When a beautiful rose dies beauty does not die because it is not really in the rose. Beauty is an awareness in the mind. It is a mental and emotional response that we make. We respond to life as though it were perfect. When we go into a forest we do not see the fallen rotting trees. We are inspired by a multitude of uprising trees. We even hear a silence when it is not really silent. When we see a new born baby we say it is beautiful — perfect. The goal of life is happiness and to respond to life as though it were perfect is the way to happiness. It is also the way to positive art work.

We respond to beauty with emotion. Beauty speaks a message to us. We are confused about
this message because of distractions. […] It is not in the role of an artist to worry about life — to feel responsible for creating a better world. This is a very serious distraction. All of your conditioning has been directed toward intellectual living. This is useless in art work. All human knowledge is useless in art work. Concepts, relationships, categories, classifications, deductions are distractions of mind that we wish to hold free for inspiration.

There are two parts of the mind. The outer mind that records facts and the inner mind that says “yes” and “no”. When you think of something that you should do the inner mind says “yes” and you feel elated. We call this inspiration. For an artist this is the only way. There is no help anywhere. He must listen to his own mind. The way of an artist is an entirely different way. It is a way of surrender. He must surrender to his own mind.

To progress in life you must give up the things that you do not like. Give up doing the things that you do not like to do. You must find the things that you
do like. The things that are acceptable to your mind. You can see that you will have to have time
to yourself to find out what appeals to your mind. While you go along with others you are not really living your life. To rebel against others is just as futile. You must find your way.