Transformation
Creative Mastery
By Dr. Niall Nicholson
Jan 26, 2008

‘Creation begins with a vision. Seeing is already a creative operation that requires an effort. All that we see, in our daily lives, is more or less deformed by our acquired habits . . . The artist must see everything as if for the first time; he must look at all of life like a child.”
~Henri Matisse~


‘So that’s the basic point, the idea of how to appreciate your life in a very deliberate, mindfulness sense, so that your sense perceptions begin to click into the sacredness of it---which is not necessarily a religious one, but sacred, good.’
~Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche~



These two illuminated masters were talking about art. Matisse, in particular, was talking about the artists’ view of the world of form. Trungpa Rinpoche was talking about life as art, and how every facet of life had a sacred meaning, an artful meaning.

So what exactly were they both talking about? What is the deformation referred to by Matisse and the sense perceptions by Trungpa Rinpoche? That is what we will attempt to discover together.

In the ‘Four Agreements’ by the Nagual Don Miguel Ruiz, he refers to our ‘domestication’ into the collective ‘dream’ of our society and civilization.

And he goes on to hypothesize, that we see things the way we do because of this domestication. Which is in its basic form, way of training the mind unconsciously, to conform to the rules and mores of the society and class of people doing the domestication of the newborn child, namely YOU.

Matisse posits, that this is a deformation of the way things really are, from the standpoint of the view of the artist. And Trungpa Rinpoche asserts that we are all artists living our lives with a sacred outlook, with every interaction with our lives being a manifestation of ‘performance art’!

This deformation, as asserted by Matisse, requires real work on the part of the artist to correctly ‘see’ things as they really are. Which is analogous to the Mahayana Buddhist philosophy that all things are empty of inherent nature, and are merely a reflection of the projections of our beliefs onto the world of form.

This then leads to the question that if the world is not as it seems, due to a deformations created by our learned beliefs, then what is its true nature?

What exactly is the world that the ‘Illuminated Master’ sees?

And how does he or she go about ‘illuminating’ this world of form such that they see the true nature of things?

This will be the working thesis for this book, and if you are willing to give up your belief that things are as they appear, if even for only a few moments, I will offer you a glimpse of how the masters of the world perceive the ultimate nature of things.

Once I perceived the ultimate nature of things, however slim that view was, it allowed me to grasp the inherent order in a chaotic universe, and to flow with a sense of ease and grace that was lacking prior to this awareness.

Utilizing traditional Buddhist philosophical constructs, this process will be 3-fold in nature, as first we develop the ground or base for our process. This is like the building blocks of a house. These foundations stones are what allow us to construct the higher levels of this ‘House of Consciousness’.

After we have laid the cornerstones of this foundation, and are comfortable with our practice at this level, we can proceed onto the next level, which is where the real work gets done.

On this level, we will discover the path, or the view of what this process will look like. This is where we will uncover our ‘deformed habits’ and allow a new set of beliefs to transform our previously unworkable conceptual thinking. This level is also a bit tricky, as the egoistic tendency is to either rush through the foundational level to get to the view, or to rush through the view to get to the fruit.

Both of which will actually cause serious delays in the creation of true mastery. For much like the construction of a house, if the bottom two levels aren’t constructed meticulously and solidly, the first real test of the structure will be devastating. Taking your time on these first two steps is paramount in creating the sense of real ‘mastery’.

And finally we will realize the fruit of our labors, or an idea of what true mastery really is and how we can create it in our everyday lives. This level, in contrast to the first two just mentioned, is very subtle and rests solely on working the first two levels of practice.

And even so, there are no guarantees from one day to the next, how these stages of realization will unfold. As I for one, struggle to do everyday, just like all of you. There will be times when even though you were working the level of mastery, or the fruition practice, the foundational steps will be where the focus will be best spent.

There is no right way to discover your inner master, and everyone is unique in their process, so trust your inner guides and allow yourself to unfold like a lotus, pristine in the sea of mire that surrounds you. And relax, realize that we are all in this together, and it is always one day at a time. No matter what your results were yesterday, today offers us the ability to strike out on a new adventure, and discover the master within.


(Editors Note: This book is a part of a 7 part series of books on Transformation. As such there will be references to material covered in the other books; however I will not go into detail on information that is covered in the other texts. These books are:
All of the Universal Laws and Principles Governing Life
Metamorphosis
Electricity and Resistance
Lightning
Yin & Yang
Time, Space & Now