To a teacher of life's Mysteries nothing excites the imagination more than when someone comes along who
can illuminate the spiritual forces that underlie an activity. In this book, Paul Heussenstamm reveals Art as a
path into the spiritual realms where The Artist is discovered and where the experiences of the Heart Chakra
or fourth state of human consciousness - the Anahata as it is called in the Eastern spiritual traditions - are
known, integrated, and become modulating influences in the expression of The Artist through the artist.
To the uninitiated, an artist is an individual who has learned and developed certain skills to express a
rendering of either the inner or outer world available to him or to her. The initiated artist knows that the
inspiration and the signature expression come through as impulses or as a compulsion from something
beyond the personal self. It is as if the person is the living vehicle of expression for a larger and more
collective Being. The more the individual surrenders to this Call (transpersonal impulse) the greater is
the power and endowment of the creation. The exposure to any work manifesting through this kind of
artist can be enough to induct such a potential in the viewer. An even more powerful way is simply
"hang out" with the artist whether through classes or as he or she artistically expresses this fascinating
grace. It is not a matter of asking questions or of learning technique. It has everything to do with riding
along in the radiance of The Artist operating through the person. It is similar to a coattail trip.
The word artist then is being capitalized to differentiate the technically skilled artist from the person who
is a supplicant to and an instrument for a transpersonal mystery that manifests through the individual as
artistic expression in life style and in painting. The Artist is then a genie, a daemon, an archetype, or,
as in the eastern experiences, an intermediate Tolku - a Beingness that is the metaphysical quintessence
of the action expressed whose source is beyond the ego structures.
For every great human expression there are transpersonal equivalents that, when accessed, transform the
expression from the mundane to the sublime. We could then speak of The Healer, The Warrior, The Mother,
The Father, The Teacher, The Child, and so on. In this book, Paul is addressing an approach to experience
the grace of The Artist. It is a development that transforms the individual from a purely self-centered and
egoistic expression and understanding of Life to an individual who sacrifices the personal for the transpersonal
awareness. In doing so, the individual is graced with resources, senses, and insights that can only be called
Awakened.
As Paul reveals, The Artist, cannot be willed nor can it be forced into development. This is the mystery.
One can only be Graced by its Presence and then only through a sacrifice of self-centeredness.
The action into The Artist involves surrender, letting go, allowing, opening, petitioning, prayer, and inner
supplication. Although this is the usual path to prepare for the transformation there are plenty of examples
where the transformation took place spontaneously without conscious participation of the individual. He or
she simply wakes up to the fact that something larger than his or her own sense of self is operating inside
and expressing itself through action in the world.
It is important to understand the difference between the artist who is occupied with artistic expression
and the artist who is Called, in the spiritual sense, to express a collective and transcendent mystery.
The former is an unconscious reflection of the sacred that lies behind the artistic expression. The works
are technically and skillfully expressed and meet, to a large measure, what we usually call art. The artist
who is Called enters the vocation (this word means to be called by divine inspiration) of The Artist. It is
not a choice nor is it a willed expression. The individual is truly an instrument and realizes such.
What does the spiritual path of the artist have to do with such an esoteric realization as the experience
of the Transpersonal through the Heart Center or Chakra?
First, the definition of the state of consciousness as experienced through the transpersonal forces of
The Heart Center needs to be considered.
Thousands of years ago, the eastern approach to spirituality, differentiated the several states of awareness
available to the individual in his or her path of spiritual realization. Each of the levels or aspects of consciousness
are distinct and quite beyond the surface or ordinary human awareness. To achieve realization of any of these
states of consciousness is a lifetime discipline, requiring enormous sacrifice of one's ordinary human expression.
The states of awareness are associated with radiant forces emanating from different levels of the physical body.
The Root chakra, for instance, is connected to the elemental aspects of manifestation and is located between the
anus and the genitals. This state of consciousness would best be described as the path of the Shaman.
