Chapter 72
When artists loose their
sense of wonder and awe
their work becomes a technical
exercise, not art. [1]
Such works clutter the world.
When artists loose faith
in their intuitive impulses
they put great efforts into
developing a credible reputation.
Such pursuits hinder true
success.
Do not become a burden to
the world
and the world will not be
a burden on you.
The mastercraftsman knows the wonder
of himself.
He has no worry about reputation.
He expresses his intuitive
impulses;
in this is his credibility.
He draws his life from the
Creative Harmony within.
What ever he gains from the
world
is only a consequence of such
living.
footnotes
[1] Wonder has nothing to do with knowledge. It is a first response to the intuitive, the intuitive being the odyssey, or the record of the odyssey, of our making through untold billions of years of making...
Wonder is the same feeling that the astronauts must have felt when they saw the earth at a great distance... Somehow all of the things on it, even the great achievements like, let us say, Paris, a great achievement, or London, all disappeared and became circumstantial works. But the Toccata and the Fugue did not disappear, because it was the most unmeasurable and therefore the closest to that which cannot disappear. The more deeply something is engaged in the unmeasurable, the more deeply it has this lasting value. So you cannot deny the Toccata and the Fugue. You cannot deny the great works of art because they are born out of the unmeasurable.
I think what you felt was just Wonder, not knowledge or knowing. You felt that knowledge was not as important as your sense of Wonder, which was a greater feeling without reservation, without obligation, without accounting for yourself. Wonder is the closest intouchness with your intuitive.
From Wonder must come realization, because in your making you have gone through every law of nature. It is part of you. In the intuitive are recorded all of the great steps of the making in which momentous decisions were made. Your intuition is your most exacting sense, it is your most reliable sense. It is the most personal sense that a singularity has, and intuition, not knowledge, must be considered your greatest gift. Knowledge is valuable because knowing can come from it, and knowing can give you intouchness with your intuition. Knowledge can be imparted, but knowing can never be imparted because it is very singular, very impure. It has to do with you. The life of knowing is very real, but it is personal.
In everything that nature makes, nature records how it was made. In the roch is the record of how the rock was made. In man is the record of how man was made. When we are conscious of this, we have a sense of the laws of the universe. Some can reconstruct the laws of the universe from knowing just one blade of grass. Others have to learn many, many things before they can sense what is necessary to discover that Order which is the universe.
We must learn to honor the mind of one within whom lodges the spirit. It doesn't lodge in the brain, which is simply a mechanism. So the mind is different from the brain. The mind is the seat of the intuitive and the brain is an instrument which you get potluck from nature; that is why each one is a singularity. If it is a good instrument; it brings out the spirit within you.