On Expression

Expression is natural. It is what arises without effort. It flows.

Expression does not begin with the one who expresses nor does it have any end. Expression may assume form but only as a function of its formlessness. Expression is not form but what infuses form.

What we call the self or ego is an impediment to expression. It is the effort to limit expression. This is why the artist Jasper Johns said – here paraphrased – that to be a great artist one has to give up everything, including the desire to be a great artist.

The self or ego is the belief that expression serves only self or ego. This leads to the belief that expression is always personal, always a reflection of the one who expresses. This in turn leads inevitably to a confused perception of expression, which can be summarized as seeing many expressions rather than expression reflected in many forms.

Thus one begins to distinguish between craft and the generative impulse. The former is technical and mechanical while the latter is inherent in all life. One can study and practice the former but one can only know the latter.

The authenticity of expression hinges on knowledge of the generative impulse. This knowledge begets an intimacy with Creation naturally informed by humility and gratitude and cannot not be shared. Expression forever points beyond the form it temporarily assumes in favor of the eternal impulse – the infinitely renewing all – that it is.

Expression forever offers itself. To perceive expression is indistinguishable from offering expression – they are one movement, whole only in each other.