There are three acts of every artist’s journey.

Act 1: Asleep
Act 2: Awakening
Act 3: Awakened

You create work as a selfish artist at home. You think your work is exceptional and are owed money and fame. You may hoard your work in your drawer or under your bed. You are bitter that other artists are famous, but you are not. You are just as good as them but poor and unhappy.
Your work is about you and your struggle to wake up. You create work about your heartbreaks, bad parents, and the unfairness of life and mimic songs of love and devotion. And you dare to call that art.* Eventually, you have enough and want to collect what is owed. You realize that no one will discover and pick you. You know that no one will come and make you rich and famous. Now, you take matters into your own hands. You use social media to show yourself and your work. You follow the rules to get the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. But no one wants your selfish work. It is ugly.
So now you try and force that ugly work onto people, perhaps with ads and shouting, pretty makeup, dancing, screaming, and showing your beautiful life in pictures and videos. ‘Look at me!’ you say. But they look away.
You realize that something does not rhyme. You spent your entire childhood chasing a dream, and it eludes you. You put in the 10,000 hours, for God’s sake! Where is your price? So, you start to contemplate your approach. Who is your work for? Who are you delighting? You think perhaps you are selfish. And you are.
You consume content about online business, marketing, and entrepreneurship. You explore what artists have done that ‘made it.’ You get into self-development and perhaps meditation. You feel that this approach lightens the grips of selfishness, and you relax into your work. Your work starts to change.
You learn that commerce is about solving problems. You understand that to solve your issue of acquiring money and fame, you need to get money and attention from someone. You know that for someone to give you money, you must provide them value. You understand that for someone to pay attention to you, you must help them get what they want. Your work starts to become about others and not about yourself. You struggle to monetize your art as it is not made for such commerce. Art is gift-giving, and your awakening artist’s heart knows that. So you explore creating products and services around your art to make money so you finally have time to make art. Perhaps you start teaching or coaching, create courses and communities, and maybe make money. You know this cannot be it. This is not what you signed up for. You signed up for art, artistry, and the life of an artist. Yet you make barely any art. Perhaps you make barely any money. Maybe you are lost in money making. Either way, you do need money. Keep your business alive for now. Keep your part-time job even if it is unbearable.

The only way out of your dilemma is to enter Act 2.

A life of service and gift-giving awaits you, which is quite joyous. It is what artists do, and you are an artist.
You pick a group of people and delight them with your art. You are specific! You decide to devote your life to them through art. This is scary as you are now exposing yourself to that group, and they respond. You get feedback, and that hurts. Perhaps your work is not as good as you thought it was. You take all your might and keep making and sharing your work because that is what you do now. You often feel so much pain that you repeatedly run back to Act 1 until you eventually stop running. You use feedback from your people and ignore all other opinions. You simply serve and want to delight them with what you create selflessly. It is not about you anymore; it is about them. They start to appreciate you for it. Your work now becomes your gift. It becomes good enough for your fans to love and share it. Positive feedback and word of mouth kick in slowly. This is not the overnight success you dream of, but you are delighted and happy serving your fans. This is different from the breakthrough success, dollar signs, or amount of attention you wanted; for some reason, you are content. You keep serving your fans.
Perhaps you get the reward of money with your art, but that is not why you do the work. You do it for the sake of doing it. Perhaps you build a selfless business around your craft out of joy. You overflow, so you give of yourself, perhaps as a product or service. Maybe you just share, and people want to give back to you. You can choose to monetize your craft. That is up to you.

Sneakily, you mature into Act 3.

You lost yourself in your work, which is good. You are no more when you create your work. You flow with life, and the wind is in your back. You are not fighting anymore; you are living. You have surrendered yourself to your work, your fans, and God. Creation flows through you. You realize that making art and delighting your fans is your spiritual discipline. Perhaps you never considered yourself spiritual, and the words don’t matter, but you feel God through your work. You are absorbed when you create it, and that is meditation. You have no words for it, but you are delighted to participate in the dance that life has planned for you. You feel you have a mission, and you do. You need no guidance at this stage; you will be helped and guided. You realize that your work spreads naturally to the right hearts, and you awaken them. Not because you intend to but because your work holds the truth of the universe. It is beautiful. While you create your work, you disappear; there is only the creation of the work. The creator and the art do not exist, only the dance of creation. There is God, the artist, and the work of art. But perhaps there is just God. You do not claim ownership of your creations; how could you? You did not create them. You are simply a vessel of truth and light. You dance with life. You, of course, live your life and return to live in the world and talk from your separate self and connect to others as usual. Your identity shifted, and you are gracious in the way you interact. But you keep your relationship with God quiet. You simply commune and do your work. To speak of God is to dilute the message. Your work of art talks enough.

The journey of the arts mirrors the journey of the soul. Art is your way home. And it’s your time.

Cogs to artists. Tribes were connected and held sacred as one big family. Once a tribe was too big to call a family, it split in two, and one tribe moved to a different location and established another settlement.
The Industrial Age connected the world and made it rich and fruitful, but that feeling of a familiar bond beyond the family vanished. The Big Fish had the power; most humans were mere cogs in the system. The Information Age brought us the internet and connection online. Production and distribution are available to all. Cogs turn to artists. And artists connect the world.

