When I paint, I need devotion to be able to create. This devotion has to do with love. When I feel love, the devotion and inspiration become great, sometimes almost urgent.

Devotion to painting is comparable to sexual devotion because I open up and create from it instead of planning or directing. It is said that Picasso would have stood up after the act and painted immediately.

I believe that from sexual surrender we can learn devotion to something greater. And vice versa: through surrendering and opening oneself in meditation, more openness can emerge in other areas of life.

Out of devotion things manifest because the feeling is great. Inspired action and being in the flow experiences arise from devotion.

But devotion is more important than manifestation. Even though the zeitgeist emphasises goal achievement, learning devotion is of greater value.

It is about the focused opening and conscious observation and allowing of what is happening on all levels, without any restraint.

In Balinese there is the word mabakti. It means to pray (in the temple) and to make offerings.

In the older Sanskrit language, the word bhakti means devotion. It was adopted into Balinese as bakti meaning devotion. In the Balinese verb mabakti it became the devotion with which Balinese pray.