This last year saw the theme of “Mindfulness in Performing Arts” come into existence as a means to further illustrate the deeper perspective of the Fool at Heart” approach. Here are some reflections.

After more than twenty years of experience of this work, I have realised that the Sacred Clown is the perfect “spiritual friend” to lead us to awaken and integrate in our lives qualities like “Being”, “Pure creative presence” and “True sensory awareness”. This special friend simply takes us by the hand into the “now” and gives us an open space full of possibilities, away from our old habits and concepts.

The Sacred Clown guides us to unravel the Fool´s crazy creative wisdom lying dormant in each one of us; a creative freedom, a poetic imagination beyond concepts, which can simply open our hearts to perceive the all encompassing love that the universe, our true nature, is offering us at each moment. Of course, naturally, we have fears of this extraordinary potential inherent in us. Like the frog who lived her whole life in a pond, how frightening it is to discover the vastness of the ocean!

We need to have creative tools and a safe environment to practise embodying this true nature in our lives. The training in Sacred Clowning is about creative integration through play, creative dance, mime-clowning, singing, and the practice of mindfulness and compassion. As we start to explore our emotions, our fears and longings, we learn to take care of our predicaments with more detachment and humor. Creative imagination, play and awareness come together to transform what may look like obstacles into a very human soul poetry that the Sacred Clown can portray so beautifully. This human soul poetry is what has made the great artists like Mozart, Picasso, Charly Chaplin, Rumi and many others convey their inspiration, thereby prompting us to move towards realizing this more eternal aspect of our human nature.

Step by step and with love, each one of us can take on this journey. The performing arts combined with mindfulness and compassion give us the tools for transformation as well as a creative exploratory ground for practice. Then, as we engage in this process, we come to realize that it is simply up to us to decide how, and how far we want to go on this quest. For me it feels like daring to aspire for the ultimate joy of this life, allowing us to gradually incarnate our divine nature little by little. In this perspective there is contentment, peace, love, endless creativity and a sense of a greater purpose to our daily struggles and fears.

With Love, Didier
January 2014