Where will you hide if there is nowhere to hide? The information age, with the leverage of the internet, puts production and distribution at your fingertips. Power is scary; it is safer to hide behind ‘it is impossible’ or ‘I don’t know.’ That game is long over. The internet removed all the middlemen. The record labels, the bookstores, the art galleries, the venture capital, and the news channels. You’ve got the microphone. You own your art. To ignore and hide is almost a sin.

As long as you are searching, you are not finding. If you must write, you must write.
If you must express, you must express. There is no other way. Pick an outlet, pick a craft, and practice every day. Find the courage to share your work. Then do it again. If you do not know who your work is for, share your work selflessly, and your people will find you. What you seek seeks you. Just take action. Find an outlet and create what you must create, then share your creation in one or more forms on the internet, not to participate in being social but to establish your identity as an artist; as you believe in yourself more, you will share more easily of your craft.
The best (purest) works are the hardest to share; doubt kicks in, and you run away and perhaps delete everything and come back anew when the storm has settled. Eventually, you stop running and share your work because that is what you do, and that is who you are. Welcome to the life of an artist.
Feedback at this stage is futile. God is the way; call it a gut feeling. Pure work pops in and does not knock. The only feedback that will be of use is from the group you seek to delight. Ignore all other opinions. Sometimes, ignore their opinions, too.
Who you create for will be established by sharing your most intimate works. As long as you are searching, you are not finding.
You must put your creations into the world. You must take action. You must poke the universe. Your creations are your meditations. Your disciplines. Your ritual. Let’s call them ‘meditations of an artist’.

Meditations of an artist. Put your point of view on display. Stand for something. Be specific. Genre matters. Delight someone.
Not everyone.
What is the gift you bring to the world? Once you know why you exist, everything becomes simple. The noise subsides, and you can quietly serve your people. Always remember, as long as you seek, you shall not find. Do and become. Create and learn. Find and serve.

A life of service. It is not about you. And as you focus on serving others, you uncover more and more of yourself. Perhaps it was all about you to begin with. Serving others is your way home. As you serve others, you heal the world.

What a delight. The Industrial Age is over. The Big Fish are dying. You own the means of production.
You own the means of distribution.
No one can stop you but you. No gates. No keepers.
What will you uniquely provide? Who will you uniquely delight?

The choice is yours. Every emotion/mood is a problem; the answer is the album/ the body of work. Art is for the recipient. A specific someone. One you seek to delight with your specific work. You intend to cause change to a specific someone. You choose who you serve, but you need to choose. Selfish art, on the other hand, has no intention to serve or help. It is created selfishly without the purpose of delighting someone specific. That work will find no footing and fade away in all the noise. It won’t give money or fame to the creator of the art. Selfish artists often crave money and fame but fail to notice their selfishness is precisely why they get left behind. Selfish work is about the creator of the work. Selfless work is for the person the artist seeks to change. The choice is yours.

Real commerce is gift-giving. Give gifts. That’s the game.
The more you give, the more you become the artist you seek to be. Your songs, your works of art, your paintings, and your pamphlets are gifts. Gift-giving is real commerce, given that the gift is complete work. When creating complete work, you give and you get at the same time. When complete work finds its host, it appears effortlessly. The host simply steps aside. The host feels he has not touched the work, simply brought it to the world. The host steps aside and conceives the gift. The receiver steps aside and consumes the gift. There is no commerce. And that is real commerce.
As gifts are received and consumed alone, they need no advocate. Complete work always finds its way to where it is needed. Real artists perhaps call that helping hands.
It is important to understand that selfish artists will never touch complete work. Instead of gift-giving, they participate in hole-filling. The work is about them and their story. From their art, they hope to get something. By that, the gift eludes them, and they grow bitter making art. Perhaps what they make is not art at all.
The intention behind your creation matters. Simply give your gift to God and choose a life of service. Your art can be your gift. Serve the world instead of filling holes. The only spiritual discipline you need is gift-giving.
Real artists give gifts. They have come to heal parts of themselves that make them available to real creation. Real creation is complete creation, the healing arts.
Gifts don’t leave the world. They are recognized as gifts by everyone; hence, they are cherished.
Real art is. God is. And real commerce is gift-giving.

Fame. It’s just a collection of songs that makes an artist. It’s just a body of work that makes an artist. It is not the pictures of your dogs. Look at the channels on the internet as your radio stations and art galleries. They serve a function to connect you with the right hearts. You can either win on quality or fame. But fame follows quality in time. In other words, quality gets you fame; fame doesn’t get you quality.

And it’s free. There is no better marketing than creating and sharing your work. More work leads to better work, which leads to drawing & understanding your audience, which leads to serving your audience better still. Along the way, emotions settle, and you become the artist you seek to be.

Break your chains and make great art. As you tone it down to make your father feel more comfortable. As you tone it down to make your friends not laugh. As you tone it down to keep the voices quiet. As you review your work in all its quirks, the strong points, and the solid stance—you realize you will offend someone—perhaps you were too vulnerable. Before you rub out all the beauty, consider my friend that it’s not for them.
Great art rarely comes with a feeling of safety. Great art always cuts people the wrong way. Some, that is. But for the ones it’s really for—it heals their wounds and mends their hearts. Break your chains and make great art.

That is as close to god as you can get down here. The only spiritual discipline you need is a life of service to others. Your work changes when the work is not about you anymore. You give yourself fully to your work, and you disappear. That is as close to god as you can get down here.

