Michelangelo believed that images already existed in the blocks of marble as if they were locked. Before the first cut, he thought, the sculptor should first discover the idea within and then proceed to remove the excess stone. Michelangelo, so easy for him, just chipped away from the marble what was not statue.
In the same manner, our ego, our brain coded sense of identity, is like a huge stone, sometimes truly heavy; within that rock there also lies our true nature, our own piece of art. If we are to find it, as the great Italian Renaissance artist suggests for marbles, we also have to remove the excess. We do possess the skills to chip away what is not really us and, when we are done, we’ll experience life and everything else very differently.
Our true nature comes out spontaneously after silencing our conditioned reactions. We do not find it though personality tests or psychological inquiries because your answers to such trials come from the conditionings that already make up our ego. We do not develop, build or refine our true nature; it is already in there. Neither we come across it by doing gimmicks or learning routines; the process is more about quieting mental noise and unlearning mental habits.
Once Michelangelo removed the redundant fragments, the harmony of his Pietà, his David or his Moses was magnificent. What will we find when we cut down the surplus of our ego stone? Well, within us, there is also harmony, the inner harmony of our true nature. We just have to remove the unnecessary.
Gustavo Estrada
Author of HACIA EL BUDA DESDE EL OCCIDENTE