Everyone has experiences. By communicating with the physical world brings in experiences to everyone. The starting point is in observations. When observations are prolonged, that is paying attention. When we consciously pay attention to experience, the first thing that arises is imitation. Color, shape, movement, sounds, specifics - picture, sculpture, dance, music, and drama. Most people don't consciously pay attention to their experiences. Because, to pay attention, we have to pause, stand, stay. Most people are just gliding through, moving around and drifting away in their lives. When a society as a whole becomes like that, they will even fail to make good imitations.
When trees, animals, or humans are turned into pictures or shapes, those imitations will be less accurate and therefore lifeless. The reason why good imitations are not seen in many societies is not because of a lack of experience, but because as a society they are less attuned to paying attention. When we pay more attention to experiences then we are meditating and relationships get revealed. When we meditate on relationships, meanings emerge from there. When relatedness and meanings arise, art is born there. Therefore, art is related to the realities of nature, society, and the transcendental. There is no art except in such relatedness.
More the layers of aesthetics, meaning and relationships, good art, poetry, literature, and drama emerge. Indian sages speak about the stages of attention such as meditation, contemplation, and 'nididhyasana'. In the end one becomes a religious person. From there, one can slowly take off to become spiritual.
How many more singers and actors had emerged when television became popular than those when had radio become popular! Forms of imitations have got multiplied by so many times in this era! When social media came into being, all arts and expressions of thought got multiplied by many more. Fifty years ago, many townships had no artists of their own, but today artists and artistes in everywhere. Hasn't art become popular? Doesn't that mean that a large percentage of people have started paying attention to experiences in their lives? Doesn't it show that they are finding connections in deep experiences through paying attention? Havn't they started recognizing levels of meaning in their relatedness? Don't you think that the next generation will become religious through their meditation and mindfulness? And the next generation, or the next to the next generation after that - the entire world will be spiritual!
"Blessed are the eyes that see what you see."