God, and art that teaches. Music teaches me to create through being. I found my canvas in songs and my heart paints. When it paints, I plunge into the music, and the music carries me. The act of creating music is the greatest joy and gift that I get to experience. Oh, and the joy of sharing it, that intimate experience, when real touches real, and I disappear. I believe in art, the artist disappears. Because of this, the art can come alive in the receiver of the art because it was conceived alone. It is like it takes you somewhere, and you trust it enough to leave yourself at the door. You don’t meditate; it meditates on you. But that only happens if the artist is not while creating art. Art creates itself. Creation births itself. Poetry is God’s laughter, and the afterthought of laughing rings in my ears as I write these words. The laughing is not writing the words, but the words are surely laughing at the reader who got lost in them. Creation itself creates. Creation creates itself. It doesn’t need a creator to play with itself. The playing is the play, and the child and the father all in one laugh. There is no joke told or joke heard because there is neither the joke nor the joker. And That is precisely the joke of existence — the riddle of riddles. Holy Ghost’s laughing in unison. The arts’ purpose, therefore, is to knock on your head so hard that the knock itself is ringing through one ear and out the other. Teaching, or art that teaches, is the art of describing what is underneath the question, and it might plunge you into the answer because the goal of the true teacher is to take away the question and leave you vulnerable in God.

Your past keeps you from creating freely—past unresolved experiences in your conscious or subconscious mind. These things come to the surface as they remind you of times you were hurt when you expressed freely. This constricts you, and you are held prisoner by your past. You conditioned yourself to stay small, within acceptable parameters, only saying what is allowed and moving towards the acceptable—seeking the familiar.

The young artist is fragile. The young artist is fragile in many ways. Making himself available to real creation, he leaves himself vulnerable. Vulnerable to judgment, doubtful, and susceptible to feedback or lack thereof. The young artist’s journey is that of fighting with himself for himself. His character is marked by and built through struggles, hurdles, and pains to overcome. The young artist finds himself in many trials, mostly of the making of his mind. Who is he to be, the artist his heart claims to be? Who is he to lead and stand for something? Who is he to help and nurture with his art and words and taste and courage? Trials by fire are many for the young artist. His old ways are at odds and in stark contrast with his emerging self. He transforms into an artist by facing each pain (often reluctantly after much suffering). Being an artist does not come easy or free of charge. It is one of the most challenging journeys of all. It is the journey of the soul. From darkness to light, if you will. Hardships are many, and almost in secret, the young artist’s ego fights until it relinquishes its selfish stance, turning an artist into an angel. Long, hard looks in the mirror. Moving in the dark, with only God to lead. Intuitions get sharpened with each failed or successful adventure. It is all the same: the lesson is the point. Selfish artists create ugly work, full of themselves, wanting money and fame from the art, not creating for others but for themselves. Selfless artists, pure of heart, create work that shines and holds light, like the sun — shining on its own. Not for its own sake but to bring life to the world. Nourishing others but being full all the same. Not of need to give, but their very being is a ray of giving of the highest order. But angels have once all been men. The journey then is from selfish to selfless — from men to angels. You and I are angles. But angels in the making. We have many hurdles to overcome with ourselves. Like yesterday when you did not share your work or deleted your last article. Or when you wrote a song only to put it in the drawer accompanying all your other songs, collecting dust. The light is dim and barely visible to the young artist, and ignorantly, he still follows it. He knows it’s his only way, his only choice — not a choice, maybe — but his destiny.
The young artist has something in him that wants to bloom, and he obeys. He has no choice in what wants to bloom — he lets it. Often, he resists the work that wants to come through, and he is scared to share it. It is so different, so peculiar, so odd, so strange. He knows not what to do with it. The obvious answer is to share it. That work is clearly not meant for himself alone. Art is only art when shared. That peculiar-strange kind of art always has funny ways to find itself in the right hands at the right time. So then, I write these lines to conclude that I am a clueless artist, very young at heart with a long journey ahead, but willing and able. And I hope you join me in our shared ignorance.

Art is only art when shared.

If you have a choice to do art, don’t do art. I cry on the floor, then take a walk and curse my work and my life about every two weeks or so. I give it all up only to return to the pages, the lyrics, and the music production I recently stumbled into. I hate my life, but I love it. I chose to live it, but I have no choice.

If you have a choice, don’t do art.
If you have no choice, do it with full involvement.*

These words came to me yesterday night. Very fitting. I am solely writing this book because it hurts me. It pings at me and does not let me sleep without being reminded that it is my responsibility to rid myself of it. It is heavy, and that burden I wish not to bear. But if the only way to get it away from my space so I can return to my songs is to finish it, so be it. Here I am. I am not an author; I am a songwriter, and this book is my curse. Maybe that’s why it chose me. There is no map. I would know. And I am okay with that (in the process of). Let go, take the plunge. Be bold, and make art. It hurts. You don’t know if it’ll work; that’s the point. You suffer and evolve; you face and rise. You become the vessel capable of bearing great art. It is you that needs to change. The art is there; God is with you. Open your eyes.

*Do I have a choice?: If you read this book and it pulls you, and words resonate, even if not fully grasped, you read with your heart, and you disappear into the words. Yes. But what springs forth is to be uncovered and lived. Your art will change as you change. Unholy work shall turn holy in an artist's hands that are clean. One that expresses freely, one that steps aside, one that mends worldly dramas and becomes a vessel worthy of Him. In further chapters, we discuss meditation and mending your past.

