The Threefold Gaze
A Spiritual Lens for a Flourishing Life
Windows & Mirrors
Seeking Transcendence Through the Arts
"Art is the irrepressible expression of human spirituality. So it is now, and so it has always been... The creation of a work of art takes place within spatial boundaries, but through the process of creating, the soul of the artist seeks union with that ultimate reality, what might be called cosmic life. A living work of art is life itself, born from the dynamic fusion of the self (the microcosm) and the universe (the macrocosm). Art is to the spirit what bread is to the body... I believe it is the power to integrate, to reveal the wholeness of things... If we accept this marvelous statement of the interconnection of all living things, then art becomes the elemental modality through which humans discover their bond with humans, humanity with nature, and humanity with the universe... "
Daisaku Ikeda, A New Humanism, "Creative Life"
״Poetry is an amoeba: It has an eye for witnessing, a foot for leaving traces, and a flexible form.״
Dunya Mikhail
Art
Art is a Window through which we look out at the world, gaining insight into the Other.
Art is a Mirror into which we gaze, gaining insight into our Selves.
photos by Loki Zobel
Approaching Art as a Spiritual Practice
Seven Stages of Empathetic Engagement with Literature, Art, & Music
created by Dr. Tim Doherty, Rivier University
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Be open… look for experiences in literature, art, and music that are on the edge of what's familiar to you.
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At first I think… premeditate: before you dive into reading, looking, or listening, scan the object: describe, analyze, interpret and personally connect. Think about what you already know about ideas you notice in a text, artwork, or piece of music you have selected. What memories and prior knowledge will be triggered? For example, if you select a 17th century portrait of a girl by the Dutch artist Vermeer, what do you already know? What do you "bring" to the image? What do you assume and value about girls and girlhood? What ideas, associations, experiences, and prior knowledge can you bring to the surface? Write it out—however short and minimal it may be.
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Then I experience… Expand your endurance, the length of your attention. Sift through the details in what you read, see, or hear, measuring the elements you deeply “get” and those you don’t.
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Then I wonder… be curious and re-view/re-read/re-listen: go back to details, especially to the least familiar. Start wondering and questioning. To wonder is not just to be astonished and admire something; it’s to explore in order to clarify, to magnify it. Your goal: frame questions. What would you like to know? Strive for researchable questions.
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Then I learn… go "outside the frame"; research answers to your questions. Engage in “contextual curiosity.” Reflect and consolidate your new knowledge. Write out a summary of what your research helps you learn.
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Now I understand… here is the result of your “empathic curiosity”: perhaps now you see more or better, a width and depth of understanding. Go back (trust me) to the Step 2: contrast your prior knowledge with your new learning. Perhaps now you sense complexities, connections and differences, emotions, intricacies, even moral problems; perhaps you can take a new perspective, sensing more distinctly what the text, art, or music invites you to feel and understand. What is that?
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Now I ?… weigh the change: change can be internal—your sense of self is stretched, you feel different emotions or possess a new idea; your horizon is wider or different. And change can be external—you decide how the art you have encountered invites you to act and live differently.
Paintings for Practice - Empathetic Engagement
Attributions
Kahlo, F. (1944). The Broken Column [Oil on Canvas]. https://www.fridakahlo.org/the-broken-column.jsp
Kaphar, T. (2016). Enough About You [Oil on Canvas with Antique Frame]. https://www.kapharstudio.com/enough-about-you-2016/
Lady Pink. (1993). Homeless in the Park [Graffiti]. Private Collection . https://www.ladypinknyc.com/fine-art-page
"Can't Help Myself"
Sun Yuan and Pen Yu
Something unusual to sit with...
The robotic arm "moving sculpture" had quite an impact on the internet when it first appeared following its unveiling at the 58th International Art Exhibition in Venice.
Yuam, S., & Yu, P. (2016). Can’t Help Myself (Venice, Italy) [Stainless Steel and Rubber]. 58th International Art Exhibition. https://youtu.be/ZS4Bpr2BgnE?feature=shared
Lectio divina
The practice of sacred reading
Adapted from To Know as We are Known
by Parker Palmer
This ancient monastic practice can be applied to any text -- poem or prose, fiction or nonfiction. The key is smallness of scope and slowness of pace.
1. Select a short passage of text. It can be a scene, a passage, a paragraph, a stanza -- whatever makes sense to you.
2. Step inside the space created by the text. Enter it and walk around, noticing. What do you see? How do you understand what is going on in this passage? Sit in the text like a monastic cell, shutting out everything but the text. Notice not just the "meaning" but the aesthetics. How is language used? Is there imagery? Metaphor? Word play? Don't interpret or analyze. Just notice, without judgment.
