Performance and the Power of Now

So after finishing the rather deep and dense Stanislavski book (aren't you glad I read that so you don't have to?), I decided to take a breather from my constant reading of performance-related books, and read the immensely popular "The Power Of Now" by Eckhart Tolle. It's one of those books you pretty much have to read, at least if you live in my house. ;)

However, my brain has had the "performance filter" installed 24/7 for the past three months.  Every scrap of input that makes its way to one of my five senses gets evaluated for relevance to making performance better, or understanding it more deeply.  So I find that stuff wherever I look, and preditably the Tolle book is no different.  And I've only read chapter one.

Here's a quick and inexpert summary.  Mr. Tolle had a very mystical experience.  After feeling quite horrible and suicidal, he said to himself, "I can't live with myself any more."  Then he stopped, wondering if that meant there were two of him, the one who was feeling horrible, and the other one who couldn't live with that one any more.  At that moment, the horrible feeling self shriveled up and died, leaving him in a state of complete bliss.  He spent the next two years disengaged from the world, living on park benches, just being in a more or less constant state of inner joy.

Tolle describes this emotional pain and suffering as a result of identifying with your mind, instead of your being.  Your mind thinks, views the present with the filter of the past, and tries to ensure its survival in the future.  But you are not your mind!  Your constant thinking and negative mental chatter (remember the series on stage fright?) do not constitute your real, complete self.  And you can experience a state of inner peace and joy by turning off that mental chatter.

Now to the point - that is one reason that people love to be entertained, to observe and mentally participate in a performance.  It allows them to stop the mental chatter, and live in another world for a while.  They give over control of their emotional lives and their attention to the performance, and they get a break from the negative self-chatter, and the emotional anxiety of their lives.

And of course its even more powerful for a performer who gives him or her self over completely and successfully to the scene/song, and stays in it.  As I've often read and said, the performer will benefit even more from the performance than the audience.

I'm quite lucky - I have discovered that I have an easy time focusing on the now, and getting to a state of inner peace.  And it's not because I've ever trained myself in meditation.  I believe it's because I've had twenty years practice on stage, shifting myself into a new state of mind in order to perform truthfully.

So if you needed one more reason to learn how to perform better, there it is!  Inner peace and joy.  That's better than a poke in the eye.