How buddhism infused my art
+ calendrier de l'Ah-Voix - VocalAdvent calender
Here is a text I began last summer and finished today. I am infatuated with words although none of them is able to escape from duality…
Living takes practice. Whether you are familiar with buddhism or not, you practice everyday the Art.Life of your own.
For those who don’t want to read further more, here’s a brief comment i wrote this past week to respond to one of
‘s beautiful posts on practice :‘The way i live (my) practice is "to live". No method, no cookie-cutter. A sensorial experience that drives everything back to the center, the point of no*thing, God, to then almost simultaneously expanding all in the wholeness. Being no-one and All-in-One. On that note, i will just breath in- breath out and send a smile to you Joan, and to everyone reading. :) ’
Some people think of zen as an old man sitting in a black and white picture, trying not to move nor to make any sound nor produce any thought.
Zen to me is joy, Life, laugh, belonging, Art. And : no dogma! Zen is full of humor.
I started meditation in 1997. Back then I practiced alone in the buddhist tradition, first with a book of Sogyal Rinpoche (who has committed crimes of abuse but at that time it was still unknown and I was grateful to meet the tibetan buddhist practice thanks to his very useful book).
I was dealing with social anxiety and a high sense of separate self. As i had been practicing yoga since the age of 10, the spiritual aspect of buddhism sounded quite familiar & appealing to me but I was mostly meditating to help myself with my daily suffering. So I meditated like a self-help practice that would accompany my prayers (I was no longer going to church but I always kept this spiritual connection with God since I was a child). My practice was a kind of personal syncretism - surely an unconventional one for traditional practitioners and religious persons, yet a meaningful routine to me.
Over the years, I came in a closer relationship with Zen, imbued with the midnfulness approach popularized in the 2000s - and my practice has finally joined my art (or the contrary?).
They now walk hand in hand and it’s hard to discern which aspects of my life are influenced by my art, or by my buddhist practice. Also because I don’t reclaim myself as a buddhist as i am also nurtured, inspired, supported by other traditions, among them shinto, non dual approaches such as advaita, Kashmir shaivism…and my christian background is there too, as well as my celtic origins linked to animism. I have no church no religion except Nature and Love. I have no master except the Bodyvoice, and Others are my teachers. To sum it up I live within ‘Art.Life’, and maybe music is my master and Love is my religion (yes, a bit of sufism too ;) ).
Here’s a short list of how this buddhist journey of mine resonates in my art :
letting go & non attachment - the reality of Breath. A few months ago, one app that I use to take notes on for further newsletters or even drafts for my literary work, completely bugged. I was unable to retrieve all the many files I had stored. So is Life, leaving you without anything in appearance as soon as you start to grasp to something. I started over, with the great remembrance of “I am - with or without what I think i possess through myso-called creations”. It helped me to refine what I wanted to create, and to remain conscious that most of what i produce must be filtered by the heart - and maybe the bug filtered it so that actually nothing was valuable?! ;) Beautiful ideas and exciting projects are still there in our bodies, so if a creation is waiting to be born, it will find its way, should there be many bugs before (analogy with a birthchild may not be so far - however by no means am i suggesting that it doesn’t hurt to lose the ability to give birth) .
impermanence - the treasure of Life. Improvisation. This is the core of my personal practice and therefore of my transmission with the Bodyvoice flow. Vocal improvisation is not surprisingly very similar to meditation. Being in the here and now, letting go of the thoughts, reconnecting to our true self just with our body and the voice... it opens up the mind, nurtures the spirit and alleviates the heart. Filling us with joy, and the relief of being no-One, but All-in-One. No more ego, except for the pleasure of playing with our voice, not clinging to beauty or performance, rather dissolving ourselves into the rhythm and sound while structuring new neural pathways. To me nothing has ever been so close to the essence of Zen. And the good news is you don’t need to sit silently or study sutras to experiment the grace of this : everyone can begin. But of course, like every practice, the more consistent you are, the more you will be gifted with the benefits. At some point in my life, my meditative journey merged with my vocal practice to bring even more awareness, and a more accurate sense of the form and the essence.
radical self-love & the Art of Metta. Writing to me means to help yourself with embodied powerful soft and strong words. To love means to begin by loving ourselves, and i try to walk the talk…My chapbook “Soft and strong” is like a companion book that helps me/you/us to remember how we can show us/the others more compassion and strengthten the inner fire of unconditional Love. I come from a place of almost innate shame and all my words and songs aim to convey a sense of freedom and liberation, to reconnect with the joy of simply being.
