He who checks rising anger
as a charioteer checks a rolling chariot,
him I call a true charioteer.
Others only hold the reins.


The Dhammapada - Chapter 17, Verse 222
(Translated by Ācharya Buddharakkhita)
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A friend of mine showed me a contemporary “art” museum yesterday. You’d understand why I put “art” in quotation marks if you were there.

Let’s put it this way: The piece that stuck out the most was a giant Walmart receipt blown up to the scale of a small coffin, lying haphazardly on the floor. (Don’t ask why that’s the comparison that came to mind. Perhaps a subconscious belief that’s where this person’s artistic aspirations belong.) I can’t even remember what the purchase was. Something unmemorable, obviously.

Beside the piece of “art” next to this tripping hazard, was a sign that read, “Do not touch,” which made me wonder if the juxtaposition was to imply you should touch the receipt. Was this part of the contemporariness of it all? I’m still unsure.

Maybe I’m a simpleton who believes art takes time, effort, and passion—not a three dollar purchase you can scan at your local print shop and blow up with the push of a button—but when I think of art I think of the Mona Lisa. What might da Vinci think of an oversized display of something you’d throw in the trash?

Surely it couldn’t have been so bad, you say? Well, most of the other “art” required you to strain your eyes because theyweremostlyabunchofpieceswithwordssmushed
togetherlikethisbecauseapparentlythat’sartnow. Or they were giant, bloody, glass stalagmite-looking towers with a sign that said, “Trode!”—whatever that means.

The first piece in the first room was a vase with a giant erection. This was also the first and last sexual piece in the entire gallery, and frankly it was all downhill from there. And doubly frankly, when I decided this was the first and last contemporary art museum I’d see.

What does this have to do with Buddhism, you ask? Absolutely nothing, other than the fact that I had to reflect on why this “art” being on display for a $15 admission made me so angry. I’ll let you know if I ever find the answer.

But then again, without it I wouldn’t have the inspiration for this post now would I?

I guess there’s light after all. #ArtistsInspiringArtists