Think of our solar system, its colossal size. I have the impression that there are many solar systems, that ours is a very big one, but that there are others which are much larger. And that their distance from other solid bodies floating in the atmosphere, this distance is enormous. I have also the impression that not only is there endless space and the endless mass of the solar systems that are in that space, but there is endless time and endless mental power, that there are are great masses of mind of which ours, in this little Earth that we live on, is only a small part. We all live on this same planet. We breathe the same air and we are under the power of the light which the sun gives. No sunlight, no existence on this Earth. We are all under the same conditions, and it is our privelage to make the best of those conditions - of the air we breathe, of the light we receive from the sun, that life-giving light.

At present, all over the world is war - so much destruction and so little, compared with that destruction, is creative. Many minds who are in what we call 'war' - those minds might have enormous creative power. But they are killed, smashed by the destruction. If one studies history, one sees a series of wars. One sees clearly that nobody wins any of those wars. Everybody loses. They are madness. They are the lowest form of intelligence. The men who control things at the top, they have this low form of intelligence. They create these wars. It is time all humanity understood.

The artist, then, is living under the same conditions, making the best of those conditions, realizing that no matter how much effort he gives to improve his art, no matter how great an effort, there is no limit upward, no limit. No matter how much a great artist improves his art, develops it, there is no limit to further improvement, further reaching upward."

Art is like the deep roots of a great oak tree, and out of those roots grow many branches, many kinds of art: the dance, architecture, painting, music, the art of words, the art that Shakespeare had. In a marvelous way he understood those things - our faults, our strengths, how we struggle to live. I travel in many countries, and I notice that Shakespeare is translated into the language of that country, is performed in that country, his poetry is read, and he is not merely the artist of one country, but the artist of the world. What a wonderful solution to life! The artist of the world."

I find that every day come new possibilities and new ideas, and they must not be ignored, they must be examined. For example, there are many kinds of sounds. I like the sound of street noises. Taxicabs are blowing their horns and all kinds of sounds are going on - they have a rhythm, they have a blending of life in the streets, and it is a kind of music. Some people would say that it is just a horrible noise, and they have a right to their opinion, too. To their ears, it is a horrible noise. To my ears, it is interesting, because it is life. Those who think it is nonsense will either not listen at all or they will listen with prejudice, and prejudice is a very dangerous disease. The others will listen and perhaps will receive that mysterious message which is in all music, which words cannot express. Shakespeare used the word for dramatic reasons, but he also used the word for poetic reasons. He selected language which sounds to me like music. The words and the rhythms of the words are just like music to my ears.

It is quite possible that the so-called cave man had such ideas too, on his level, in his way, according to his ideas of the best life of that time. There have alway been persons on this Earth who love beauty and order. It is so important to know what we really do know definitely, and to realize the immense mass of possibilities there are to life that we do not know. There may be corresponding forms of life on other planets. It is difficult to know what they are feeling and what they are thinking. Their life might be quite different from our human life or our animal life. Also, there would be the question of language, the question of how we communicate. So it would be very difficult. Yet I would think it a great privelage if I could know their ideas of what is orderly and what is beautiful. That would be the first step, I think, to try and understand their life, to find our what they think
and feel and desire.

If I had the possibility, I would do my best to give a clear impression to what other form of life there might be on that planet, of what I think is beautiful and orderly, what I think is creative and what I think is destructive. It would be possible, I hope, to let them see what is happening on this Earth - so much destruction, so little that is creative.

Think of our solar system, its colossal size, its possibility...


(December, 1969)