Saturday, March 3, 2012

Where Is Your Trust?

8"x10" acrylic on canvas board
If I was asked to get rid of the Zen aesthetic and just keep one quality necessary to create art, I would say it’s trust. When you learn to trust yourself implicitly, you no longer need to prove something through your art. You simply allow it to come out, to be as it is. This is when creating art becomes effortless. It happens just as you grow your hair. It grows.”  -John Daido Loori from "The Zen of Creativity"


I have come across two pieces of writing on "trust" this morning and I don't believe in coincidence. I need to hear this.  I think our understanding is like some moveable puzzle and we always need certain pieces at certain times, to help us with our understanding of truth, the universe and our place in it. My puzzle needed the "trust" piece right now.  Lots of lovely pieces have been moving into place but there was a gaping whole where trust should be.


I think we need trust everywhere in our lives, even Loori"s reference is specifically to art. Trust, when we wear it well, can be like a shimmering veil that, flows over everything, making  us graceful, patient and wise.


studio bits (charcoal & newsprint on card)
Marcus over at Wake Up & Laugh wrote a lovely post about "entrusting" which was the second finger pointing toward "trust". He tells a story of a family's trip to Disneyland in which the little girl becomes so excited that she runs toward something and gets lost. On finding her the father says, "if you get lost again, remain calm and wait where you are. I will find you." Later she needs to call on these wise words and the father finds her calmly sitting in one place waiting for him.  This is his example of "entrusting".  The child trusted her father to find her.


We might use this story for a metaphor for how to conduct our own lives, keep calm and if you feel lost, wait where you are until you have an experience of being found. That experience may be an event or simply some internal sense of how to proceed, an inkling, a hunch, but it won't come from your thinking mind.


But for me the story was instructive about how to use trust in our lives.  We don't throw out our thinking mind and just trust blindly or wildly, that can get us in a lot of trouble. There are situations that do not deserve our trust.  Often we have little "niggles" about who or what not to trust and sometimes we ignore them. Our desire can easily get in the way of clear seeing. Then we learn by hindsight. But as long as we learn we train ourselves in how to use trust next time.


 more studio bits (6"x6" acrylic & charcoal on canvas paper)
It comes back to the Zen idea of "we do our part."  The child used the rational part of her mind, remembering to stay where she was.  As a bonus she stayed calm!  But that wasn't hugely necessary. She just needed to stay put to be found. Weeping would have been fine, she'd still have been found.  But she did save herself a little suffering by remaining calm. Perhaps her calmness mirrored the depth of her trust?  Or perhaps pointed toward her temperament? But she knew where to use "trust".  If she hadn't believed she'd be found by staying put she might have done other things.  And so it is for us.  The hard part often comes in knowing when and what action to take and when to "trust".  I think we do the best we can and learn from that. After all what is life if not our own little experiment in living a human life?


Trust. I need to remind myself of this valuable quality over and over. How do you use trust in your life?
                                                       






25 comments:

  1. Good writing/thinking/artwork Carole. And in this "place" from which one creates we are slow and sure of ourselves as humann beings, as buddhas to be. But, of course, there is an other world/connected world of critique, appreciation etc. AND unfortunately "everyone" believes that their "art" is as good as anything else = the disastrous democratisation of things....everyone is an artist/poet etc....
    everyone's 15 minutes of fame.....gotta get my book published....my CAREER as an ARTIST....my ...my....my....oh dear....drop the self..."IT IS SO EASY TO BE A POET, BUT SO HARD TO BE A MAN."

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    1. Nice to see you here, Bernard! Thanks for kind words. Yes there are the 2 parts as you so clearly say.

      I believe everyone is a poet/artist. It just takes a while to hone our craft! So many things involved, including our willingness to be honest with ourselves. And yet we do our part and the art that resonates and speaks to something deep within the audience is the art that endures.

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  2. I love your posts .. always filled with thoughtfulness and sensitivity .. as well as your art .. thoughtful and sensitive. I'm trying to find my way to bringing more simplicity and space to my art, which I see in your images. Maybe this is a little coincidental "nudge" for me. Ah trust .. have to ponder that a while.

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    1. Thanks, Jann. This is me feeling my way along. I always love the simple things but have ended up producing more complex pieces. I think it is part of feeling "not good enough", always needing to add more.

      And I have learned from you to amass the images I love on tumblr and use these to guide me toward my own simplicity.

      Looking forward to seeing your next steps!

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  3. Love Loori's quote and Marcus' story. They really speak to me of trust; trusting the movement of life; trusting that something bigger than this "little me" is here at the core. Once could call it Love.

    Definitely no coincidences. So part of the trusting for me is knowing that life will unfold as it needs to - not always the way I want it to :) Not always easy to accept... And seeing that life and "work"/creativity is really an ongoing dialogue with that Core Self. Seeing that everything is an expression of that Core Love and all part of the Flow of the Universe - and trusting that - however it flows. Easier said than done :)

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    1. Yeah, nice stuff from Loori and Marcus. Very helpful.

      I see the depth of your exploration unfolding these days. And as you say it can feel shaky.

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  4. oh carole, the top painting and the bottom face. yes... xoxo

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  5. Good to see your shining face here! Thanks and hugs to you my friend!

