Inside Performance Art

By Wayne Brown

What does it feel like to be a person whose daily life is dominated by performance art? 

It's possible to be the world's greatest car salesman (certainly a performance), yet feel that "this isn't me". Perhaps the money has coaxed him away from who he really is or should be.

This is touched upon by Buddha's eight-fold path, which is:

  1. Right Understanding, 
  2. Right Thought, 
  3. Right Speech, 
  4. Right Action, 
  5. Right Livelihood, 
  6. Right Effort, 
  7. Right Mindfulness, and 
  8. Right Concentration
Buddhism is the grandfather of what we now call "mindfulness", which I think of as Buddhism without the hocus pocus.

Our hypothetical car salesman is ignoring rule 5 - Right Livelihood. He is also breaking virtually all the other rules by his focus on selling cars rather than doing something truly important (to him). He is an excellent car salesman - a job that requires a wide and deep understanding of human nature and a performance that is fine-tuned to every customer in every moment. It's a quality performance but it's a performance nonetheless. An act. He is trapped in a drama he doesn't want to be in.



Successful politicians are inevitably drawn to performance art and away from any opportunity to express their authentic self. The most successful politicians exude what we call "charisma" which is performance art.

An important aspect of human flourishing is agency: the experienced ability to influence the course of our lives -  minute by minute and hour by hour. When we devote ourselves to artful performance the "performance" is, by definition, for the benefit of others (often imaginary others). We limit our choices to those that will "go over well" with the audience. 


This is not necessarily a bad thing. A master carpenter takes great pride in his work. For him, his skill is his "art'. His performance is the creation of objects of quiet beauty and quality. His skill is the result of years of practice. It's an artful performance. But, unlike our car salesman, his craft easily incorporates all 8 of Buddha's principles. Moreover, he will frequently experience "flow" - total absorption in the task, being "in the moment". For him, this can be "right meditation".

We see that performance art is not necessarily in conflict with living a deep and meaningful life.

This insight runs through the Tao Te Ching - the basic text of Taoist philosophy. Along with Buddhism, Taoism is the other root of Zen.

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