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I could still remember the summer when I first met Knox Martin. It was extremely hot and humid in the Big Apple. I was done with Joe Stapleton, I thought he had nothing further to offer except clinging onto a certain dead concept of partial calligraphic abstraction. Then I had become friend with a young woman at the Art Student League. It was partly through that woman’s induction, but largely because of a gorgeous work by Knox Martin on display outside the ASL, that I was brought into a studio class of the great master.
My first impression about Knox was that, no matter what age he was in, he could be characterized as an ungrown!
All the true masters have it,–the aspect of agelessness in the person.
But little had I realized at that point that I was destined to meet the greatest teacher in my life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, I was much more vulnerable than I am now,–that’s why I had not passed the golden opportunity by.
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Most of you here, art teacher, professor, doctor, celebrity, billionaire, artist, scientist, housewife, or school bus driver, are clinging onto the past, unwilling to part with nothingness,….that is why even when the Dharma of Painting, or the Dharma of Life (as expounded by the 6th patriarch, or Krishnamurti, as well as Osho,) was brought right under your nose, little have you even been aware of it!
Art teacher, professor, doctor, celebrity, billionaire, artist, scientist, housewife, or school bus driver are images. They are the episodes, or the scenarios, where you have found yourself in,– in the larger dream picture of life. There is no reality to it. When you are not aware of it, those scenarios will become you!
When that happens, ahh,…what a nightmare!
Sorry, but that unfortunately is the case! Have you got even a glimpse of delight when after you have merrily settled in any of those roles?
I thought I would be happier if I had come into money, made a name for myself in the world, become a doctor, become a professor, become a scientist, or become an artist, …., but was I really ?
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Remember: all will come to naught: it shouldn’t take another 30 years to realize that simple arithmetic!
There is more to lose in keeping what you have already lost!
Zero is the arithmetic of Life!