But to take is also difficult, because we have limits on receiving. When they ask us, “Who are you to have this?” “Why you?” This is what my parents said when I left Chile to study with the mime Marcel Marceau. In my case the answer was: “Why not?” And I did it. I knocked on his door, and I worked with him. I challenged the prohibition. And that’s it. If you feel beautiful, you will be. You will be beautiful! You will be fascinating! You can fascinate people! But you don’t conceive of yourself as a fascinating being. You come here to learn to be fascinating, because you can be. People simply see you as you see yourself. If I consider myself inferior, others will see me as inferior. But if I see myself as a god or goddess — that is the way others will see me! Not everyone, but a lot of people, the necessary ones. For example, we observe famous musicians. The whole world believes they are geniuses because they have previously felt they were geniuses. Then, with time, the myth stops because others start to realize it isn’t so. It can work for a certain period of time, but then we must have the spirit to sustain this, “to feel beautiful.” If this interior feeling ceases and we haven’t truly incorporated it, everything undoes itself. Therefore, we must continue with patience, constancy, and perseverance. If we do not persevere, we are not creators. Creation is, before everything else, voluntary. Our creative action is an accumulation of strength and patience.
DISSOLVE THE I
We have already created the space. The space is the here; the time is the now. In the here and in the now am I. What remains is to attack the I. We have seen the prisons of time and space in which we live, prisoners of the I. And here is the most difficult part: to make the I jump. This is the most difficult of all. Because we identify so much with this I that we defend and because we anchor onto it, we do not want to change. We are stubborn, we are recalcitrant, we are impossible, we are a monster. Purely and simply, we are a monster that we do not want to let go of. We say: “This is the way I am.”
The Romans and the Greeks said that the I was in the stomach; from there ideas are born, and they then take refuge in the brain. Other civilizations have put the I in the chest or in the nose. The I is hard to find. We entered into the work of shamans: the dissolution of the I. Actually, we see ourselves morphing, to use the terms of modern digital technology; we can animate ourselves and turn one image into another. That is to say, we must work to accept all the different changes in I, which is very difficult. Actors do this when they interpret a character, but they do not go very far because the actor is always the I and the character he interprets. But here we wish to enrich the I. And it is very easy. But no one can tell you how. If I open myself to the personality of everything, everything will talk through me. I convert myself into you; I convert myself into another. But how? In what way? I let you enter me and I express you. In this moment, I convert myself absolutely into the creator, because everything talks through me.
I am going to give an example. There is Cristóbal, my son, sitting in a wooden chair. I convert myself into him: “I am here sitting like a receptor of light, knowing that in infinite time, eternally before me, I am going to shine; that the light is going to show; that I am connected with everything.” Creativity consists in absorbing the other and expressing it — and not only in another, also in things. I convert myself into a chair: “I am happy because I like having someone seated on me. I play my role by being straight, and I am not weary; thanks to me he is here. Furthermore, my wood is not dead. There is not even one termite in me. I’ve preserved myself well. I maintain my strength, even though I am old. I am going to last a long time. Maybe I am going to last longer than him. He will disappear and I will still be here. There is no need to throw me out. I will support him. With my four legs, I am the material base upon which he can sit.”
When I began to study pantomime, the first thing they taught us was that to make gestures there is no need to make gestures. The principal of pantomime is to remain neutral. Later they will make all the gestures they want. At the same time, the basis of the imagination is to not have an imagination; it is to arrive at breaking everything imaginary. Then you can do what you want. If you do not crush the imaginary, there will always be parasites. Things are always moving in our imaginary worlds. We must cut off the internal dialogue and bring order to the emotional chaos, the invasion of desires, the undisciplined body. We must learn to dominate all of this.
BE A DOT
You can do a very simple exercise: the simplest thing we can think about is a dot. Correct? Suppose we have a pencil or a pen, and we are going to draw a dot. We have to truly create a dot with all of our spirit, with all of our emotion, as if we are opening a dot in space. We make a dot. If it is possible to create the dot, we will do many things with it later. But we must truly concentrate on creating a dot. It is the first thing one does in karate. Karateists are capable of creating a dot, a point of mental and emotional concentration. We create an intense dot, as if this dot were all the energy of the universe: a dot of total energy. Everything should be there. We must use a lot of force to create a dot. We must do it with our whole being. All concentration is on the dot, a dot, a dot. . That is all! Well, can we make a good dot, a perfect dot, a concentrated dot? Bravo, it is a good effort. Now, we observe. I have a dot here in my forehead. My whole mind is a dot. I am concentrated on only one dot. I have an emotional dot, I have a dot here in my chest, and in my privates, all over. I can move the dot. I can put it in my mouth, here, there, in my eyes. . My will is a dot! That is all! Do this exercise. Work with the dot. Concentrate on the energy of the dot. Introduce the dot into your bodies. It is like the exercise with space. Here all directions are concentrated at a point, the dot. All thoughts, all feelings, all desires. Once we’ve learned to make a dot, we can carry out any movement we want to. Whatever discipline we want to practice — dance, theater, karate, martial arts — everything is in place. Because it is no more than this: I make a gesture, and my intention goes there. I do what I do. Everything is concentrated, all my attention goes there, all my concentration is clear, precise. At heart, karate consists of creating a concrete point where one can hit, and that way one can break a table. But to develop the point takes years.
FINE ARTS
Now we are going to sing, but in an imaginary way, without the voice. We will sing the most marvelous song. Sing the most beautiful song without sound! Imagine that you sing with a marvelous voice. Let’s go. This is creativity. You have to sing like birds. That’s how one learns. With concentration, with strength — do it! We’re not just acting here. . You can move, advance; don’t be quiet. Sing! Put all the intensity of a great singer into it. Put all your talent into singing. You like it, right? It’s wonderful. You can sing all you want in the most complete silence, with the mouth closed.