289. To Be Surpassed

For every historical artwork that is still revered and loved, there are countless others that now receive little attention or are seen only as minor stepping stones to something that came after. While these impressive works once garnered much appreciation and applause, they are now basically forgotten.

Realizing this, we might worry that a similar fate will befall our own greatest achievements. If even the most significant masterpieces are likely to be relegated to the dustbin of history, what point could there possibly be to our own creative efforts?

But to be surpassed is no failure. We will not have failed even if the collective output of our era becomes nothing more than a pile of dirt our successors climb to greater heights. For to contribute to the project of humanity in any way is a great accomplishment, and to create art that might one day become the tools and materials that help future artists make something even better is an enormous success.

At present, our awareness is still occluded. Our attachments prevent us from seeing broadly and from fully exploring the possibilities that are present and available to us. To be forever stuck at this level of awareness would be a disaster for humanity. It would mean not only that creativity would no longer be feasible but that we would cease to be alive altogether. For life itself is nothing other than this continuous surpassing, this continuous growth, this continuous movement towards greater seeing and greater creation.

That everything we make will be surpassed is invaluable evidence of life’s incredible success. It means that others will have seen what we saw and also what we did not see and they will have incorporated this new awareness into their art. The project of humanity must and will always go farther than it has gone before, for our shared purpose is none other than to see more and to act on that seeing.