Can art or music inform the ego of Presence?

Q: I've experienced Presence through music, and it's a very profound sense of Grace that I feel… I am being ‘played', in a sense I am an instrument. In a way, what we call instruments are voices. My question is about this connection to the Creative, and the artifacts that come. Does art and music inform the ego of Presence? How does one be part of that manifestation but not get too involved, to keep the distance, so one doesn't become to obsessed with that process?

ET: On the one hand, you have the creative process - music, or art. And then you have the finished product - the piece of music that is played, or the work of art that somebody contemplates.

When you ask, "Can art or music inform the ego of Presence?" – the ego doesn't know anything about Presence, so it can't do that. There needs to be some opening in the ego in order [for you] to be receptive to the power that is latent in music or art, that was created from that deep place.

There's a lot of music and art that's not necessarily created from that deep place, but the ego is trying to be clever. Let's talk about some piece of music or work of art that comes out of connectedness with Stillness, or Presence. To some extent, the work of art or the piece of music still carries that energy field. It can put [a person] in touch with the deeper dimension within. A there's a little bit of an opening is required. If there's only the density of the ego, then the transformational possibilities of art or music are not realized. A little opening is required in the viewer, or the listener, and then it can be quite a wonderful thing to listen to music or to contemplate a work of art. You can be transported, if only for a moment, into that alert stillness out of which it originally came. That's a beautiful thing.

Another aspect is "losing oneself" – going too deep, almost losing oneself in the ground out of which creativity comes. In the creative process, there's always a balance that's needed, so that you don't lose yourself in Being. It could happen to an artist, it can happen to some people who awaken spiritually – they suddenly plunge so deeply into Being that they lose all interest in doing. That happened to some spiritual masters, who spent several years being without doing anything.

For example, Ramana Maharshi in India had to be fed for several years because he would not even pick up food. He was so immersed in Being that he just sat there.  Read more at http://www.eckharttolle.com/newsletter/january-2011