This is a guest post from Toufik Alami Ech-chantoufi.
‘If you do not breathe through writing, if you do not cry out in writing or sing in writing, then don’t write, because our culture has no use for it” – Anais Nin.
Life without Vision and Art is like a Body without Brain and Heart
Art is an essential element in one’s life, facilitating expression of life and its essence and enabling to find and lose oneself at the same time. Art was, is, and will continue to be a genuine way to liberate human beings; the living and the creative creatures on this earth, that are much more important than any established ideology, systems, rules or styles.
The essence of art is not just art itself but mostly the opening of all human capacities, abilities, thoughts, feelings, and will to live in harmony and peace with the world nature. It is an opportunity for the voiceless to be heard, and the inner self to be brought into harmony with it.
Art is a screen for the real, unique, creative, and innovative human beings to be shown. Art aims, ultimately, at projecting an inner vision into the world, stating an aesthetic creation and the deepest psychic and personal experience of a human being called “artist of life”. To put it simply, real art, as I see it, enables a human being’s experiences to be depicted as intelligible and lucid to help us navigate the complexity of every day’s life.
Contrary to widespread opinions, art is never an illusion, decoration, embellishment, crystallization, or a fancy performance just for the sake of being labeled as an “Artist”, to be shown on TV or to become famous and called a “Superstar”. Instead, Art is a work of freedom and enlightenment. It is simply a way for acquiring liberty and expressing oneself freely, genuinely, and honestly. Therefore, art is a way to liberate the soul, the mind, the heart and the body so as to be harmonized with oneself and ultimately live in harmony and peace with others, irrespective of differences.
So, it is well to respect artists, singers, actors, athlete, learn from them, observe them and study them, but neither to duplicate nor believe they “Superstars on Earth”, and thus worthy of being idolized,
Some people think that being or living like a certain famous celebrity is just the perfect way of life. Hence, they do their best to dublicate them in all aspects of their life. In other words, they would seek through one-way or another to be just a copy of their “Idol”. For they dream to become a reflection on how their “idol” looks like which is in a sense stopping being oneself and living through others imitation and copying.
Unfortunately, idolizers and duplicators chose to follow the road that is leading to a world of “mind illusion and imprisonment”, which is worse than physical imprisonment, since it is not merely an imprisonment of the body, but rather, it is the imprisonment of the mind, the soul, and the vision in life. Hellen Keller, the visionary woman who recognized the importance of vision in life regardless of the loss of sight, once said, “The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision”. For it is ultimately, the vision that constructs one’s mind —and entices the mind to be creative, because with a blinded mind, it would be even hard to understand oneself, what life is about, and the reason for living on this earth; that is according to Mark Twin; one of the two most important days in one’s life besides the day he or is was born.
Those people who idolize or duplicate never thought to stop for a pause of questioning to find out find out whether really there are any “Superstars” on earth? Is the word “Superstar” true or just an illusion? It is the artist, the art or only the wisdom pointed away through the art that counts much and worth idolizing and worshiping? And therefore come to a final question, which stems from the root of one’s being which is: How can I be myself an “artist of life” in this world instead of copying my idol?
After all, a real artist simply is the one who seeks to express himself, communicate his inner vision to the world, and most important is someone who exudes great wisdom, universal values, and morals that our world needs more to be a better place.
From a personal viewpoint, an artist — a warrior, an athlete, a writer, a singer and the like- serves nothing more than a pointer when performing his or her art, or just like Bruce Lee said to one of his students while teaching him fighting techniques, “like a finger pointing away to the moon”.
So, to be able to see and understand it fully and completely, one should not concentrate on the finger (the artist) or he or she would never be able to absorb and bring down to earth all the “Heavenly Glory” pointed away through art (the wisdom, the morals, and the inspiring universal values) that should be, indeed, the ultimate aim and essence of all kinds of arts.
Since anthropologist and science proved that we do all belong to the “Homo sapiens” and as Lao Tzu said very early in the 6th century BC “If you realize that all things change, there is nothing you will try to hold on to. If you are not afraid of dying, there is nothing you cannot achieve”. If so why bother waiting for others to motivate you to achieve and live the life you want while death – the greatest teacher and motivator of all times – always there omnipresent compromising with life to take you?
To me both art and artists are just names and not to be brought or tattooed on one’s body. So, if there are any “Superstars” they are in the sky and nowhere else. If there should be any Idol on this earth, it must be within you my friend; because you are too a special and a unique creature, much greater than even you may think! You too are created with a super power, genuine talent, and therefore can live big dreams if they are balanced with big actions.
It is not hard at all! It requires only open-mindedness and mind-freedom, self-awareness, and validating oneself, and stop comparing oneself to others or selling your life short no matter what. You should just let you inner light guide you in the darkness so as to free yourself and not blindly follow the crowd and the “sabotaging negators” and accept their approach, stereotypes, and propaganda.
What is the point on being kept insupportably several months in your mother womb if the only thing you want to accomplish in this life is idolizing or duplicating someone who is nothing more but a human being just like you? What is the worth of living if you are just living to actualize your dissipating and fake image, which is at the end of the day, not real and just a waste of time and vital energy instead of leaving behind your own legacy?
The future is promising and each one of us still has much great work, achievements, and discoveries ahead that need devotion, involvement and much energy. A life lived is far better than a thousand lives copied. Therefore, there is no point around challenging, reflecting and consuming yourself day-by-day to fulfil your potentials, ambitions, goals and visions.
And if it seems incomprehensive, the well-known Steve Jobs quote will make it as clear as a bright sun shining in the blue sky of a summer day, Because: “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. Most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary”.
Toufik Alami Ech-chantoufi.
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