Quite by chance (?) I stumbled across the YouTube of President Obama's message to the 2015 GRAMMY Awards. The video had already been watched by 2,145,931 people and I was curious to know why Obama had chosen this platform and what's the content of his message. As an Israeli international Heartist, a musician as well as painter, I knew little about the American institution of the Grammys.
Obama's message was essentially this:
"Tonight we celebrate artists whose music and message help shape our culture. And today we can change our culture for the better, by ending violence against women and girls... Artists have a unique power to change minds and attitudes, and get us thinking and talking about what matters to all of us. They have the power to set an example... All of us together can create a culture where violence is not tolerated... where all young people, men and women, can go as far as their talents and dreams will take them..."
I really resonated with the idea of artists [for me it's artists from all disciplines] having a unique power to create change. Who if not artists?
I then went to Wikipedia to read more on the Grammys. I learned that awards in several categories are presented at the ceremony to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without regard to album sales or chart position."
I liked that, as well.
So I then went to listen to some of the songs that had just won Grammys. I watched/listened to about 12 YouTube videos, without knowing any of the artists.
At this point my inspiration changed direction. A feeling of disappointment appeared on the screen of my Heart. A feeling I experience quite often when I am present to the contrast between the old paradigm of egoic expression at the service of banal values, and the new paradigm of Conscious Love and creativity that we see in more and more places outside the mainstream.
After a few breaths I am reminded that we need the contrast in order to gain our next level of consciousness.
Breath always reminds me of the fundamental pattern of our existence. We need to breathe in in order to breathe out; we need to breathe out in order to breathe in.
We need to experience inner exile in order to know inner redemption.
Paramore: Ain't It Fun [OFFICIAL VIDEO]
While many of these artists were technically good, and often full of emotions, they generally expressed feelings that were negative, sentimental, or maudlin, without any context of higher aspiration or spirit. Despite their flash and modernity, I was not emotionally elevated in any way. No spice of inspiration to a greater, higher Human possibilities were present. Indeed, to my ear, these Grammy winners sounded essentially like lonely hearts who have yet to integrate the anger, the rage and the negative emotions they have absorbed over however many years of a life lived without Love and higher values.
Do the Artists of the Grammy (as president Obama said) "have a unique power to change minds and attitudes, and get us thinking and talking about what matters to all of us?
- Yes.
By showing us what belongs to the passé, ancient world of mental decadent creativity.
We can evolve only by realizing that we live in the total opposite of what we long for.
We need to experience artistic hell in order to arrive to artistic Heaven. It's a law.
Today's artists seem to be straining to stimulate people's appetite for what I call "wow effects," which like sugar, enliven one for a brief moment, but give no enduring nourishment for the soul - in terms of either lyrics, melody or form.
As art schools do not teach the artist to feel art but to think art - it seems that artists don't really have anything fresh and elevating to express. Their Ego doesn't actually serve them well anymore, and they have not gained access to the authentic emotional Creative resources that can be found only in the Spiritual, feeling Heart that elevates the Human Heart.
The School of the Heartist - The role of artists in days of change
An authentic artist creates beauty that lifts us up to the highest within us. The Creativity of such an artist comes from his or her connection to the Divine Source, which is therefore able to make a truly constructive contribution to humanity.
Today, more than ever before, we need such finely tuned artistic "instruments" that project a more refined perception of reality. When such artists express their talents, the whole world will be inspired by them - inspired to listen to the voice of their own souls. And when that happens, people will increasingly demand a higher level of fulfillment from the arts.
Are there artists who are courageous enough to make this transition inside them selves, and express it on stage, on canvas, or paper.... ? We cannot change the external world but our Self. Purification of the Heart is essential to any artist from any discipline in order to inspire humanity in days of change.
Artists of this breed will create an enormous movement that involves the creation, growth, and integration of new types of media and information in entirely new layers of culture. This new kind of artists will inspire us in the only real revolution that can ever truly take place in this world- the awakening of the Heart to a Love of our dear, common One humanity.
