Simplicity, Art, and Culture

Simplicity, Art, Culture, and Education(From a speech by Frank Lloyd Wright, San Rafael, 1957).

By being simple, one is sensitive to the trees, to the birds,to the mountains, to the wind, to all the things which are going on about us in the world. Most of us live on the upper level of our consciousness; there we try to be thoughtful or intelligent, which is synonymous with being religious; there we try to make our minds simple, through compulsion, through discipline. To be simple in the total process of consciousness is extremely arduous; because there must be no inward reservations, there must be an eagerness to discover, to inquire into the process of our being, which means to be aware of our fears, of our hopes, and to be free of their bondage. Only when the mind and heart are really simple are we able to solve the many problems that confront us.

Knowledge alone will not solve our problems. You may know, for example, that there is reincarnation, that there is continuity after death. You may know, but life is not necessarily changed by your theory, information, or conviction. It is much more mysterious, much deeper, much more creative than that.It is only through direct experience that our problems are solved, and to have direct experience there must be simplicity, which means there must be sensitivity. Only mind that is capable of adjusting itself to the present can meet the power influences and pressures constantly placed upon us by our environment.It is only when a mind is sensitive, alert, aware and capable of receiving that there can be happiness. However complex our problems, we shall be able to see them in a new perspective if we approach them with simplicity.That is why it is so important to be aware, to have the capacity to understand the process of our own thinking, to be cognizant of ourselves totally; from that there comes a simplicity, a humility which is not a virtue nor a practice but a state of being.Maturity is a road, not a destination. The gate is narrow, and simplicity is the key.

Culture and education are two very different things. Culture is the developing of the idea by way of itself, and education is informing, teaching, telling the individual. It is only by a natural growth that you can attain culture, but you can return from school conditioned instead of enlightened. Education today doesn't mean culture. Sometimes men are educated beyond their capacity. Education today is not even on speaking terms with what we should call culture. We need culture more and education less. We acquire it through a new sense of what constitutes humanity under harmonious conditions. There is a tremendous reflection.When you reach the higher spiritual realm that we call art, you begin to look for things that are creative rather than just repetitive. There is where you are in the realm of culture, rather than education.Culture is not for the crowd. Culture is an individual thing. And that is what our forefathers said when they declared that the individual is sovereign. The sovereignty of the individual. That means a certain aloneness to begin with. A certain rejection of the common man as common, but insisting on his privilege to the uncommon that exists in every human soul today and this is the country that declares it.

How do we become true, good, happy genuine, joyful and free? Never by magic, never by chance, never by sitting and waiting, but only by getting in touch with those who are good, true, happy, and genuine,only by seeking the company of the strong and the free, only by seeking spontaneity and freedom from those who are themselves spontaneous and free.