The Artist’s Dilemma

 

The creator

Nature

And the universe

Are humorous in their ways.

 

So ingenious are the dilemmas they create

That man remains baffled until the end of time.

 

What is The Truth?

The more valuable a person’s creation

The less it provides him.

 

Imagine a man who fixes used shoes

Or creates a sketchy piece of art . . .

If he receives praise

He is ecstatic.

He feels validated for what he has done.

 

Have you ever asked yourself

Why precisely he feels validated?

 

The reason that he feels validated

Is because he knows that his creation was not of great value

And despite this fact,

He received something for it.

 

But if a man puts his life into a work of Art

With painstaking detail

Tears flowing from his eyes

Devotion flowing from his heart,

Praise . . .

Is an Insult.

 

Indeed it is so.

Praise . . .

Is an Insult.

 

This is where the dilemma begins.

 

When a man creates something truly otherworldly

He negotiates himself out of the marketplace.

For he has created something

That no man can possibly validate.

 

He may receive large sums of money,

And while the tangibility of money is greater than the hollowness of empty praise,

The money cannot possibly do justice to his creation.

 

They may have ceremonies in his name

Laud his creation

Applaud his talent

Plaster his image across the sky for the world to see . . .

What will this do?

What does he gain from this,

Other than a worthless dose of ego?

 

The more rarefied his creation

The less he can possibly receive.

 

Nature appears to have a penchant

For irony.

 

It is not at all surprising

That some of the rarest artists in the world

In the end, commit suicide.

 

For they stand so alone

That there is no one to speak to

And nothing to receive.

 

Oh the horrid emptiness of receiving letters of gratitude and praise.

Long letters explaining that their lives have been changed.

Of what value is this?

 

From a mild human-interest perspective

It is . . . nice.

If their life has been greatly affected by a particular work or art

That is . . . nice.

 

But this hardly makes the creation worthwhile.

It hardly justifies the alchemy.

 

If a man creates a once-in-a-generation masterpiece . . .

If he creates a body of work that is unparalleled in modern times . . .

There is Nothing he can possibly receive.

 

For no amount of praise, gifts, adulation, or fame

Can possibly compare to the quality of the creation.

 

In a sense,

He outwits himself.

He places himself in such a Category of One . . .

That any attempt at external satisfaction

Is finished before it has begun.

 

It is this that begins to turn his heart toward Purity.

For he realizes that this is his only salvation.

The satisfaction of the creation

Is the only satisfaction he can ever have.

 

The rarer his art

The truer the statement.

 

An art that is created for “the world”

Is a patchwork art.

 

An art that is created for “the people”

Is as empty as “the people.”

 

It is for this reason that Truth

Is avoided by all men.

For it demands a Journey so solitary

That man cannot withstand it.

 

In the end,

The artist realizes

That there is only Him.

 

That there has only ever been Him.

His hand creates

While he loses himself in the dance.

 

The world is no more.

The people are no more.

 

And he one day comes to discover

That HE . . . is no more.

Namaste.