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  6. i love the Loori quote. the first image is so wonderful and your post leaves alot to think about as usual xo

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    1. Thanks, Jeane. You are one of my big inspirations on the abstract path! Hope you are having a wonderful holiday (somewhere warm?)!

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  7. Your new artwork inspires me so! It has a mystical quality, deep and quiet. Lovin' it!

    As for trust... I think it's something that develops over time and experience. In every painting, I go thru stages: initial excitement, then the nitty gritty of drawing and laying down color to create form and composition. Then there's the " OMG! I've lost it!" stage. Disappointment. A feeling that I can't meet my initial expectations. Over the years, I've learned to keep going, to trust that my original intuition about the image will carry me thru this period of uncertainty. I've found this chain of events to mirror sitting in zazen retreat. First days are sleepy, then agony and then day four is a pivot day. There is a letting go, an opening. The same sequence happens when I paint. Trusting the process leads to an opening of some kind and from that point on the painting flows pretty effortlessly.

    I think your comments about simplicity and complexity could be another interesting post! There is a whole universe of Art that presents itself with a diversity of styles beyond comprehension...

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  8. It came to me this morning as I sat that worry is the opposite of trust (something I am familiar with!)

    I love your description of the process and how it mirrors the mind on retreat. If we're paying attention we get to see it and accept it as part of the landscape. When I used to do technical writing I knew every project began with this "chaos" of huge amounts of information which somehow settled down and made themselves clear. It was a "don't panic" point for me to know this.

    Letting go and opening, yes!

    Hmm, simplicity and complexity, I think you are on to something!

    Much appreciation for your contributions to the conversation here, as always!

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  9. Hi Carole,
    Thank you for this beautiful piece. If there was any singular essence necessary for Life it would be Trust. What if there is a situation that seems 'up' so to speak...? Where a seemingly impossible decision has to be made...and there is no place for waiting any longer. Where you can't sit and wait for an answer...there needs to be steps taken. In the dark you walk. Half the steps feel in trust and the other half feels in a fear, not so much of things or situations, but an existential fear.
    Deep appreciation for your creations from the Connection in Trust.
    xoxo
    -Leslie

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  10. I guess that is really when we do our best in view of the circumstances and just trust, hand it over so to speak. That's the ultimate trust, isn't it? We feel our fear, do what seems appropriate and then trust... not always easy!

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  11. Wonderful seeing these experiments and bits from your studio work, Carole! Trust is something I've been working with too, and especially for the past year or so with my art. It has a lot to do with giving up the fear, of being fearless. Of going quiet in period to really listen to what's going on inside. And to let go of control, to leave more room for allowing, spontaneity, joy and other things to arise so that I can better express them than if I was caught in the snare of fear, for example. Being present each day and being in flow...trust seem to naturally manifest then. It's only always easy, but it's a start for each day. ;o)

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  12. You have summed up the whole of practice in a paragraph, Tracy. And it is my experience too that if I let go of fear, so many other wholesome things have space to blossom.

    You remind me of Chogyam Trungpa's words to be "fearless" to be a warrior in our world.

    Happy painting week to you, Tracy. I need to come and visit your blog. I've never figured out how to be a follower on typepad so that you come up on my reading list????

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  13. I really love these new portraits!

    Perfect post for me to read tonight.

    Trust for me comes sometimes with deliberation (maybe that's the painful one) and other times from that "internal sense" that you spoke of. I think right now, I am that girl trying to sit quietly and not panic. I am just waiting, not so much to be found, but to find myself. And maybe the "be found" and "find" are really the same thing.

    I hope to be blogging again and catching up with what you've been up to!

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    1. Nice to see you here! Take good care. I bet Spring is arriving in SoCal?

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  14. Hi, again, Carole! Chogyam Trungpa...he was a treasured teacher, and I love his warrior & fearless teachings! You know, since you're on Blogger and me on Typepad, I'm not sure how the following thing works... I have to look in to that. :o)

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  15. it's the waiting that's tough. if she had to wait a long time (and maybe she did), the girl might have cried. trust, faith, they are no easy challenges, especially after experiencing darkness. but regaining trust and faith in this fallen world is a major prize well documented throughout cultures and history. great write.

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    1. Hi Ed. This is so true. The time where is it is hardest to see faith is when it is dark. I find it is so easy at these times to fall prey to habitual confusion. For me, if I can just remember to practice faith and trust in small ways in daily life and build that muscle its light might shine when I feel lost. Not always easy to remember to do.

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  16. Sit still and wait until you're found...ahhhhhhhhhh.
    I love that story about the child in the fairyland of Disney learning to be "entrusted"...such a great word.
    Trust is a HUGEST lesson for me...experiencing violence and carrying the subsequent query of 'how did that happen to me?' required many many years to grow beyond...now I see trust as a form of renewal and when I sense the need to ventilate the space I lean into a deeper level of trust for all that the Art/Life brings.
    Grand post...per usual... and the drawings are rich, raw and trusting of the materials.

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  17. Hello Carole,
    I'm visiting from Donna Zagotta's blog's to watch for 2012. I like your take on trust. I will look forward to reading more!

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  18. Hi Ruth. Always nice to have a new visitor! Welcome! And how nice for Donna to include me in her list. Must put on my coat and drop in on you both!

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  19. The Loori quote and your post (and all your artwork!) -- very apropos for me, just picking up both meditation and daily art practice after almost a decade of the absence of both in my life. Many thanks.

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