22. Aesthetic and Religious Experience

Although I'm continuing to post my "found" small stones and an occasional photograph every day this month, I wanted to leave this post at the top of the blog for a few days to try to encourage more of you to leave a comment and to read the ones that have been left so far. I've spent a lifetime trying to develop my own "natural aptitude" for music and art and self-expression, but also for spirituality -- and trying to explore the connections between these areas, which I find self-evident but I realize many do not. However, I'd argue that everyone is born with the potential for creativity and spirituality -- some with more natural aptitude, to be sure -- but life (often in the form of teachers and institutions) destroys our joy, dulls our senses, and undermines our confidence. Unfortunately that often happens at such an early age that people can never find their way again. This happens, I would argue, with gifts of the spirit just as much as with gifts of creativity, and is even more problematic in societies where spirituality is confused with organized religion, difficult to speak about, and where "masters" are rare or unrecognized because they don't necessarily go around wearing robes or clerical collars...

 

 "His kind of faith is a gift. It’s like an ear for music or the talent to draw"
Crimes and Misdemeanors, Woody Allen

Profound aesthetic experiences, no less than the religious experiences of which James wrote, deserve to be thought of as gifts to the spirit. They may engender a sense of awe and mystery, and of the sublime; they may provoke a feeling of being privileged and so of gratitude. The experience may be at once elevating and humbling. These represent important points of contact with religious moments.

The points of contact are not limited to such reactions. Artistic and religious virtuosity both involve, even begin with, natural aptitude, as noted in the quotation from Crimes and Misdemeanors. Some are more given to these things than others. And in both domains, hard work, genuine focus -- at times single-minded -- is essential if one is to approach one’s potential. We are less apt to think this way about the religious domain than the artistic. But a religious giant, a Mozart of the spirit, is a rare find; she is (certainly typically) one who has labored strenuously in pursuit of excellence.  And just as one who is tone-deaf can appreciate the musically gifted as responding to something of substance, one who is less able than another in matters of the spirit can recognize the latter’s accomplishment. Needless to say, being tonedeaf is a rare condition in either domain. Ordinarily people occupy an intermediate position within a wide spectrum of which being tone-deaf is at one extreme.

from "The Significance of Religious Experience" by Howard Wettstein, Professor of Philosophy, University of California, Riverside.

What do you think?

 

 

Comments

[mettler]

This audio piece on tone deafness is even more interesting when such spiritual and aural parallels are considered.
http://listeningbookaudio.com/tonedeaf.htm Consider stunting of spiritual growth (and confidence), and teaching spiritual matters later in life, the importance of basic similarities of voice/spirit between teacher and student.

[Seon Joon]

I agree with Wettstein that both aptitude and cultivation matter in the spiritual and artistic life, and I am in complete agreement and empathy that "genuine focus" is a necessity if anything is to come of one's spiritual and creative life. That said, I would be interested to hear more about Wettstein's thoughts on religious organizations and their relationship to this cultivation. I'm interested because I have found that religious organizations often carry a double-edged sword, allowing those who fall more toward either the "tone-deaf" side of the spectrum (having a lower aptitude or natural skill?) or lacking time/space for cultivation to have a chance to access some of religion's deepest gifts. And yet, those drawn to a religious vocation, who have either aptitude or desire to cultivate (and usually both in varying degrees, depending on the individual), often find their own aptitude stymied and their cultivation hindered because of the demands of serving as "host" for the religious spaces. This is relationship between serving a community and cultivating one's own religious life is a difficult one in the Korean community, with people standing on both sides accusing the other of missing the point of religion.

[mettler]

I suspect that children are quite like religious institutions in the hindrance they impose, and the opportunity they offer, for spiritual cultivation. A religious "host" is faced with many spiritual needs and crises, along with the often burdensome administrative tasks, and, like a parent,may find great fulfillment within the boundaries of a particular "society" in shaping and being shaped by these needs. There is much room for a contemplative life in most any circumstance, not least one bound by the tenets of a particular religion.

[Martin Liebermann]

In my upbringing I was scorched by religious fundamentalism. But I feel privileged that this did not block my access to both spirituality and creativity.

I can't find much of a difference between both kinds of experience, at least at a certain depth. Perceiving beauty, or being creative myself (I'm a photographer) can put me in that state of awe and wonder, where I "know" a Oneness that I consider spiritual. These "peak experiences" are similar, if not equivalent to other situations that transcended my ordinary experience and shattered my perception - accompanying a dying person, witnessing the birth of a child, love, even dance ...

I agree that the ability to open up to both creative and spiritual experience is a natural gift, but also a matter of attention, encouragement, and (re)learning. Also, it's a matter of technique - many cultures and religions have developed methods to attain altered states - music, dance, ritual, drugs, meditation, prayer, fasting, isolation - that can produce profound spiritual experiences and fuel creativity.

But these experiences are just a part of the full spectrum of what it means to become human. To overly indulge in them can become a trap. What really needs to be cultivated is the sharing, the unfolding of these deep experiences. They need to be translated - into art, into compassion, into care for the Other. That Other, that for a moment I have experienced to be part of the One, just like me.

[john]

some thought provoking stuff in the last while.Am out of circulation for a few weeks climbing in patagonia.Hope to reply when i get back

[Howard Wettstein]

Response to Seon Joon: I'm very sympathetic with your concern about those with a religious vocation. Religious institutions are very human affairs; they facilitate the religious life and complicate it mightily. Orthodoxies are stifling, even dangerous, and yet they often offer spiritual riches otherwise extremely difficult to contact. As with personal relationships, one winds one's way through, working to stay on track. When it all works it's wonderful. Thanks to all for the comments.
Howard Wettstein

[Lilian Nattel]

I posted a comment here but I must have missed a step because it's disappeared into the ether. Writing for me, is prayer--I have to take it deeper until I touch the wellspring. I know when I've touched it and then craft comes in to bring it to life for readers, but without touching the wellspring, the source of love and light, all my craft can't bring my work to life. Religious institutions provide a channel for people in the middle, but the channel itself, because it's rigid, doesn't allow for the openness that I find integral to a deeper spiritual seeking.

[Beth]

Howard, thanks to you for the original article prompting this post! I hope you'll come back and discuss other topics like this when they come up.

Hi Lilian -- thank you for this personal response to the post. I think what you say is true for most art forms; it's certainly been true in my experience.

[Tiffany]

I think so too. Symborska is such a great poet (duh!) and this is among my very farvoites. It walks a line between personal and political themes. And it is optimistic but not naively so, I think. She seems to be looking pain and difficulty in the eye and asserting her "preferences" in a matter of fact manner. Glad you like it.

[Ngatini]

Tack trgnoa Plura, som liten tror man att man är i mitten av allt, och att allt försvinner då man blundar, eller lämnar och går och försvinner, så är världen uppbyggd. Långsamt lär man sig om alltings fortsättning och dunkandet i hjärtat är en slags evig liten manick som skapar liv i olika takt. Ha en hjärtinnerlig söndag, Anne-Marie