Virtue 8: Arete - Excellence as spiritual practice - The 12 Virtues of the Primordial Artist

This is part 10 in a series exploring the 12 virtues that can free artists from cultural enslavement.

ATTEND

Low quality work creates low quality life. Every act of mediocre works sends us farther away from the Mysterious. Low quality work is essentially building the simulacrum with bad alignment, bad transparency, bad Mystery. Quality is cohesion with the Great Mysterious. Low quality is the opposite. This is a message for the craftsman, not the witness. Though it will affect the witness too. When we do low quality work, we diminish our relationship to the Great Mysterious. Low quality is not paying attention, not caring, not being interested, not being curious, not learning, not developing, not emerging, not making real contact with the work, with the object, with the task. Low quality is saying “I don’t want to be doing this” and is therefor a denial of Reality. “This sucks” is a denial of reality, of the possibility for the Mystery to emerge into the present moment, into the mundane, into this moment here now.

We must be careful of short cuts and of treating tasks like they are just means to an end. When we enter that mind space, we have left the world of Arete. We have left the world of excellence. And have entered the world of mediocrity.

Mediocrity is dangerous because it is self stoking. The more mediocre work you do, the more you will be surrounded by mediocre things, the more my head space will be a mediocre head space, the more you will be known for your mediocre work, the more your life will become an expression of mediocrity.

Low quality things are by definition low resolution things, low piety things, low love things, low courage things. Arete is about excellence. Virtue. To let excellence go in the tasks at hand, is to allow all virtue to slip down. To let the air out of the tires. And to begin a long hard slog through a wasteland of boring work, meaningless tasks, a wasteland life. Low quality is its own form of enslavement for the artist. For you’ve the lost the feeling for your work, because you’ve replaced quality with client satisfaction, client needs being met, paycheck, crowd pleaser, give them what they want. If these are put ahead of quality, the artist will be gone and they will be replaced by the hack.

ENVISION

Robert Persig wrote a whole book about Arete. I recommend it. In the simplest sense I can say it, Arete is spiritual excellence – it points to the Mysterious, it is above simulacrum – it is an early concept – an early coordinating measure. The word dates at least back to Homer and the pre-Greeks, but there’s evidence it connects to cultures all over the world. Whenever you see a word with an R and a T in there, there’s a good chance its been born from the concept of Arete. Right. Ritual. Greatness. Correct. Rta. Bright. Virtue. Routine.

Arete is the practice of moving toward higher quality. In any task, in any moment, it is our chance to move towards higher quality. How could I do this a little better? Is there a better hand position for using this tool? Is this tool as good as it can be? Is there another better way to solve this problem? Is there a higher resolution version? Is there a way that adds more connection?

Arete is the benevolent center of things like capitalism. Arete agrees with capitalists who say capitalism promotes quality improvement and innovation and settings incentives for it. The difference is that Arete doesn’t need incentives. Arete exists independent of reward.

Arete exists for the artist independent of reward.

Arete makes the accountability of the artist to to the great mysterious, not to the client, not to the crowd. The final accountability is to the great mysterious. It is a spiritual attitude that cuts through the simulacrum of culture and allows the individual to live free and connected no matter the resources or circumstances. Persig described “gumption traps” as the factors that stop us from connecting to Arete – external forces and frustrations, ego traps, etc. The ultimate gumption trap for the artist is client / audience approval. When we obsess with that we have become enslaved. But Arete is in fact an infinite flow of energy and wisdom from the Great Mysterious, and is available to us if we can realign our priorities. And our perceptions – the way we are looking at things.

In Virtue 3 we looked at Love or Reality/Love of God. This attitude is a natural precursor to Arete. By really attending reality, by loving it, and seeing the quality that is within it, beneath the irritation, beneath the apparent “bad” fortune, we begin to attune to Arete. Arete is the universal quality, the deep, mystical universal alignment that keeps planets in orbit, sunflowers following the sun.

This also connects to Virtue 7: Piety. Only when we are more interested in what is beyond the superficial is it possible to connect to Arete. Chuang Tzu says the butcher who understands the Tao rarely needs to sharpen his knives. The excellence of their work is connected to the nature of what they’re working with. Our eyes must be on a higher goal than pleasing human masters.

When homer describes the fall of Troy, a wife laments to her husband that when he is killed, she will be taken a slave. She in fact questions his decision to remain and fight, rather than running to save them. His answer is that indeed her life will be terrible as a slave, especially since she has lived a virtuous life, with a virtuous man such as him. But, his Arete would be compromised if he ran away from defending his city despite the fact that he will die. And her misery as a slave will be better than the ignominy of fleeing Troy and living without Arete.

He seeks Arete not for her approval, not for his life to be saved. He pursues Arete because it is Arete. And he reminds her of this value by his resoluteness in the face of not only his death, but her soon to be physical enslavement.

The power of this story for me is that with Arete, despite the fact that she will be physically enslaved, spiritually she will still be free.

There is a link here to Dharma – in the sense that the hero here is not acting this way out of mundane obligation, but out of divine alignment. Alignment with an excellence that transcends human cultural values or immediate needs.

Also crucially, he is not acting to please her. She is human, as he is, she has human needs and priorities. He chooses to set his purpose beyond human priorities. That is part of Arete. And it is also a key component of freedom, which is a central theme for me in all of this work.

For Plato, earthly Arete was in and of itself an alignment with universal, perfect Arete. The two flowed together as an interchange. The artist, by participating in Arete on their individual scale, is participating in the universal Mystery.