Soft and strong - available HERE
You can learn it the gentle way, in a “Wu wei” spirit. Surrender to Love…
Ku, vacuity, non duality - the Love of the Paradox. Some artists I adore have led a life imprinted by zen, partly or entirely (Leonard Cohen, David Bowie, Jane Hirshfield, Gary Snyder, Meredith Monk, Laurie Anderson, Robert Filliou…). I recognize myself in many of them, because they tried to reunify all the opposites in a cathartic and peaceful creative tapestry, exposing the intimate complexity of humaneness into their creations. Among these contradictions : nature and culture, unicity and unity, now and eternity, life and death. I try to embrace all that in my art, and to laugh about it. The whole thing to me is this motto I’ve made mine : “play seriously the game of life without taking yourself seriously.” That’s why my art around Voice and poetry is both deep and playful. Because actually we are nothing, we are just crossed by the inspiration from both the chaos and the bliss, our hells as well as our climaxes.
interdependence - the roots of our suffering connect us to awareness. I write for myself first but carrying within myself the pain of my family, ancestors, spiritual siblings and perfect strangers throughout the world. Sharing intimacy through art does not mean to reveal your private life. Intimacy is the relationship you have with Life (call it Gautama - Buddha, God, Source, or whatever you want). And creating with this state of mind enhances inside of me the sense of interbeing/inteconnection/interdependence. I create thanks to what other beings created before or what sensitive beings in Nature (invisible or not) offer me. I write poetry on sand, I craft natural jewels and dance in the sea or in the forest among the presence of other creatures.
Bathing Words in Nature - 2021 pour le texte ‘Enfin prendre forme All these beings, humans or not, help me to free my Voice because they do or did the same, whether they’re a bird or a singer songwriter, or a person from my private circle, or a stranger. Each day I feel grateful for my fellow artists to provide me with inspiration, daring to connect with higher visions, daring to do the simpliest and truest lines or notes that bring this strong sense of belonging. And then share it to the world. As a neurodivergent person, with an invisible disability, interdependence is not just a word. I see how others can help me just by being themselves. I see how my personal experience of Life can also be a great help and relief for people dealing with physical or mental pain - this a sort of Dharma sharing as we call these moments of connection between meditators within meditation rooms. When I write about it in my books or share it in my talks and meditations, people sometimes feel seen, recognized, and… sometimes even healed.but that does not belong to me, it's just a ripple effect of sharing my understanding of the Dharma (aka the teachings in buddhism), or of my own journey. Indra’s net is reflecting also in my embodied rituals, when I dance with threads or when I create written mobiles with threads in nature.
Ebbs and flows, waves and flares,
and Being the oyster who reveals
the pearl you are
Hauts et bas, vagues et exacerbation, et Etre l’huître qui révèle la perle que tu es.
( lignes improvisées 13H00 11 juillet France).
Joy of the Dharma,
joie du Dharma,
joie de la Voix.e,
joy of the embodied Voice,
from our feet to our crown, from our form to our essence… back and forth like oscillating sparks.
Sensorial blessings to you in this 1st of December, together on the raft, never apart,
Marion Dorval
Hybrid artist & Bodyvoice flow practitioner Praticienne Bodyvoice flow
Réparer.Libérer.Incarner ∞ Touch.Vibrate.Resonate
To end this week of “Thanks-Giving”, even if you didn’t celebrate, here’s a share of gratitude for all the persons practicing with me each Saturday - a souvenir from yesterday’s live routine on Insight timer :
NEXT FREE ONLINE PRACTICE
Sat. 07.12.2024 08.00 CET Paris time
BodyVoice Flow routine - Nurture your Joy
Sat Dec 7 - 08:00 am
Infuse your day this 15 min routine from the Bodyvoice flow practice. Come as you are to enjoy your true being! This routine format is a soothing and powerful blend of mindfulness, intuitive movement and vocal improvisation. No skills required, what matters is your curiosity and your will to align both body and mind. Your Body and your Voice can nurture our creativity and support your health in a holistic AND playful way. HSP/ADHD/ASD/neurodivergent/chronic pain? You're all welcome, I am familiar with this too. You will need: 15 min+ space to sit/move/lie down + curiosity+ a calling for loving yourself just the way you are in this moment of your Life.
VocalAvent calender - Calendrier de l’Ah-Voix - 24 improvised songs
Each day a new vocal improvisation - for nothing except the savor of the present moment, the fun, the poetry, the beauty of sharing songs. Subscribe to my Youtube channel to be notified (I will be live whenever i feel a song is coming!)