our own thought and feeling in our relationship with people, with things and with nature, that the mind is open, pliable, not tethered to self-protective demands and pursuits; and only then is there sensitivity to the ugly and the beautiful, unhindered by the self.
Sensitivity to beauty and to ugliness does not come about through attachment; it comes with love, when there are no self-created conflicts. When we are inwardly poor, we indulge in every form of outward show, in wealth, power and possessions. When our hearts are empty, we collect things. If we can afford it, we surround ourselves with objects that we consider beautiful, and because we attach enormous importance to them, we are responsible for much misery and destruction.
The acquisitive spirit is not the love of beauty; it arises from the desire for security, and to be secure is to be insensitive. The desire to be secure creates fear; it sets going a process of isolation which builds walls of resistance around us, and these walls prevent all sensitivity. However beautiful an object may be, it soon loses its appeal for us; we dull. Beauty is still there, but we are no longer open to it, and it has been absorbed into our monotonous daily existence.
Since our hearts are withered and we have forgotten how to be kindly, how to look at the stars, at the trees, at the reflections on the water, we require the stimulation of pictures and jewels, of books and endless amusements. We are constantly seeking new excitements, new thrills, we crave an everincreasing variety of sensations. Art is this craving and its satisfaction that make the mind and heart weary and dull. As long as we are seeking sensation, the things that we call beautiful and ugly have but a very superficial significance. There is lasting joy only when we are capable of approaching all things afresh – which is not possible as long as we are bound up in our desires. The craving for sensation and gratification prevents the experiencing of that which is always new. Sensations can be bought, but not the love of beauty.
When we are aware of the emptiness of our own minds and hearts without running away from it into any kind of stimulation or sensation, when we are completely open, highly sensitive, only then can there be creation, only then shall we find creative joy. To cultivate the outer without understanding the inner must inevitably build up those values which lead men to destruction and sorrow.
Learning a technique may provide us with a job, but it will not make us creative; whereas, if there is joy, if there is the creative fire, it will find a way to express itself, one need not study a method of expression. When one really wants to write a poem, one writes it, and if one has the technique, so much the better; but why stress what is but a means of communication if one has nothing to say? When there is love in our hearts, we do not search for a way of putting words together.
Great artists and great writers may be creators, but we are not, we are mere spectators. We read vast numbers of books, listen to magnificent music, look at works of art, but we never directly experience the sublime; our experience is always through a poem, through a picture, through the personality of a saint. To sing we must have a song in our hearts; but having lost the song, we pursue the singer. Without an intermediary we feel lost; but we must be lost before we can discover anything. Discovery is the beginning of creativeness; and without creativeness, do what we may, there can be no peace or happiness for man.
We think that we shall be able to live happily, creatively, if we learn a method, a technique, a style; but creative happiness comes only when there is inward richness, it can never be attained through any system. Self-improvement, which is another way of assuring the security of the "me" and the"mine," is not creative, nor is it love of beauty. Creativeness comes into being when there is constant awareness of the ways of the mind, and of the hindrances it has built for itself.
The freedom to create comes with self-knowledge; but self-knowledge is not a gift. One can be creative without having any particular talent. Creativeness is a state of being in which the conflicts and sorrows of the self are absent, a state in which the mind is not caught up in the demands and pursuits of desire.
To be creative is not merely to produce poems, or statues, or children; it is to be in that state in which truth can come into being. Truth comes into being when there is a complete cessation of thought; and thought ceases only when the self is absent, when the mind has ceased to create, that is, when it is no longer caught in its own pursuits. When the mind is utterly still without being forced or trained into quiescence, when it is silent because the self is inactive, then there is creation.
The love of beauty may express itself in a song, in a smile, or in silence; but most of us have no inclination to be silent. We have not the time to observe the birds, the passing clouds, because we are too busy with our pursuits and pleasures. When there is no beauty in our hearts, how can we help the children to be alert and sensitive? We try to be sensitive to beauty while avoiding the ugly; but avoidance of the ugly makes for insensitivity. If we would develop sensitivity in the young, we ourselves must be sensitive to beauty and to ugliness, and must take every opportunity to awaken in them the joy there is in seeing, not only the beauty that man has created, but also the beauty of nature.