A-R-T, 3 letters, and a lifetime of pain. I don’t know what I am doing most of the time. And when I pretend I do, you can be most certain that I don’t. Art is alive; I ride the wave. If I hold on, if I claim, it disappears. If I pretend to know, I bathe in ignorance. When I make art, I disappear. Life is such that you cannot know it; you can only live it, be it. Cling onto it, and your drama is all you see. God is; all else is your own drama. ‘To be or not to be’ (Shakespeare) is a question that rings in me. When I don’t engage in art, I philosophize my experience making art. Then, I relay my findings in the words of men. To describe the indescribable, the poise, the dance, the wave of life in words that are doomed to fail. I started to understand why artists go insane. They dance on the edge of the world; how could they not? How can you reenter this world of pain after you communed with God for hours? How can you walk among men when you create with the angels? Reality is a tough nut. I tried to crack it and found it empty. I have come to the conclusion that the only sane way to know life is to live it and be it. When I let go, I disappear, and life is left. Perhaps I never was? Or perhaps I am greater than I thought I was, dancing in an intelligence that could never be mine but carries me. Who am I to use my own little mind against God’s will? I am his child, and I play, and he takes care of me. Solely in my ignorance of the fact, I seem alone and fragile. With him, I have no pain; why walk alone? But in forgetfulness, I suffer. We know the physics, the mathematics, and the rules of the objective world; by analyzing parts, we attempt to know the whole. But do we know the subject? All areas end in God. Study an area for a lifetime — all roads end in him. My study is meditation, non-doing, and art. God through art. I don’t know what carries me, but I am delighted to join the dance. Shall I just shut up and make art? No matter what words I use, they will never be God; they will only confuse. No words = God. Words = men. Where the words end, God begins. We pay so much importance to our own dramas that we forget the most vital thing of all, the highest knowledge — the end of knowledge. When you relinquish all, you join the dance. Can you understand religion? Can you know life? Can you understand God? Well, I don’t. Some time ago, I jumped off the edge from knowing to unknowing. And I don’t care to return.

I bathe in Him and make art. I suggest you do the same.

Where is my muse? There is no muse. Look within. Meet God eternal through your own being in your flesh and live religion, then make art.
Art is your spiritual discipline, your way home. Home to God, home to yourself. Making and sharing art is devotional work and work that, when created selflessly, lets you enter into a bond. That bond is a life of service where you shall disappear. Engaging in the infinite game breaks the chains of your selfishness and lets you return to your Father. You made up a dream and played many roles and devotional work, and work that flows without your involvement puts you into deep mediation; great art springs forth from you, and great riches are bestowed, but you, dear reader, disappear. That is the part of the art: to make you commune and be no more. Let the illusion end. And make art.

Art is one layer away from God. But when it is done right—it is God.

Meditation. Meditation is not forced. Meditation happens to the seeker naturally. When one relaxes into oneself, one meditates. It is natural, but worldly dramas create a person that lives in his head. That is the only barrier. Sit and be. But the person in his head has no idea what I mean. To overflow and create art in total absorption is meditation. Full involvement lets you enter into union, into yoga, into liberation, even if just momentarily or while you get lost in your work. The term ‘Flow’ (Csikszentmihalyi) was coined for such occurrences when time disappears and the act flows naturally. The practitioner is in his own way. Total-freedom-self-expression is what makes a great artist and keeps one creative—Ever wondered why the muse leaves artists that are stuck in their heads? They call it writer's block and blame the world. They did not lose the spark; they made their dramas cloud the light, the ray of creation. They have forsaken God. As soon as they humbly return having mended their worldly affairs, pure creation can flow freely. Don’t push aside the dirt for an hour to make art; live meditation by mending your past. Don’t use alcohol and drugs to induce a ‘free’ state, but unplug and let the dirty water escape the drain, and then meditation and making art take care of the rest. The only spiritual discipline you need is making art. Dramas arise in the artist's life; along the way, pain comes in the form of people, money, circumstances, etc. Through pain, we grow. Face everything, and do not run away. Be truthful and forgive. The next chapter is the How.

