The Art Of Life

… be it drawing, music, writing, cooking, sport, meditation …

It’s all about finding the simple laws and investigating, rather than being an ‘expert’ spectator.
There is no special talent – we can all work it out.

Drawing is angle and proportion.
Music is time and pitch.

Time in music dictates when things happen and how long they last. It’s the equivalent of proportion in drawing. Both are about relationship and distance. In short, drawing maps out space while music maps out time. This is the same in all activities, as we are learning how to balance.

The important thing is to show people that ‘art’ is focusing directly on the process, rather than merely being the audience to be entertained. It’s the difference between knowing about something and being a practitioner. The Dharma is exactly the same, to move people from passive consumption to active participation.

When art is treated merely as entertainment, the audience only sees the finished, polished product. This creates a barrier, making people feel that art is an exclusive club for the naturally talented. Shifting the focus to the process, however, makes it available to everyone. This reveals it as a universal human practice of mindful observation, problem-solving and presence – exactly like the Dharma. And it’s good for the brain, and brings quietude to the mind. 🙂

This brings us to the reality of life itself where there is no need for no mysteries, magic, philosophies. Our reality is pure consciousness; we don’t have to be a special person, with a special name, and special robes.

Drawing is learning how to truly see: most people look at a chair and see a symbol of a chair. The drawing process forces us to stop naming parts and start measuring angles and proportions. It moves us past stereotypes and forces absolute presence.

Music is learning how to truly hear: it encourages us to stop treating sound as background noise and start appreciating pitch and time.

Focusing on the process is teaches people a form of active meditation. It’s about perception over production.

Deconstructing the ‘talent’ myth: Entertainment culture worships the myth of innate genius because it makes for a good story. A process-oriented realisation destroys this myth by showing that art is a repeatable, mechanical feedback loop.

When people realise that drawing is just a series of micro-adjustments of angles and proportions, intimidation vanishes. The focus shifts from “Is this masterpiece good enough to entertain others?” to “Did I measure the relationship between these two points accurately?”

Destroying the artefact: Spend an hour drawing or composing something, and then erase or delete it. This forces the brain to realise that the value was entirely in the active minutes spent creating, not in the result. The same goes for meditation.

Consider ‘art’ as a verb, not a noun. A verb is an action. A noun is a name.

When people understand art as a noun (a painting, a song, a book), they become passive consumers looking for entertainment. When we think of art as a verb (the act of looking, measuring, and arranging), they become active participants.

Entertainment is consuming someone else’s finished product to escape our own reality.
Art is using a process to engage deeply with our own reality.

No matter the tool, the creative process always boils down to just two things: tuning the ingredients and timing the relationship.

Drawing: tune the angle and time the proportion.
Music: tune the pitch and time the rhythm.
Writing: tune the word and time the pacing.

The physical object – the canvas or the audio track – is not the art. It is just the footprint left behind. The true artwork is the focused attention of the person who made it.

By keeping it this simple, we remove the fear of not being talented. Anyone can tune an angle or time a beat.

Demystifying means redefining talent. A master artist doesn’t have magical hands; they just have a faster feedback loop.

A non-practitioner draws an incorrect angle, gets frustrated, and quits.
A practitioner draws an incorrect angle, notices the proportion is off and adjusts it.
The process is exactly the same for both. The practitioner has simply demystified failure into a standard practice that needs adjusting.

By keeping grounded, art is transformed from a mysterious, intimidating entity into a highly accessible practical tool for living.

Meditation is exactly the same process. It’s pure process.
No one said we have to be perfect;
it’s the view that is perfect.
Any manifestation is down to unique experience.

NB I’ve related this to art and music, but the difference between knowing about something and being a practitioner is applicable to all areas of human activity.