Structure, Tarkovsky

An intelligent structure is not capable of understanding a structure of greater intelligence than itself. So how is a structure like the individual self supposed to evolve towards an order of greater refinement since the only real knowledge is that which moves us beyond the limits of our selves? How are the manifestations of a greater intelligence, in the broadest sense of the wisdom of the whole being, to work on a lesser self?
Humility is the simple answer. The personality is defined by its own limits, and is so a rigid structure incapable of intelligent advancement. "I lay down my life that I may take it up again." The personality lays down its own self, and into this open space can flow the life beyond the old self. This being the principle upon which art works, and in which lies the vastness of its importance.
For instance, a narrow self resists the open spaces of a Tarkovsky film, and this shallow, hard entity sustains itself by means of its cynicism. By contrast, mainstream Western televisual art sustains this artificial entity by feeding it an unceasing stuttering flow of camera angles and shallow excitements, where the viewer is narrowed to a point of hypnotic concentration, as opposed to open awareness.
The person who surrenders to works such as Nostalgia and Mirror ideally becomes allergic to the ordinary 'artistic' effluences, as why should an order of intelligence be attracted towards an order of intelligence of lesser refinement than itself?
An excerpt from Mirror here.
And re-inforcing the earlier points, from Tarkovsky's Stalker:

When a tree is growing, it is tender and pliant, but when it's dry and hard, it dies.
Hardness and strength are death's companions. Pliancy and weakness are expressions of the freshness of being. Because what has hardened will never win.