Close open loops. Open Loops: Anything emotionally unresolved within your being that keeps the drama going in your head or is forced into the subconscious mind. ●  Correct untruths; do not engage in untruths anymore. Call up or meet people, apologize, and state the truth. ●  Give back borrowed money in time, make a plan, tell the party involved about your plan, and apologize. (Anything borrowed or promised: give back, or take back promise.) ●  Any wrongdoing, any cheating and stealing, and anything you feel guilt about have to be mended in your own heart and communicated vocally to the party involved. ●  When forgiveness is not in your heart, anger is not yet worked through. Work through it alone, directed at no one. Work through it at home, reimagining events, and let the anger out—journal about it. Once the anger is gone, forgiveness will arise. Often, misunderstood events cause trouble. Communicate and get the full story. Ignorance and not understanding others is often the root of your unforgiveness. ●  Say no. You said yes, all too much. Stand your ground and say no. Keep energetic boundaries up at all times. Create a safe space, and do not mingle with other emotions or take on burdens that aren't yours. Support with strength, don’t also die. Work on saying no. ●  Keep a journal: Anything that pings at you (big or small) gets noted. As time allows, untangle what came up. Close open loops. ●  As soon as you engage in creating future Karma and entanglements, come to your senses. Disengage or correct the situation as it arises or in retrospect. Stay conscious. ●  To resolve emotions, have the courage to face them. Sit with them and observe them until they fade away. When they come back again, gently observe them without judgment and let the energy exhaust itself to resolution. Your emotional state represents you at your core. To change yourself and your behavior change at the emotional level. To rationalize in your mind for change and control is not final resolution. ●  Poke the bear: when you create art, go further—to the edges and beyond. Test your boundaries, surpass your fears, and repeat. Contemplate upon past experiences that caused your self-restriction. View those childhood traumas, laugh at them, and say, ‘No more!’. ‘This is not me anymore; I chose to rise above my past!’. Imagine holding your past self and explaining to that child that all is okay, that you are mending the pain and freeing your little self. Show the child who you are now—rising above the suppression! Meditate and hold that child close until the emotions settle. Then make art! Art is to be taken to the edges and beyond. Art is your ticket to freedom—break the imaginary walls. ●  Clean your home. All unnecessary things go to charity or in the bin. Everything pulls at you. A simple life is a happy life. I have 30 T-shirts and 4 jeans, 6 jackets, 6 pullovers and 5 pairs of shoes, a cat, my laptop, and a beautiful apartment that shines in simplicity. Momentos are great; hoarding has emotional roots. ●  Money is an issue mostly because unconscious patterns and emotional habits drive spending. Make a spreadsheet of all expenses and allocate a budget to every area of spending. Now you see your monthly expenses. Keep it clean and track everything that comes in and goes out. Make it simpler still, and remove all unnecessary expenses. Calculate your runway (savings match spending for X months). Money is only a problem to unaware hearts. One who is aware and knows how to spend and when to indulge and has strict rules and budgets has a good night's sleep. Get money out of your head by spending a weekend sorting out that big drama. Have a part-time job or freelance if you have no income from your art. Often, it is better to have safety and keep your art apart from your money dramas. Money is holy; you have made it unholy. It is your resource. Honer yourself and take care of yourself! It is holy. It is beautiful. It takes care of you and lets the world run, stocks the grocery stores, and lets you ultimately explore making art. Take control of your life. Unconsciousness is the problem. You will feel pain and resistance, making the unaware aware. Fight through it. Dedicate a weekend.

The goal is to get all your emotions in order. Get the mess a little cleaned up to create space for creation. Guilt, anger, unforgiveness (towards self and others), and feeling sorry are all emotions you can work through and mend in the world. Meditate and get affairs in order emotionally first, then communicate selflessly to resolve the drama outwardly. After you have forgiven, you will be able to forgive yourself. Don’t go to church to repent. Actually, repent. The world is a mirror. If you resent others, that feeling will match your feelings about yourself. You are not able to forgive yourself as you hold unforgiveness towards others. You are judging others, so you cannot freely create and judge yourself. The root lies with you. You created your drama; you can also undo it. How great news that is! You created and held your pain dearly; now, you take responsibility for your life and clean it all up. Keep a diary where you note down what pings at you. As you start to clean the big mess, small unresolved feelings appear that need mending. Your soul is grateful you finally want to clean up, and it will gladly give you more dirt of the past. Bear in mind not to create more in the present! All unwanted emotions within your body are toxic. That toxicity is directed at you, and you self-harm. If you are angry at someone—You suffer. Let that be clear. You are killing yourself slowly.

‘When I was young, younger than before
I never saw the truth hanging from the door
And now I'm older, see it face-to-face
And now I'm older, gotta get up, clean the place’ —‘Place To Be’ by Nick Drake

I play the infinite game of making and sharing art. When art is created, the artist grows, but the world stays the same. When the art meets the world, the artist grows, and the world responds. That feedback loop is the game. Make art, be courageous enough to ship it, and repeat. That is every artist’s little secret. Meditation is you being you to the brim. What overflows is art.

Infinite: Collecting compound interest for life internally and externally.
Game: Fun, has levels, never ends, sucks at times, hurts, and brings unmatched joy.
Making: Where the work and magic happen, evolve or die, rebirths and struggles.
Sharing: Find the courage to share devotional work and enter a life of service.
Art: Take an artist and put them into meditation; let them meet God. What overflows is art.

I play the infinite game of making and sharing art. That is my recipe, my sanity, and my muse. This is the only proven way. The only equation that works. Evolution with time and pain and iteration and suffering makes you the artist you are born to become. Meet your full potential by understanding the equation. It is up to you to live up to your potential. God creates. His children create when they know him. His children are created in his image. He loves and overflows, so he creates his children and lets them play and evolve freely, making decisions and learning from real repercussions. He lets them walk alone, and he lets them choose to return to him. Freedom is his name. And now, create my children. Create, birth, and become. Struggles shall mend your soul and make you pure to see the world as it is—Alive in your rays.

