Acting as a Path to a Spirituality of Compassion
by Michael Ian Lomongo, January 22, 2002
I once heard the idea broached whether acting made one a better person. (Betterment of the person is here understood not simply as the improvement of one’s skills, but in the sense of becoming a kinder person.) With a quaint smile, someone replied that she had met a lot of very fine actors whom one would have a hard time calling as fine species of human beings.
Indeed, how can the most vain, narcissistic, and exhibitionistic people qualify for “sainthood” for want of a better term? (Of course, I am here working with the assumption that most, if not all, actors have a great liking for being seen and given applause/approval.)
Stanislavski is often quoted as saying that an actor should love the role/character in his person, rather than his own person in the role/character. (Or something to that effect.) A person may want to become an actor for any number of reasons, egotistic or otherwise. But sooner or later, the actor finds out that the practice, the way of acting, is not so much about him strutting his stuff and puffing up his ego. It is, among other things, learning about different people and how they think, feel, and behave differently under various circumstances. It is learning how and why different people behave the way they do. It is learning that all our masks are simply different ways of being human. At times comical, at times tragic, or even pathetic. But always, warranting understanding and compassion.
Was it Seneca who said, “Nothing human is alien to me”? We may be unique persons but we’ll always be kin. All part of the human family, whether we be sinners or saints, villains or heroes, happy or sad, believers or not. The way of acting teaches us to veer away from our “selves” (to stray from our paths) and seek the reality of “others” (put ourselves in others’ shoes and walk their paths) in the roles we play. And yet, in a paradoxical manner, the better we understand “others,” the better we understand ourselves.
Acting can be a path to a spirituality of compassion.
Why is it then possible to have very fine actors who are – pardon the language, s’il vous plait – complete assholes?
And we are stumped. In the same way that we have wondered about writers who write so beautifully about love and compassion and yet whose very lives seem bereft of the very same theme that they write oh-so-beautifully about. How can a filthy vessel bear clean water? How can a great work of art come from a not-so-great individual?
Perhaps it only goes to show that the way of acting, or any other way for that matter, is truly not about the ego. Just as the sun shines on both the good and the bad, goodness and beauty can shine forth from both the good and the bad.
Acting can be a path to a spirituality of compassion. But so can writing, and reading, and eating, and having sex. (Or any number of ways of living and doing.) The way of acting is just one among thousands of equally valid ways of developing love and compassion. The important thing is, as Don Juan Matus would say, for the traveler to ask whether the path has a heart.
Speaking of paths, I remember a story about a lunch-convention of vegetarian-monks held in a hotel. The monks had already started eating when they noticed that the food served them had meat in it. The monks who had arranged for the convention demanded to see the manager, and when the latter arrived, started berating him for such a gross negligence and oversight. But the assembly of monks was startled when they saw their spiritual leader, the head-monk, eating the non-vegetarian food amidst the ruckus. Scandalized, they asked him why he was doing so. The head-monk replied, “Better to eat meat than lose compassion.”
Geez. Am I saying that it’s better to have bad acting than lose compassion? Or that it’s okay to stray from one’s chosen path? Or that it’s okay to not mind incompetence and indifference when we do encounter it? Or to run away from all forms of confrontation because of compassion? Nah. What I’m saying is that the way of acting, like many others, is not an absolute path. Indeed, it is one path that – especially when taken with an eye for compassion – does have a heart. It would be a real pity to lose it.
For without a heart, acting – or living, for that matter! – is, as Will put it, “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
Tags: Acting, spirituality
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