3. Imagine the author seated at a table beside you, writing this text. Who is this person? What are they trying to say to you through this writing?
4. Imagine you can see your reflection... What do you think and feel as you read? What does the text help you notice about yourself?
5. Make a memory. Take a piece of the text and write it in a notebook. Now it is a keepsake, like a pressed flower, preserved between the pages.
Poems for Practice - Lectio divina
"send not to know for whom the bell tolls"
John Donne
No man is an island, Entire of itself. Each is a piece of the continent, A part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less. As well as if a promontory were. As well as if a manner of thine own Or of thine friend’s were. Each man’s death diminishes me, For I am involved in mankind. Therefore, send not to know For whom the bell tolls, It tolls for thee.
"Batter my heart, three person'd God"
John donne
Batter my heart, three-person'd God, for you As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend; That I may rise and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new. I, like an usurp'd town to another due, Labor to admit you, but oh, to no end; Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend, But is captiv'd, and proves weak or untrue. Yet dearly I love you, and would be lov'd fain, But am betroth'd unto your enemy; Divorce me, untie or break that knot again, Take me to you, imprison me, for I, Except you enthrall me, never shall be free, Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.
"The World is too much with us"
william wordsworth
The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;— Little we see in Nature that is ours; We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon! This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon; The winds that will be howling at all hours, And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers; For this, for everything, we are out of tune; It moves us not. Great God! I’d rather be A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn; So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn; Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea; Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.
"good bones"
Maggie smith
Life is short, though I keep this from my children. Life is short, and I’ve shortened mine in a thousand delicious, ill-advised ways, a thousand deliciously ill-advised ways I’ll keep from my children. The world is at least fifty percent terrible, and that’s a conservative estimate, though I keep this from my children. For every bird there is a stone thrown at a bird. For every loved child, a child broken, bagged, sunk in a lake. Life is short and the world is at least half terrible, and for every kind stranger, there is one who would break you, though I keep this from my children. I am trying to sell them the world. Any decent realtor, walking you through a real shithole, chirps on about good bones: This place could be beautiful, right? You could make this place beautiful.
Art as Pilgrimage
Inspired by "Art as Pilgrimage, Pilgrimage as Art" by Kathryn R. Barush and Hung Pham
Each summer, along the river in the area of Boston known as "the Emerald Necklace," one will encounter works of art literally hanging from the trees.
This "Gallery without Walls" offers the unique opportunity to walk outdoors, encountering nature under the open sky, while also pondering a curated art exhibition.
This opens up another possibility for how one can practice their spirituality, by both creating and encountering Art as Pilgrimage.
Art Making
Making art as part of a spiritual pilgrimage could involve creating an artifact that captures your own sense of identity through your choice of color, pattern, symbolism, and medium.
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If you were to create an "icon" that was meaningful to you, what form would it take?
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If you were to create "cave paintings" to represent your life journey thus far, what would you draw? What would you want to convey to the strangers who may find your art centuries from now?
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If you were to design a tattoo for yourself, what would it be? What would it mean?
Art becomes a living symbol... "both as souvenirs embodying the past and as expressions of life unfolding and becoming" (Barush & Pham, p. 65).
Art Gathering
"The artist (musician, storyteller, poet) is a 'sacrament maker,' a person who calls out of his materials insights and images into the meaning that lurks beneath them" (Andrew Greeley).
"Objects [Artifacts] are sites of encounter where the divine has found a home in the material world" (Barush & Pham, p. 67).
Relics are objects that are made sacred by the value that one ascribes to them. In this sense, souvenirs can be relics. They are objects that represent a memory, an experience, a moment in time and place.
For centuries, humans have engaged in a practice of gathering and preserving, perhaps even enshrining, objects and experiences through keeping a "commonplace book." In today's language, a scrapbook or a Pintrest board, combined with a journal. Writing, sketching, photographing, pressing flowers, pasting postcards -- all this can be an artistic record of pilgrimage.
Art as Vicarious Pilgrimage -- A gift offered to others
How often have you been transported by photography or film to a place you would never otherwise have had the opportunity to see? How often have you lost yourself in a world of vicarious relationships and experiences through a masterful work of literature?
Art is "pilgrimage by proxy."
Art is transcendent because it takes us beyond the ordinary into Something More. When we create art, we not only experience this transcendence ourselves, but we make it possible for others to do so as well. When undertaken in this way, art is not just icon; it's sacrament and service.