The Sexual chakra or second chakra radiance is discovered between the genitals and the lower abdomen just
above the pubic bone. The Sexual chakra state of consciousness is expressed in procreative forces of all kinds.
The best examples of individuals who are masters of this realm are Tantric Masters and the Dakinis of the east.
There is the Solar Plexus chakra, the Splenic chakra, the Heart chakra, the Throat chakra, the 3rd Eye chakra,
and the Crown chakra. Each has a radiate vortex of energy at a specific location in the body and each is associated
with a distinct state of consciousness. Again, each of the states of awareness associated with the energy centers
of the body is transpersonal - beyond the ordinary consciousness and operates independently of the surface
consciousness.
The Heart chakra or Center forces are, for Paul and many others, a profoundly moving and appropriate
preparation to becoming an "instrument" or a living incarnation of The Artist. The ego undergoes a
change from the "me and mine" centered awareness to the "us and ours" dimensionality of being.
The ego suffers a deflation yet in doing so becomes a much larger carrier of the deeper mysteries of life.
The Heart Center experience is therefore a development where the surface consciousness becomes aware
of the larger more transcendental aspects of life and places its resources in service to this larger mystery.
The Heart Center is not a personal state of consciousness. It is impersonal yet deeply feeling.
Of the two transcendent or spiritual states of awareness available to most Westerners - The Mind and
The Heart - the Heart expresses in the reality of relationships rather than in differentiation and discernment realities.
The Artist knows innately the relationship of color, form, composition, feeling, and meaning without the need for
words or concepts. It is through the whole that the experience comes and not through its parts. In Paul's case,
The Artist's Eye becomes available. The larger dimensional relationships of life and objects are seen in new ways
completely unavailable to the surface eye.
All anyone has to do to experience the power of creative genius is to enter Paul Heussenstamm's home.
On wall after wall are the products of his vocation - his Call into being a vehicle through which The Artist
expresses. These are not works of art that Paul possesses. Rather, they possess him. It is in this sense
that the capital "A" of The Artist as discussed in this introduction and in this book, is to be understood.
To capitalize the word artist is to reveal its spiritual basis. Again, The Artist refers to the daemon or
genie - a transcendental overarching influence - to which any great artist surrenders and which guides the
unfoldment and development of the expression. It does not refer to the person that submits to such forces.
The person as vehicle is the artist but is not The Artist. It is the spiritual aspect, the transcendent aspect,
of being an artist that Paul so richly explores in his book.
In our culture we speak of those individuals who are inspired beyond the ordinary as masters.
Paul is an unfolding master.
I am a very appreciative witness to Paul's path of artistic spiritual expression. His creative flow expressed
in his paintings has augmented most of my conferences over the past 25 years constantly inducting and
communicating the deeper soul mysteries to the attending participants. His famous mandalas - uniquely
conceived soul portraits of individuals grace many homes throughout the country. The essential nature of a
mandala is to express the core (French Coeur) or heart of the matter in question. Paul lets go of his head
and moves to his Heart Center for the images that will become that person's mandala. He is given The
Artist's Eye to know the individual on a transcendent level. Again, this is where the forces of Heart Centering
become important in the initiation into The Artist. The Heart Center's ability to be in a feeling relationship to
the observed allows the Artist to express the soul or essence. The Divinity of the Mind would reach the core
of anything it puts its "mind" to and it will see the essential nature yet it will be unable to flesh out or humanize
the realization. It would express in descriptions and concepts what The Artist can and does express in images
(relationship of forces that appear as images). Ah, the truth of "a picture can express a thousand words".
And what I most appreciate about Paul, more than the paintings themselves, is his Beingness - an extremely
fertile, dynamic and living artistic rendering - an actual incarnation of The Artist who inspires and inducts
through color, passion, word and body love-making, touch, dress, and physical presence. The Artist makes
love to the world through Paul. And we, including Paul, are It's lovers.
W. Brugh Joy
Life Teacher and author of "Joy's Way" and "Avalanche - Heretical Reflections on the Dark and the Light"
