November 4_Empty Techniques

EmptyTechniques

You cannot reconcile creativeness with technical achievement. You may be perfect in playing the piano, and not be creative;you may play the piano mostbrilliantly, and not be a musician. You may be able to handle color, toput paint on canvas most cleverly, and not be a creative painter. You maycreate  a  face,  an  image  out  of  a  stone,  because  you  have  learned  the technique, and not be a master creator. Creationcomes first, not technique, and that is why we are miserable all our lives. We havetechnique—how to put up a house, how to build a bridge, how to assemble a motor, how toeducate  our  children  through  a  system—we  have  learned  all  these techniques, but our hearts and minds are empty. We are firstclass machines; we know how to operatemost beautifully, but we do not love a living thing. You may be agood engineer, youmay be a pianist, you may write in a good style in English or Marathi or whatever your language is,but creativeness is not found throughtechnique. If you have something to say, you create your own style; but when you have nothing to say, even if you have a beautifulstyle,  what  you  write  is  only  the  traditional  routine,  a  repetition  in  new words of the same old thing….

So, having lost the song, we pursue thesinger. We learn from the singerthe technique of song, but there is no song; and I say the song is essential, the joy of singing is essential.When the joy is there, the techniquecan bebuilt up from nothing; you will invent yourown technique, you won’t have to study elocution or style. When you have, you see, and the veryseeing of beauty is an art. 

 NOVEMBER 4