22 Jan 2005

Trigger your passion

Posted by Just a little unwell in General | 10:23pm

I would've named this 'The Art of Living' if not for the more popular discipline going by that name about which I have no idea. Still, 'passion' captures the essence of what I want to say. 'Art' and 'passion' go together - you can't have the former if you don't have the latter.

Thanks to a book i've been reading of late, i'm inclined to look at everything through the prism of 'art' (and the view I get is colorful, I should say). How would it be if everything we do becomes a work of art? A 'piece de resistance' or a 'magnum opus'? It wouldnt be very bad, I guess. The most mundane activity of our life could become a very interesting preoccupation, if approached with an artistic mindset. And there's no telling what the outcome would be. I would expect it to be of a path-breaking nature, if not  more.

Life is filled with boring tasks. One set of boring tasks after another. In due course, even once pleasureable moments such as eating a tasty meal or having a romantic date become nothing more than 'tasks'. Can we become more dispassionate than this? The more conditioned we become, the more we resemble the Pavlovian dogs - giving out standard responses to given stimuli.

But the good news is that it doesnt have to be this way. The best thing about humans is that they are inconsistent, by nature. Though considered undesirable by some, it's this inconsistency that differentiates us from the output-as-a-function-of-input machines. Our outputs are a function of our thoughts, which could be as varied as the patterns in a kaleidoscope. While the discipline of science attempts to bring out predictable results and emphasizes on the repeatability of outcomes, 'art' has no such hang ups. The more variety the better. From the above, it is evident that we humans are artists by nature, whereas we're conditioned to lead our lives like scientists - standardization of processes, procedures, rule-books, 'dos n donts' and so on.

How do we put 'art' back into our lives? I dunno. Probably by taking a fresh look, not biased by our past experiences. Being sensitive to the situation and assessing it with the 'current' state of mind (coz in the past, your mind probably might've told you that the whole situation sucks) and being passionate. When you're passionate about something, you love and respect it. You want the best things to happen to it. You become a slave or a subordinate before the cause (it doesnt necessarily have to be a noble one. I once had a cause of fixing a faulty cistern). You pay attention to every little aspect, and fine-tune your responses to those minor details. You work at it patiently coz you've got all the time for it, and your creative side takes over. What you would've thought was a chore becomes a passion, and once you're done, you'll (hopefully) have a work of art before you.

With the above line of thought, I find it amusing that we like to call ourselves a Master of Engineering / Science / Medicine / Business Administration and so on, coz it seems to me that the real indication of competency is when someone considers him/herself to be a slave or subordinate of his/her mission, and gives his/her everything to it.

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