13. The Kalas - Why the Arts Are Vital

I want to talk today about something that doesn't get discussed much in yoga and spiritual spaces.

And I think that that absence is a real loss to seeing the bigger picture of the entire path.

That subject is the importance of the arts.

Making things, singing, dancing, cooking, painting, arranging flowers, writing a poem badly.

playing an instrument you're not very good at or taking photos for art's sake.

In the classical Indian tradition, many of these things were never treated as hobbies.

They were never seen as the leisure activities you do once the real spiritual work is finished for the day.

They were considered a core part of the practice itself.

Disciplines that shaped a human being into someone capable of depth, sensitivity, and eventually maybe liberation.

they were all a part of the path.

And there's a word for this in the tradition, and it's colors.

The 64 arts.

And I want to introduce you to this list today, because I think it says something kind of urgent, not just historical, about what's missing with modern spiritual practice.

And honestly from modern life more broadly.

And especially now, especially in a moment where an enormous amount of what used to require a human hand, a human voice, a human act of attention, can now be generated instantly by something that has never felt anything at all.

And so let's start with what the colors actually are.

And I might just spell that because maybe my Australian accent isn't quite communicating what that word actually looks like.

So it's K-A-L-A-S.