The life of an artist. I keep my options open. Right now, I am writing a book. But I have no plans beyond that. I believe plans are mostly useless, except for social commitments and dental visits. Furthermore, they stand in the way of life. Very literally, they take you layers away from reality. I believe in optionality. I believe that new information comes at me daily and that I cannot possibly know what I prefer tomorrow and even less what happens tomorrow that affects my future. Probabilistic knowledge and projections are fine; plans set in stone are against our nature. Things change. Life is to be lived intelligently in the moment with options and information at our disposal. The chapters of this book surprise me, and I discover them just as you do. While you explore the pages, I explore the pages. I never know what I will write until I do. Surprisingly, it works out well, and everything runs smoothly. How can that be? I used to force life, and nothing worked; all was complex, and I had stressful nights and even more anxious days. How will I provide for myself and make my business run? —Forcing myself onto life in full force. The knowledge available to our ego is very limited. When you make yourself available to real creation, something much vaster takes over that knows the best action, and you take it. You learn to obey and let life work itself out. You trust that this is exactly what you need right now, and you better learn from it to free yourself of this pattern coming at you in the future. You learn that life has its plans, and you better listen. You also learn that when you listen, good things happen. Intuition is a fine organ. Petty ignorance is futile. Nature is highly intelligent; we stand in the way of life. How ignorant of us to think we operate best with our limited knowledge. We are part of a connected intelligence that we swim in. We can use that to your advantage. Life is more fun that way, too. Creative living, spontaneous living combined with intelligent use of the intellect and still keeping social commitments and filing taxes seems like a great life—the life of an artist.

I meet the day fully. No plans or schedules. Pure unfoldment.
It’s impractical when you don’t know yourself—the best life when you do.

Your journey is your gem. To build an online business around your art, think: what is my journey? First, you are an Artist. Second, you are a Teacher. Make art and uncover who you are and what part you serve. As long as you are searching, you are not finding: engage in making and sharing art actively. You understand your gem from your unique perspective and lessons learned through your unique struggles. The idea that you spread, stand for, and explore further for the benefit of others and yourself. By that, you will be able to monetize your craft. You build a business around being a teacher while you share your art. Your art also reflects that one core idea. Everything aligns with your one goal.

An example:
I have written songs from a young age. It is my art, my heart, and my soul. Writing songs is my spiritual discipline. My art satisfied my ego and, with pain in time, led me to God. From pain to God through art. That was my journey.
I realized that I could create art in meditation and make it come alive. ‘Living Art’ is what I call it. It’ll take me to make living music. That journey is yet to be claimed by me; I am excited to walk it! But then something awoke in me. And words on paper, chapters came to me much like through dreams songs at age fifteen (more of an ‘I have no choice, this is good’ feeling). Now, this book comes into being. I realize through this book that my part is to awaken artists; ‘Make Sleeping Artists Roar,’ as I like to put it. My journey became my gem, quite naturally—unforced. Now, I can share my gem as a book, and then I will tune in, listen, and find opportunities to expand further and reach the right hearts: a YouTube Channel, a Podcast, and a Community are my initial thoughts. Perhaps just books & songs. The Internet offers unlimited opportunities. Learn to use the internet and explore freely—Tinker with technology. And express what you have to express with your truth, in your way, with your personality by using the internet and social media as tools. You use them and not the other way around. Explore and have fun. Entrepreneurship is natural.

Living Art. If you create living art, you will delight the world with the highest potential of a blooming artist. An artist who is alive creates living art. A transmission of sorts, a seed planted. Work that lives on its own; work that is alive to the ones tuned to the light. It is an initiation. As you meditate and come alive, what you touch turns to gold. Heavenly works live on. Those timeless works are held sacred. Incalculable is the value of such work in the world. It gets preserved, and that light lights hearts on fire. There are sacred places in the world made sacred by sacred people. There are also sacred objects. You, dear reader, can make your art a sacred object with the intention, the desire, and your pure heart. Make your hands clean and create with God and the angels. Make the world a beautiful place. We count on you.

When I was fifteen, music found me. Like an old friend, it embraced me. When I was lonely, it gave me a home. When there was art, there was no pain.
Art came to me as a gift from heaven. An escape from school and the hostility behind the four walls of our home, the thoughts in my head, and the hole in my heart. All throughout my anxious high school years, my mother’s suffering and passing, and my father’s bankruptcy, there was music. When I was a horrible sister and a burdensome daughter, music was my patient friend. When I turned away, music awaited my return with open arms. The home I never had, the love I seldom felt, that was music to me—the one constant in my life. So I took my friend and made him my slave. I took the magic and turned it into dirt. I tried to quench my thirst for love and attention and my burning desire for money and fame by abusing music. The innocence vanished, the joy burned out, the song's brilliance slowly lost its charm, and ugly music, well, ugly music no one wants. So, I was stranded with what I knew to be my purpose since it infected me with joy at age fifteen, on a dry shore without nourishment for my shriveled soul. And so I left it all in my drawer, neatly packed away for another time. And that time would not come for a long time. I moved to London after school and partied. Money was provided by my parents. I drank and danced and laughed and almost got married. My mum was already ill, and I dreaded going home, for I knew the fated end. Once home, it took a year. And of that year, I do not speak. It left its scars on the family. There was no family after my mother's passing; everyone went their own way. I tried my luck in entrepreneurship, failed often, failed big, and moved in with my grandmother. My mother's death surely humbled my ego, but losing everything a few times broke me. My identity shifted and loosened, and even my eyes relaxed, and my wrinkles softened as I surrendered to my fate. I stopped cursing the world. I was no genius. I was a worker. And working I can, failing I have learned, and standing up is now ritual and woven into my being. And guess who poked me once more, gently but cheekily? One night, after a moonlit stroll, I felt the urge to write a little song. The guitar felt so foreign in my hands, yet so familiar. Tears came, and the song wrote itself. That feeling of grace I have not felt since my young years. And soon and naturally, good songs came in dreams, came while I was strolling the city, and came when I watched the birds outside my window. I slipped into a spell that felt like the first sip of coffee in the morning. I was free. 

