THE NEED FOR COSMIC ONE
NESS
by Mimi Lozano
1965

 

 

In response to Harold Taylors' "plea for the robust assertion of personal belief, (1) I recognize and add to the many lists of man's needs, the need which each man has to touch, express, experience,  relate to, or be one with something greater than himself. The need to know within and to say to the world that inside is something magnificent, beautiful, and individual which body and mind can not always express nor even understand, but which is.

I believe this intuitive knowing is pushing each individual to know his oneness with greatness. Unfortunately this need neither recognized nor fulfilled, expresses itself in many negative ways: 

(1) There is a general empty restlessness; a searching for some­thing better, more exciting, newer, different. As Igor Cassini, Editor-Publisher moat adequately expressed it, "Let us be Roman, Epicurean, supercilious. The Jet Set is passe. Today you have the Restless Set, those people who are bored with the banal." (2)

(2) The increasing percentage of mental disorders indicate an increasing inability of adjusting to society, as well as our own image of ourselves. (3)

(3) Widespread social disintegration ia identified by a Harvard sociologist, George C. Homan as resulting from "decreasing control by the community over individual behavior.(4) Because the urban pattern of living has removed many of the external restrains on man, man greatly needs and indeed is searching for inner identification and guidance.

Each man is inwardly shouting, here am I.  Each one aware that he is unique and potentially great. 
Wassily Kandinsky wrote in 1914:

"Only just now awakening after years of materialism, our soul ia infected with the despair born of unbelief, of lack of purpose and aim. The nightmare of materialism, which turned life into an evil, senseless game, is not yet passed; it still darkens the awakening soul. Only a feeble light glimmers, a tiny point in an immense circle of darkness.(5)

It is this feeble light which I identify as the soul's inner call to creativeness, an inner drive to express creative source- a return to Oneness.

Gardner Murphy presents the thesis that man is evolving towards a more advanced nature, the present stage  of evolvement being a need for creative activityHe also presents for consideration (6)

the possibility that man is (tn a deeper sense than is usually reckoned) a part of the cosmos and that his fulfillment is in a sense his realization of certain deeper contacts with cosmic structure than he ordinarily allows himself. (7) 

The creative thrust which Murphy recognizes seems to be an indication that more and more individuals are pursuing this inner call to realize these deeper contacts with cosmic structure. However until men turn from statements of the material and probe deeper into their own vast cosmic storehouse, they will not find fulfillment nor give fulfillment to the viewers of their art.

When they are true works/sof art, such forms fulfil their purposes and nourish the spirit,(8)

If we examine the eastern cultures we find philosophies which maintain that man is indeed a part of the cosmic forces and only his veil of Maya separates him from this blissful Oneness with All. (9)  I propose that it is this belief which has developed asiatic art forms into things traditional, stylized, beautiful, uplifting, symbolically spiritual, and personally meaningful. The peoples of the east can feel their individual oneness, their greatness, through  meditation, mystical and spiritual experiences, and the viewing or  recreating in precision and perfecting the ancient arts. (10)

The western mind scientifically recognizes himself  primarily as a body, unique in this sense, seems to impulsively run from method to method, and style to style both,  in his philosophy about art and his expressions of IT. (11)   

If as Shawn states "form is only the manifestation, the shape of content"(12) than we have art forms void of spiritual meaning and therefore they can not fulfill the cosmic oneness which I believe man is seeking.

The relatively new classical ballet (13) was soon criticized for its emphasis on external technique. (14) Many philosophies and personal approaches have developed in the field of western dance to emphasize that man's body is  not more Important than what man is within,  as expressed by his emotions, statements, abstract expressions. Miss Martha Graham's experimentation with movement was for the expression "new truth which Miss Graham found impossible to express in any of ways in which dancers, choreographers, and playwrights had taken before her. (15)

The arts do and should continue to satisfy man's need for universal Oneness, If we allow the arts to wallow in the depiction of material ugliness than why should man continue to turn to art for the satisfaction which he craves. Granted the German artists of the second World War, our current Beat poets, pop artist, and Ann Halperns are expressing reality as they see it, but as stated in class,  we perceive what we need. (16).  These individual artists needed to see this ugly part of life in order to continue their search for individual recognition. Artists should recognize that man needs even more importantly to counteract what his continually
being told about himself. (17) The world Is constantly telling him that he is insignificant, temporal, nothing more than a highly evolved primate, a collection of chemicals.

In conclusion, I believe as expressed by our society's a creative thrust,  and my evaluation of that social direction thrust that man has a more important need, that of the reinforcement of his innate sense of inner greatness and Cosmic Oneness, I further state that this need can and should be fulfilled by the encouragement and providing avenues for creative activity in all people.

. art is not vague production, transitory and isolated, but a power which must be directed to the development and refinement of the human soul to raising the triangle of the spirit.

If art rejects this work, a pit remains "unbridged"; no other power can take the place of art in this activity. And sometimes when the human soul is gaining greater strength, art also grows in power, for the two are inextricably connected and complementary. Conversely, at those times when the soul tends to be choked by materialist lack of belief, art becomes purposeless, and it is said that art  exists for art's sake alone. (18)

 

1 Dr. Harold Taylor, "Art and the Intellect," Lecture given at the l8th Annual Conference of the National Committee on Art Education, sponsored by the B. de Rothschild Foundation for the Arts and Sciences, (New York The Museum of Modern Art, 1960), p. 18.  

2 "People",  Time  (October 1, 1965) 

3 Karen Horney, M.D., Our Inner Conflicts (New York: W,W. Norton, 1945). P. 183

4 George G. Romans, The Human group, (New York Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1950) p, 367.

5 Wassily Kandinsky, Concerning the Spirit in Art, (New York: George Wittenbord, 1947, p. 24

6 Gardner Murphy, Human  Potentialities . (Now York; Basic Books, 1958 p. 6

7 Ibid., p. 23


8 Kandinsky, op. cit., p. 25

9 'Laina Anagarika Govinda, Foundations of Tibetan Mysticism,  (New York: E,P, Dutton, 1960);
Paramaha
nsa Yogananda, Autobiography of a Yogi, (Los Angeles; Self-Realization Fellowship. 1959)

10 Swami Vishnudevananda, Yoga, (New York; Julian Press, 1961)

11 John Martin, Introduction to the Dance, (New York; Dance Horizons, 1965) p. 19

12
Ban Shawn, The Shape of Content, (New York: Vintage Books, 1957, p. 83

13 In Contrast to Eastern dance forms.

14 Martin, op. cit. p. 25

15 Taylor, op. cit. p. 22

16
Dr. Alma Hawkins of UCLA, in a lecture delivered in Dance 158A, September, 1965

17 Perhaps this need of which I speak is not easy to isolate, but the obvious and dramatic changes which over
come over numerous friends, relatives, and acquaintances who are awakened to this inner unity with the cosmos is proof enough.  Their peace, direction and dedicated lives are constrasting evidence to those restless soul blinded by their bodies to their own eternal reality.

18 Kandinsky, op. cit., pp. 74-75.