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TED talk - Shekhar Kapur: 02 Transcript extract
Identifier
016323
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (13 October 1948 – 16 August 1997) (Urdu: نصرت فتح علي خان) was a Pakistani musician, primarily a singer of Qawwali, the devotional music of the Sufis. Considered one of the greatest voices ever recorded, he possessed an extraordinary range of vocal abilities and could perform at a high level of intensity for several hours. Extending the 600-year old Qawwali tradition of his family, Khan is widely credited with introducing Qawwali music to international audiences. He is popularly known as "Shahenshah-e-Qawwali", meaning "The King of Kings of Qawwali".
Born in Faisalabad, Pakistan, Khan had his first public performance at age of 16, at his father's chelum. He became the head of the family qawwali party in 1971. He was signed by Oriental Star Agencies, Birmingham, England, in the early 1980s. Khan went on to release movie scores and albums in Europe, India, Japan, Pakistan, and the US. He engaged in collaborations and experiments with Western artists, becoming a well-known world music artist.
A description of the experience
.............as I go there, of course, my A.D. says, "You know what you're going to do, sir." I say, "Of course I do."
3:15 And the studio executives, they would say, "Hey, look at Shekhar. He's so prepared." And inside I've just been listening to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan because he's chaotic. I'm allowing myself to go into chaos because out of chaos, I'm hoping some moments of truth will come. All preparation is preparation. I don't even know if it's honest. I don't even know if it's truthful. The truth of it all comes on the moment, organically, and if you get five great moments of great, organic stuff in your storytelling, in your film, your film, audiences will get it. So I'm looking for those moments, and I'm standing there and saying, "I don't know what to say."
3:51 So, ultimately, everybody's looking at you, 200 people at seven in the morning who got there at quarter to seven, and you arrived at seven, and everybody's saying, "Hey. What's the first thing? What's going to happen?" And you put yourself into a state of panic where you don't know, and so you don't know.
And so, because you don't know, you're praying to the universe because you're praying to the universe that something -- I'm going to try and access the universe the way Einstein -- say a prayer -- accessed his equations, the same source.
I'm looking for the same source because creativity comes from absolutely the same source that you meditate somewhere outside yourself, outside the universe. You're looking for something that comes and hits you. Until that hits you, you're not going to do the first shot. So what do you do?
4:33 So Cate says, "Shekhar, what do you want me to do?"
4:35 And I say, "Cate, what do you want to do?" (Laughter) "You're a great actor, and I like to give to my actors -- why don't you show me what you want to do?" (Laughter) What am I doing? I'm trying to buy time. I'm trying to buy time.
4:49 So the first thing about storytelling that I learned, and I follow all the time is: Panic.
Panic is the great access of creativity because that's the only way to get rid of your mind. Get rid of your mind. Get out of it, get it out. And let's go to the universe because there's something out there that is more truthful than your mind, that is more truthful than your universe. [unclear], you said that yesterday. I'm just repeating it because that's what I follow constantly to find the shunyata somewhere, the emptiness.
Out of the emptiness comes a moment of creativity.
So that's what I do.
The source of the experience
Kapur, ShekharConcepts, symbols and science items
Concepts
InspirationSymbols
Science Items
Activities and commonsteps
Activities
Overloads
Extreme emotionSuppressions
Listening to musicLOVE
Making love
Squash the big I am
Suppressing memory