The world is a strange place. You and I are walking down the street and locking eyes. I feel terrible that day but your spark of sun touches my soul. Suddenly, I carry myself differently, taller than before. My stroll seems lighter and more elastic. The wind carries me as much as I move through the air. The breeze feels fresh on my cheeks, and I notice it for the first time, actually. It is softly stroking me like my mother was when I was a little girl. Someone I pass by is smoking a cigarette, and I inhale the smoke. It takes me back to my grandmother's place, and I smell the coffee beans she is grinding in the kitchen and the stale smell of an empty apartment we only visit every three years to see her. How peculiar that I forgot about her existence. Now, she is right here with me. I walk a little further, and a couple argues, yet their raised voices don’t seem to affect me all too much. All I feel is peace. Who were you infecting me with your stare? Will you come back for me? Will you lighten my load? You don’t know the power you hold, the people you touch, and the lives you change. You are an artist, don’t you forget that! Artists are open; they breathe life into the world. Your mere presence is art: your expression, your walk, your talk, your freedom, your grace. Artists translate God to deaf ears. Bring beauty to the blind. And robbing the world of art is a sin. And denying the world of your grace has consequences. 

ততততত When was the last time you made art you were proud of? When was the last time you created art for the joy of it, for its own sake? When time sweetly slipped away, like all your troubles. That time, you made something worthwhile but don’t know how. And then you cheekily felt like a great artist, a genius, a messiah. And for that moment of creation, you were. But were you? That sweet memory, when grace carried your hand, and all was flowing without force. How you really had nothing to do, the art was conducting your every move. The song wrote itself; the words used you to come to life; for a moment, you were a salve to the divine, but you didn’t mind that at all, did you? You were glad she played you a fool. You are delighted to be hers and create for her alone. That is grace, and you know it by experience. It is all too familiar yet so out of reach. It is a meditation of sorts. Action turns into non-action, where the subject and the object merge. And artists have plenty of it. Not that they could own it (they sure try), but get lost in, bathe in, and create from it. And perhaps that is the secret. Of it we shall not speak; it is to be left unsaid; all words cannot hold it or claim it, explain it or relay it. But for the purpose of this book, we shall call it grace. And grace comes from God, like an emanation. 

ততততত Art comes in many forms. But art always holds the state of its maker. The maker can make art by force—great force, infused with lower intentions or intentions of higher order that require less force. The greatest works of art are not made. They do not require a maker. They come from grace. They are brought to life by the artist—from maker to vessel. 

ততততত Art comes in many states. Dead, alive, or in-between.
Alive artists create living art. Having touched grace and embraced it, they create freely, without much effort, for the greater good. The dead create dead art for the dead. Self-serving and perpetuating the state of lack of the artist. Their transmission is welcomed by recipients who are sharing that lack. To recognize alive work takes someone alive. 

ততততত Art holds great power. It can change the recipient and, hence, the world. It can also degrade and perpetuate darkness. The artist who desires power, money, and recognition creates art that reflects that lack and perpetuates that desire in its recipients. 

ততততত Art is freely available to all. So is grace. But to access grace, artists must empty their cups. Meditation, mending the past with true forgiveness, and uncovering genuine love are required. Once the artist is free of their dramas, real creation has space to flow. The artist then learns from the art. The artist then teaches through the art. 

ততততত Making art is a spiritual journey. Most artists start in lack and infuse their art with their lower intentions. The art is a mirror of their state of being. That art rarely gets attention from the world, and when it does, it often halts the true progress of the artist. Artists often desire money and fame. What they actually want is genuine support to grow out of that state, but masking pain by gaining power will do for a while. To heal one's wounds is a much harder undertaking that requires great courage. 

ততততত When fame and money elude the artist or fame and money simply won’t mask the pain any longer, the artist starts to change. By self-analysis that leads to emotional change at the being level, the artist softens his ego, relaxes into his work, and his work starts to change. When self-serving intentions don’t fill the cup, perhaps making art for others will. A life of service is the natural next step. 

ততততত Along the journey, the artist meets pain and either grows in love or degrades in love. Artists often grow bitter making art until the pain is so heavy that a breakthrough happens, and great art slips through. Naturally, the artist wants to hold on to that moment of grace, but grace eludes them. And inducing ‘free states’ of alcohol and drugs are but a shadow of grace and a trap. 

ততততত Grace eludes the ones who chase grace. Grace is not owned; it is lived. It is experienced. It can never be the artists’, but the artist may bathe in grace while creating art. Grace is not physical; it is of a higher order. It can only emanate from your being when your being reflects love with the intention of service for the greater good. 

ততততত Facing pain, the artist grows in time. Eventually, the artist makes art without much effort, creation flows, and the world notices that the art is good. The last step is to go from maker to vessel and create work entirely from and infused by grace. 

