Meditation resonating with Art
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With studies and work relating to Art, Meditation and Health for over a couple of decades now, leading to seminars and discussions, including BBC radio, I hope that you find the following of interest.
Words can be very limiting and indeed off putting. I used to find that the term meditation, through a mixture of my not understanding it, yet having acquired as we do, a form of pre-conception, difficult to relate to.
It seemed that it was something people had to achieve, work towards some people could do it and it had to be done in a special way, through studying with ever so special people or Gurus. There was something supposedly secretive, only those with special knowledge or insight, could do it or teach it.
This however, I have found not necessarily to be true. In fact I believe we all at some point meditate, usually without even realising it.
The moments lost for example whilst gazing at the ocean, watching yet not watching the seas motion, the rhythm, absorbed by the sounds, you can be lost in what is a form of meditation ‘a conscious relaxation’. You are removed from the hustle and bustle of your everyday life and instead are allowed a window in which to go within yourself, time for realising you, a gap for ‘living in the moment’.
There are many other ways this can be achieved, for example, an uplifting piece of music can help you transcend the world around you. As you float up, you are linking (if able to really submerse yourself in the beauty of the piece), to possibly the same source that helped the composer create it. All routes I feel, are beneficial to promote in your life a return to wellbeing, for calm to return, to step away from all that destroys your energy, and eventually your health and even you as a person.
From a person of thought and reflection, someone who though I didn’t realise it at the time meditated, I turned myself into a person of do. Non stop do, or obligations to others, my family, community, work, and made the fatal error of not giving myself time for me. My conscience took me over, no time to waste and definitely not on me, it can also be a route that accelerates, the more you do, the more you feel you have to. It is a normal course of events one that many fall foul of, though in the end, the ones that suffer are not necessarily just yourself but also those around you. Illness is your bodies’ only way of calling a stop. It is not only your physical body that suffers, your mental attitude can change as either tiredness affects your emotions, or simply an objective perspective can not be viewed, as you are engulfed, submerged in simply existing.
This is where I believe meditation, or possibly we could use the term ‘attuning’, whatever you wish to call it, if some terms are still off putting, becomes a necessary moment in the day for you.
‘Attuning’ as ones goal, when one wishes to allow an energy force to enter you, or pass through you as with healing, is a good point to start from. The state of opening yourself in this way, links you with the healing energy around, you are tuning into the force that can rejuvenate us, uplift us, and make us once again whole. There again are many different terms for this, to some it is the universal energy, to others they will use the term God, that when approached through pray will bequeath healing and miraculous outcomes to situations. To some the essence of pure love is the closest we can understand as the emotion required to tap into, link into, that which can heal and return us to perfection. The teachings of Jesus in fact promoted this to his followers.
The aspect of meditation is that it is ‘you’ and your link, you don’t have to have religious beliefs, yet equally you can be of any denomination there is, we all need that time, that moment when we are not necessarily in this world, one part here and one part in the area of growth, where your mind may be clear, clean. Quietening the mind results naturally through the effectiveness of the method used. This uplifting energy is beyond our own efforts.
During your meditation you might feel various emotions, you might even cry. You may even as I have done on many occasions fall asleep, awakening feeling rejuvenated, refreshed.
This time for oneself is not an indulgence, it is a form of self responsibility, self care, even a form of loving oneself which we all must learn to do, In doing so we can then have something within ourselves to be able to give out, offer others. If we feel as nothing, we are not able to look up and out, we have nothing to offer another when they are in need of love or support. We may even rather than love our neighbour resent them, feel threatened by them, thereby making you feel and behave worse.
By meditating, attuning, you are then doing not only yourself and your health a service, you are then also helping others, you are also simply by the act of meditating with its positive energy, promoting peace, joy, love and wellbeing.
As in a ‘world prayer’, the more people that meditate, the better for all and the world. By encouraging more people, friends, family and teaching your children to ‘meditate’, ‘attune,’ ‘leave the moment’, you are in fact being as a ripple in a pond, the affects of which could far surpass any expectations.
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Art and Meditation
Is there a painting that you feel draws you, a painting that you always wish to sit before and be drawn into, or a painting that seems to supply something for you, that when you leave it you feel uplifted, refreshed?
I have had those feelings. I remember when I would go and sit in front of a painting to re-capture some of those emotions just mentioned, at a time when I didn’t realise perhaps, the real reasons behind it.
Since my introduction into the world of meditation, I realise now, that this was exactly what I was doing when I was young. At any spare moment when visiting London, I would charge into the National Gallery and go straight to view Leonardo Di Vinci’s Cartoon of ‘ Virgin and child with St Anne and the infant St John the Baptist’.
Leonardo Di Vinci‘ Virgin and child with St Anne and the infant St John the Baptist’.
It was kept in a small darkened room in which you could sit, sometimes alone and admire the calm and love that to me emanates from this picture. I would leave the Gallery feeling re-charged; lighter more able to cope, as I walked back into the noisy bustling busy streets of Trafalgar square.
