Nayaswami Jamuna and fellow artists Kathleen Riley and Robyn Mattis conducted a retreat for lovers of great art at the Heart Song Retreat north of Seattle. Here’s their report:
Great art can enlighten the mind and delight the senses, but its beauty can also awaken deep spiritual insights into the soul. On Saturday, July 25, the Meditations on Art retreat at Heart Song Retreat Center drew participants into a vibrant and lively exploration of the ways in which artists not merely depict the material world, but communicate a vision, a reflection, and a spiritual understanding of life itself.
Swami Kriyananda (J. Donald Walters) often spoke of the “hidden messages” in great works of art. Retreat participants explored ways in which we can each align ourselves in our own personal way to the great hidden message of all art: that beyond all appearances lies a greater, luminous reality, and that the human soul is capable of attunement with it.
Participants gathered and each shared a meaningful personal art experience. This was followed by a period of meditation and guided visualization. The group then explored, with commentaries by the presenters, selected works of masters such as Sandro Botticelli, John Constable, and Rembrandt through slides and high-quality reproductions. Each explained their own responses to the paintings, with lively contributions and discussions by the rest of the group.
After lunch came the dynamic heart of the retreat: retreatants gathered in groups of two, each choosing an image from the many books and reproductions of the artists’ works that were made available. They then showed their chosen image to the larger assembly, explaining the reasons that this work of art had touched them. This was followed by a brief period of silence and then group response. It was a time of deep sharing, with heartfelt discussion, some gentle laughter, and even a few tears.
The retreat ended with prayers of joy and gratitude, and with confidence that in great art we can discern the “hidden message” that is present for each of us when we approach it with deep attention and stillness. When we go to an art show, or a museum, good art can speak to us. We don’t need to have an “arts education”, we don’t need to “know about” art. Just be still and observant and allow the hidden message to unfold before us.
From Ananda Seattle (WA)