ততততত There is no higher or lower-level artist. There are only artists who are blind and artists bathing in grace and in between. It is a choice to grow up, mature in love, and empty the cup—self-discovery through pain and reflection and creating a lot of ugly art to get to the bottom of it all. It is a challenging journey. But true artists have no choice but to walk it. 

The journey has its ups and downs; is unpredictable and non-linear. Weeks of struggle and force accumulate to a revelation, the surrender of obstructions, and an experience of greater creation. Pain humbles with each successful or failed attempt; the lesson is the point. As the artist grows, so does the art. The art becomes beautiful in an artist's hands that are clean. A clear vessel creates great art. It is the artist that needs to change; the art is available to all; grace surrounds and encompasses all artists. Some are just tuned to it well. The tuning is so fine that it is missed by most. Taking part in the dance of creation by submitting oneself to it fully and giving oneself to the art completely is the ultimate goal and purpose of every artist— self-dissolution into the work. Karma jog. The yoga of action (non-action), service, and giving. An artist gives gifts. First, he gives misery, as all he knows is misery. In time, by washing the clothes of his past, he gives light. That light will awaken hearts and be visible to hearts tuned to the light. Such is the journey of the arts—the journey of the soul. 

ততততত To break the mold of the past, the artist purges by creating art. The great purge happens when art, artist, and grace meet. Meditation is the merging, the dissolution of the artist into the art. The great three are but one. The art, the creation, and the artist flow with life and emanate grace. That grace gets captured in the work of art, and that work of art comes alive. Living art is holy art. Holy art is a sacred object infused with grace. Grace awakens, grace nourishes, and lets the receiver meet God through the art, through you. You are the introduction. You are the friend that opens the door—be a good friend—That is the highest act, the non-act, the meeting as one through art conceived alone. 

ততততত When the artist grows internally by facing pain, that growth is reflected in the art. Making art causes growth by showing and mirroring the artist’s state back to him. It is the perfect learning tool: undeniable, solid personal proof that the process works, that love is the way, that God is the truth; his work changes, and he will witness it; he will feel the change internally; he will be freer, more joyous and light; the world will not be such a dark place anymore. The change is undeniable; hence, grace becomes a reality, not a distant dream. 

ততততত All obstructions can be cleared, and genuine talent uncovered. With ease and like magic, the right action at the right moment arises. Great hits of inspiration, spontaneous speaking, writing, composing, and collaboration happen. When bathing in grace, even the mistakes sound beautiful. The book writes itself, and the arrangement falls into place. 

Meditate to experience who you are and meditate through art to express who you are. Meditation is an exceptional first step. Most spiritual journeys start with a meditation practice. The meditation practice of an artist is making art. The goal of the practice is to disappear into the art: Non-doing/meditation or supreme flow. Start by setting the intention for your session. Start by praying or speaking the intention in your head while relaxing your body. Pray to be assisted in your session. Pray that you make yourself available to real creation and give yourself as a vessel to God/Grace or whatever word feels safe. Pray for assistance and guidance. Meditate for a few minutes to center yourself. Clear the space (your apartment/room you make art in) by imagining the clearing of the space energetically; however, you feel your imagination can best clear out the past built-up energy. Matter is affected by the mind; simply imagine, and you will do just fine. Your imagination grows with practice. Now, imagine your body relaxing and filling up with the right energy for your art session. Artists are often right-brained, and this practice comes naturally. In case you are left-brained, try it; what’s the loss? Try it; you might feel better. That’s all; it is a shift in your level of being, a relaxation of sorts. Maybe it makes your art flow better. Just see and experiment with it. Be your own judge. Now, make art. Don’t force any state, but simply make art. After your session, write a few lines about your experience: 

You have just created your own meditation practice. Great job. Now, to make space for creation to flow, keep up the practice and grow it into the rest of your life. When you walk your dog or do the dishes, get back into that state of flow and bliss. Breathe in life and come alive. Bring grace to the rest of your life. Often, grace gets interrupted and is obstructed by your dramas. God is; all else is your own drama. To clear your drama, you mend your past. 

ততততত It is very important that you keep up your meditation practice! Make it a ritual. Every week, have a session that starts with your prayer and meditation; give yourself a few hours to freely flow and embrace art as it wants to come through. Have an open calendar on your art session days. Then, journal about your experience. Take your art to the edges and beyond. Get lost in it and let the art take you places. All else will fall into place. Just keep the practice going. 

ততততত Some will find it beneficial to read the entire book as a meditation and then dive into the art session—experiment. The book is meant to put you into a state of pure being. Practice to let go and read with an open heart. Dive into the words and get lost in them. The words and lines are just letters; it is about the experience. Don’t seek to understand intellectually. The non-physical is never grasped by the intellect. At the end of knowledge, you find God. 

ততততত Make art and break imaginary walls. Uncover your part and embrace your gift. Then, share your gift with the world. My intention with these books is to poke you. If parts feel uncomfortable, go back and work on them. Ask yourself why you feel the way you feel. Chances are there is some truth in those lines for you, or else those lines wouldn’t hurt or bother you. Go back, contemplate, embrace. Take what you can use and leave the rest. Don’t pet your ego; poke it. Make art for yourself and your own growth, but dedicate it to the receiver of the art, and give your art to God. Make art that changes the recipient; make art with purpose. Make art out of joy and as a gift. Make art because you are an artist, and make art because it is your way home. Always delighted to poke you!