I later found that when it was moved due to the refurbishment, the room with two entrances was not quite so conducive. In 1987 it was damaged in an act political vandalism, when shot with a sawn-off shotgun, the glass protection shattered and the cartoon damaged, it was amazingly restored. It was then moved to the main Leonardo Di Vinci salle, where one is no longer able to enjoy an intimate moment. This could have been for it's safety, but I believe was due to improvements in the protective glass, regarding light deterioration. However, after seeing mentions from others of general dismay to the change, I noticed that it was returned to it's own area, showing that it was not just myself that appreciated a quiet moment with this amazing masterpiece.
Other works by Turner also enabled me to lose myself in them, such as his vibrant sea scenes and use of yellow and white.
J M W Turner The breaking wave 1832
J M W Turner Waves breaking on a lee shore 1835
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Another, and this is a very subjective as everyone will no doubt have a different choice, was that of Mark Rothko. I remember his work exhibited at the Tate modern and enjoying a large Rothko canvas, a pulsating red and orange, I was lost in it yet uplifted. Of his work it has been said, that he was able to absorb and engulf the spectator’. His work has also been referred to in the Taschen ‘Art of the 20th century’ as meditative. I obviously linked into this naturally, again without realising and with no understanding then of meditation. Rothko himself believed also in the metaphysical properties of colour.
Mark Rothko
There is also the aspect, 'the point of linking’, that is embraced by the artist when producing a painting. When help has been asked for, you may feel removed from yourself and the painting just seems to happen, maybe quite quickly. You can look at the painting, and as an artist know that it holds an element to which you were linked, that then can on occasion, be seen and felt by others.
Some paintings, just have a something that maybe you feel another painting has not, it is very subjective as we are all different we, therefore the communication of something, its level, may or may not speak to us.
As with different religions on the whole aiming for the same thing, but saying it in a different ways. Even different translations of the Bible for example, one translation may help you feel what was the meaning behind the words, when another translation could just leave you cold. It is these differences that produces such a rich world, as we associate with each other and learn by those differences from each other. As long as we indeed can appreciate differences, not find them a threat or something to build barriers or opposition against. That we can appreciate that we are all individuals who have journeyed this life from our different backgrounds and cultures and value that fact.
You may now remember yourself, an instant where a painting became more than a 2 dimensional piece. The feelings evoked, the emotions felt and the resulting effect upon you, I believe can be related to that aimed at when meditating. Through this state of conscious relaxation, one can promote harmony within ourselves, thereby also producing healing, a restoration of good within our bodies.
Various forms of Meditation
There are many various forms of meditation, one can direct ones attention to aid the alteration of your consciousness towards a vast manner of things. It can be for example sounds, music, symbols, colours, breathing, uplifting thoughts, spiritual realms, drums, chants and visualisations.
Many of us have heard of the term Mantra. Mantras are words of power, used as objects of meditation, to liberate one from thought. When uttered these sounds can through its vibration promote a specific effect, attuning to this vibration can it is felt, be beneficial in our lives. Time also, as with many forms of meditation, is felt to be of importance, for example meditating at dawn, thereby helping you step from sleep into a functioning positive day and dusk as a separation from a work day into a relaxing personal period, reducing stresses from the day and aiding sleep.
Breathing as a meditation is simply bringing your attention back to your breathing, not your full attention, this can help you return to a calm centre. By breathing more slowly and deeply, you can form a meditation that reduces your stress and lowers blood pressure. Meditation in all forms has been scientifically proven in fact, to lower blood pressure.
Walking can be used as a meditation, as can forms of art in movement such as Tai chi and Qi Gong, There are numerous different forms of meditation and as I have spoken of here there is also Art.
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Gail Helen Dante
Art as a means of Meditation
There are different ways of using a painting to meditate. One way is as in the form of additional help to visualise a meditation, possibly a start, a path to follow a point in the distance to reach and decide what it is and what is going to happen there. The paintings could be of Clouds in which you can lose yourself, or continue through and up, taking you up into the sky, or sphere above. They can depict rivers to follow, or meander on, to an unknown destination. They can then assist your imagination, start your journey, a point from which, or into which, you can voyage.
Another aspect is the feeling that comes from the painting to you, as mentioned before, if it uplifts you, continue up, feel yourself grow lighter, happier, charged with an energy you didn’t have before.
There is also the aspect of the colours, the moods they create, the energy they promote. They can help you to engulf yourself in them, to become immersed in a sea of colour, in which you can perhaps see images not made clear. You may see faces or places or maybe you simply experience a pulsating swirl of feeling.
It may be that the image depicted gives you an association, a memory or link to something that conjures to you warmth, a love, a feeling of well being, in which you can engulf yourself. You can then look within yourselves, or simply leave the moment with a feeling of separation, whatever you wish this time to be for you.
It is said that a higher vibration can be achieved, simply by the act of painting, of creating. It in itself can be an uplifting experience, you are ‘tuning in’ to the higher level. Certain paintings seen or pieces of music composed, can definitely make you feel that. For myself as an artist, it is for my continual improvement, my higher attunement, that has become my never ceasing quest.