The Hero's Beautiful Journey

Our MCO lockdown is coming to an end this week but social distancing practices will be the new norm. There will still be many businesses that will go under. But that is the nature of business and all things in this world. It is a painful lesson in impermanence--a fact we must learn to accept, no matter how hard it is.

The bonds of attachment to all worldly things are strong. It is this attachment that causes us pain, as the Buddha told us more than 2500 years ago. But impermanence cuts both ways--even pain never lasts. If we are willing to see things as constantly arising and passing away and accept that at every moment of our waking lives, then life can be a beautiful experience.

Art is one of the ways we humans celebrate the beauty of life. We capture all our moments of sadness and joy, of yearning and despair, of exultation and and ecstasy, of spirituality and sensuality and transforms them into works of art using sound, colours, movements and forms. Art is our way of sharing our personal take on these universal experiences and in the act of sharing, we partake in that beautiful life.

How can so much sadness and suffering be beautiful? Art is about contrast, balance, expectation and surprise. It is the interplay of extremes, light and dark, that gives rise to the infinite shades of grey in between. If life is static, there is no art. To live is to embark on the archetypal hero's journey. One's entire life is a journey, but if you observe closer, the arc of life is fractal: every day itself is a mini hero's journey, from the awakening of dawn to the denouement of night. Life is, in essence, an epic tale of many chapters.

So take life head on, as any hero would. Let every change be a catalyst and a catharsis. Let pain be that bending of the bow that propels the arrow forward; let the joy of victory be the stepping stone to even greater challenges. So let's take that journey bravely every day head-on. It is what heroes do. It is what makes life beautiful.