There is an art of Happiness. The artistry consists of turning interactions and situations, that in one person’s life would turn to stress and hassle, into a springboard for growth. The process through which this is achieved I call Sculpting.
So what is Sculpting?
We go through life separated from others through our perceptions. These create a unique perspective so that no-one else sees life in exactly the same way as I do. We look through our aggregated past experience, our own biases and judge according to our personal hopes and fears.
As we perceive a situation then we look on it differently from another. We judge it differently because we hope to get different things out of it. We are afraid that different things may happen.
The reason I call this Sculpting is inspired by the way Michelangelo explained his genius. He was replying to questions asking how he created such beautiful works…
“Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it”.
“I saw the angel in the marble and I carved until I set him free”.
I look our first perceptions as being like a raw block of stone that a skilled Sculptor may begin his work of art with.
So we are here with our block of stone and over there is our friend with his block of stone. Now our perception makes perfect sense to us and his just seems clumsy. And he’s thinking the same. Now at this stage we are just a couple of unrefined perceptions. And so some will fight for theirs to be accepted.
But the truly skilled in this art of living will use the contrasting perceptions like a chisel to chip away the waste from the valuable. And in this way our contrasting perceptions will scrutinize the foundations of our beliefs about the situation. And in this way the fluff, the personal biases, all that really has no basis will be stripped to leave a valuable work of beauty.
If you look at any field of knowledge you will see how it develops, as one erroneous fact after another is uncovered. Today you can see this sped up so that when you look at wikipedia, you can see how one person starts a topic and then everyday it gets changed and updated as others refine the page.
Other people’s differences, misinterpreted, can be a source of continual pain. Or if used with pure intentions and curiosity, can be a basis for honing a more realistic and deeper understanding.
Life is a work of art. How beautiful your life is depends on your Sculpting ability?
