He was an unprecedented type of spiritual leader.

 

After Sewon¹⁾ reformed Hanol-gyo²⁾ to consolidate the organization, he also tried to transform the system: he attempted to transcend the traditional form of belief system through Art.³⁾

 

 

He introduced the 'Art of Enlightenment and Awakening'.⁴⁾

 

 

Art has inspired and emotionally enlightened countless people in various aspects but art has never been overtly intended as a direct instrument of spiritual enlightenment and awakening.

 

 

However, Sewon integrated art with enlightenment and awakening not just as a means to achieve a religious outcome but as an end: because he believed that the very nature of art is to show a way into the origin of art, the sacred inner dwelling consciousness, the beauty itself.

 

 

It is your true nature and the original pure state of consciousness before the Ego-mind structure of the mental synapse was constructed in your consciousness; it is the mental field of infinite possibility where the formless inspirations and the light of creational sparks are generated from. It is the state of pure consciousness that makes the recognition of beauty possible in the first place.

 

 

His art was transformational for 2 main reasons:

 

Firstly, he produced the art in the Trans-Ego state of mind: he generates the inspirations from the Trans-formational state of mind, from the mental field of infinite possibility (beyond the usual state of the Egoic thinking mind), and expresses the creative spark into the form of art.

 

Secondly, he proposed a new approach to perceiving art: it is to change the State of Consciousness and transcend the Ego mind activity by the new method of perception: Trans-Perception.

 

 

The art of Enlightenment and Awakening, which was eventually elaborated into Trans-art (trans-form art), suggests to perceive not just the form of art, but the formlessness of art.

 

 

By the act of shifting perception from the material to space, from the art to the origin of art, from the form to the formless, from the actualization of form to the formless source of inspiration, the state of perception changes:

 

From the 'tendency to understand' to pure perception.

 

From the 'thinking mind' to perceiving awareness.

 

 

By dropping the obsessive urge to think, the mind can resort to the untamed consciousness, awareness itself. The perception of consciousness can then shift from ‘the impulse of mind to think and understand’, to ‘the clear concentrated state of awareness’ not completely interrupted by the thinking mind.

 

 

Accordingly, the tendency to interpret, compare, and mentally label art, as well as to use thinking as a means to understand art, changes.

 

 

When the concentration on the formlessness crystallizes the consciousness, the surrounding essence of form can be revealed: ‘peace’ can be recognized, a calm and clear state of mind can be obtained.

 

 

By dropping the tendency to understand, 'the mind's urge to think' is liberated.

 

 

Now you can recognize the form of art and its indwelling pure inspiration without a conceptual sunglass, which is the complete interruption and distortion by the ego-mind.

 

 

Even for a short moment, through the intermedium of art, the artist and the perceiver can join in the equivalent field of consciousness: the Trans-Ego state of mind (our original state of consciousness before the thinking mind of ego assumed its possession of our being).

 

 

It is the transcendental state of mind which we can obtain after the extrication from the quagmire of the Ego mind structure. It is the essence of the transcendental teachings on enlightenment and awakening: the self-liberation of consciousness.

 

 

Sewon proposed a new approach to enlightenment and awakening: a new way of art, a new way of spirituality.

 

 

In doing so, he suggested new paradigms for both religion and art.

 

 

It is Transformational because the artistic approach trans-forms the religious form; there is neither religious structure nor religious formation involved in the art.

 

 

It is an unconventional belief system because art is neither a system nor a belief: therefore, it is Trans-formational and titled the Trans (form)-religion and the Trans (form)-Art; for providing the inspirations; transcending the ego-mind structure; presenting the doorway out of the Ego-mind, to the state of being in connection with the inner dwelling divinity of the untamed pure consciousness; a guide to our true nature by art.