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D. Murali

This book helps you decode Da Vinci's seven principles.

About a decade ago, Bill Gates paid $30.8 million for 18 pages of Leonardo Da Vinci's notebooks. For lesser mortals, there was Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code to stir up interest. Now, Michael J. Gelb comes with Da Vinci Decoded to help you discover "the spiritual secrets of Leonardo's seven principles".

If you are curious, the first principle is curiosità — seek the truth. All of us are born with dynamic curiosity — the desire to explore, know and understand, adds the author. Asking questions is a must, do ask why; and curiosity dies if you look to others for answers, or get distracted by routine work. A practical tip is to keep a journal or notebook. "Although geniuses throughout history have almost always kept notebooks, Leonardo's more than 6,000 pages of notes are without parallel," says Gelb. The notebooks "express the freedom and intensity of his curiosità across a phenomenal range of subjects."

The second principle is dimostrazione — take responsibility. This principle guided Da Vinci to seek his own answers. He had "the courage to look at things as they are," rejecting imitation, and questioning authority. He urged his students to become inventore — original thinkers, who would also "question accepted theory and dogma of the time and `filter' for themselves".

Sensazione — sharpen awareness, comes next. "We are all endowed with the capacity for engaging the world around us through a lively, radiant, even rapturous attention," says Gelb. That failing, we would fall into "the bored and dull mode of mindless habit, barely registering our surroundings." The key lies in saper vedere — knowing how to see, again one of the genius's mottoes. Take, therefore, time alone "to relax, look, and listen within."

Fourth is sfumato, that is, engage the shadow. Do you know that Da Vinci wrote six books on the relationship of shadow and light? They're opposites, yes, and he championed contraposto to bring dynamic tension to his subjects thus: "Never make the head turn the same way as the torso, nor the arm and leg move together on the same side."

Then, `cultivate balance', arte/scienza. "The balancing of male and female, front and back, yin and yang, is also the basis of the Chinese healing arts," observes the author, supplementing Da Vinci's thinking with ample sprinkling of inputs from a variety of religions and masters. A simple exercise to centre yourself is a walk in a labyrinth, suggests Gelb. "Leonardo loved spiralling shapes and labyrinthine designs." Do you see a labyrinth around?

Number six, corporalità — nurture integration. Interestingly, the forefather of accounting, Luca Pacioli shared many ideas with Da Vinci. "For both men the harmonious proportions of the human body were but one of the many inner mysteries of nature," says Gelb. Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man is a representation of the `cosmography of the microcosm'. The four-in-one drawing depicts two different arm postures and two different leg postures. "Each arm position can be combined with each leg position, resulting in a total of four different possible stances." Here is Da Vinci's note: "The space between the legs will form an equilateral triangle. The span of a man's outspread arms is equal to his height."

The seventh principle is connessione — practise love. His paintings displayed in the book portray tranquillity and turbulence, the young and the old. "Knowledge acquired in one's youth arrests the damage of old age," Da Vinci wrote. "And if you understand that old age has wisdom for its sustenance, you will so conduct yourself in youth that your old age will not lack nourishment."

A nourishing read, going back about five centuries to retrieve a few timeless lessons.

Response can be sent to dmurali@thehindu.co.in

Book courtesy: Landmark

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