Arete is extremely powerful for this reason and many others. Arete, in shaping the attitude of the practitioner, changes the whole nature of the connection to the mystery, and the relationship to the physical task at hand. How does this sculpture connect to the Mystery – really? How is it resonant? How does it shine from the great mysterious source? Really? Is it transparent enough? Is it luminous enough? And is this curve here smooth enough? Is it fine enough to be congruent with the aesthetic I feel is true? Is it balanced with this shoulder here? Does it have rhythm? Could the rhythm be stronger? What is this nuance here? This swirl of marble? What is this swirl telling me? How could I clarify this moment of marble? Is there something I could do to make this better now?

Is there something I could do to make this better now?

That is the question of Arete. It puts excellence in your hands. Your small, human hands, now. It offers you the creative power of the gods in a scale appropriate to your task. You get to make this excellent now. With these resources, with this time. You get to make this as good as you possible can.

Virtue 1: Love of self is also instrumental for Arete. Because without love of self, everything becomes performative for approval. Arete would degrade to perfectionism or “doing it right” for the critic, for the boss, for the director, for the client to pat us on the head. That is not Arete any more. We must grant ourselves the sea of love as foundation, so that the work we do is not to fill a void, but to reach the divine.

Art without Arete is lazy. Artists who let go of Arete are letting go of their motive power. Their power to move towards real beauty, to transcend. The energy needed to transcend is the energy of Arete. The energy needed to transcend the simulacrum is Arete. The power to really look at reality and really make something worthy to be called Art is Arete.

The word Art is a child of the word Arete.

DIRECT

SOLO

Do it well, now, here

Take a task. Washing a dish. And commit to doing it as well as you can. Apply yourself to it in real time, continuously. Really look at the dish. Really get the right amount of water on the sponge. You know how much is needed. Or you can guess. And then as you work the plate, you will learn more. Actually more water was needed. More soap. Less soap – I didn’t need so much. Feel the plate. Feel the emergence of the plate from the filth. Feel the clean plate emerge from the old dirty plate with food suck on it. Let the process be a process of emergence like the piety emergence. Let the plate become it’s beautiful, pure self. Let it shine through the baptism of water and your work, your hands, your love, your care. You get to do this. You get to make this better now. This is your gift. This is your Arete, here, now.

Variation: This can be applied to any task. The task of loving, the task of physical exercise, anything. It can also be applied to the tools we use, the technology we interact with, indeed with all relationships.

Integration: How is the task different from normal chore drudgery? What do you learn about the process when you really care about what you are doing? How do you feel after the task is done? How do you feel during the task? Have you learned anything about the task that you can bring forward into the task in the future? Have you learned anything about tasking in general that you can apply to other tasks? How can this apply to your art practice? How can this apply to even the small tasks of the artist, including the administrative tasks? The preparatory tasks? The patronage tasks? The marketing tasks? The exhibition tasks?

PAIRS

Arete Collaboration

Do a task together that requires coordination. This can be folding a sheet, etc. A works to Arete, B works to speed and getting the chore done as a means to an end.
Alternate.
How is it to be A? Are you discouraged by your partner? Are you able to remain connected to Arete despite the mismatch? B: How is it to want to get the task done and to work with A? Is there any transmission back and forth between the two partners?
Variation: Both parties do the task as a quick chore. Both parties do the task as an act of Arete.
Integration: How are the results? How was the experience? How does this apply to artistic collaboration? How does this apply to alignment with others?

GROUP

Fireteam Wedge / Art Team Cohesion

This real formation from military tactics serves as a practical training tool for creating group cohesion amongst artist practitioners. By focusing on synchronization, flexibility, and returning to form, the team will build valuable embodied wisdom regarding group Arete.

Four people form into a fire team. In the center is the Fire Team Leader. To their right, the Squad Automatic Rifleman. To the Leaders left, the Grenadier. To the Grenadier’s left, the Rifleman. This is the formation called fireteam wedge, heavy right. Heavy right means the Automatic Rifleman is on the right. Wedge means the members are behind the Leader like a flock of geese. Each member is spaced proportionately. Depending on the space you are in, the spacing will be different. Outside during the day, the spacing would be 35 meters between each member. At night it might be 10 meters, or 5. Inside it might be as little as 1 meter.

The leader moves, the fireteam moves on them. If the leader turns right, the wedge follows, flexible, but finding its way into its wedge formation before long. Keeping its spacing again.

If the leader calls heavy left, the AR moves to the left, the GRN and RFL to the right.

If the leader calls spacing 10 meters, they space out. If they call 2 meters, they close up.

Alternate roles.

Integration: What was it like applying excellence to a group formation? How did it feel once you got int a flow? What was it like to work with others in synchrony? What was difficult about it? How does this apply to group work in art? How does this bridge accountability between peers and the great mysterious (your own excellence and your own work to make your part better?) What is the relationship between group discipline and Arete? What is the relationship between leadership and Arete? What is the relationship here between leadership and the great mysterious? Are there ways for the leader to communicate with their team that makes the team more successful? Is there a way to lead this kind of military precision with love?

CURTAIN

Arete is an attitude. For us humans, Arete is a choice and an attitude. And when that attitude is enlivened, the work transforms. Drudgery becomes art. Art becomes Mystery. Life becomes beauty. Arete liberates the artist from human masters because it connects us to unlimited quality and riches. It is a way to drill past the simulacrum or established norms and definitions and make direct contact yourself. To continuously improve. To continuously transcend. We will see in the Child Archetype that Arete also benefits from and serves joy, bliss, desire, and authentic freedom. Because Arete at its most powerful is a dynamic force: ever reaching, ever growing, like a child learning, a plant flowering. Arete is the updraft that lifts the hawk higher and higher – it is self-stoking. Static Arete can make for checklists and strong systems, dynamic Arete empowers us and enlivens us and is part of a key energy path that enables us to respond to the Mystery as a living, intelligent being. Self-reliant, and free.