Your Creative Life

Flow and Meditation

   In The Creative Spirit by Goleman, Kaufman and Ray, the authors say that when creativity is in full fire, people can experience what athletes and performers call the white moment. Everything clicks and our skills are so perfectly suited to the challenge that we seem to blend with it. Everything feels harmonious, unified and effortless.

   The white moment is what some psychologists call flow. The one requirement is that our skills so perfectly match the demands of the moment that all self-consciousness disappears.  If our problem-solving skills are not up to the challenges we face, we experience anxiety not flow. When skills and challenge match, then flow is most likely to emerge.

   By emptying ourselves of our smaller, individual mind, and by losing our intense self-consciousness, we are able to tap into this larger, more creative, universal mind.

   This is where meditation and creating meet and why meditation is so practical.

Creativity or Creating

   I was reading Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's Finding Flow when it occurred to me that there seemed to be something missing in the empirical studies he is presenting. He says: "But because almost any activity can produce flow provided the relevant elements are present, it is possible to improve the quality of life by making sure that clear goals, immediate feedback, skills balanced to action opportunities, and the remaining conditions of flow are as much as possible a constant part of everyday life."

   He says further in Creativity that creativity does not happen inside people's heads, but in the interaction between a person's thoughts and a sociocultural context. It is a systemic rather than individual phenomenon.

   As I write this, I get a little bit clearer about the distinction between creativity and creating. Indeed creativity may be a state or condition. Creating is what goes on inside people's heads.

   What I'm trying to say here is that maybe we are awash in energy that is benevolent and our thinking, our discursive thoughts keep us from connecting with this energy. When these habitual patterns of experiencing our consciousness is pierced, we are better able to create.   

I've Been Away

   I've been away the past couple of days at a meditation center learning more about how to meditate. I learned a little more about creativity - that there seems to be a process starting with arising, then form, then dissolving.

   What I'm really trying to do here is to find something to write about. I have been reviewing my books on creativity. As I review a book to see if it's worth keeping, I decide whether to add it to the list of books I'm selling on Amazon.com. One book I've decided to keep for a while longer is Thunder and Lightning: Cracking Open the Writer's Craft by Natalie Goldberg. She says, "Here is a good exercise: imagine a scene as a photograph . . . and describe what you see." Seems to make sense.

   I'm reminded of a paragraph by Robert Fritz in Creating, where he says, "It is possible for creativity to exist without having the creative process. It is also possible to have the creative process without having creativity." I think what this means to me is that in order to write, I must write a lot. It also means that if I don't want to write I can read. It means as well that in order to bring something in to fruition, I have to work at it.

Time to Review

It's time for me to take a look at what I've learned so far.

• Begin with a question that may turn out to be based on a falsehood.
• Examine core beliefs that don't work.
• Develop a meditation practice.
• Relate everything I do to a higher goal or purpose.
• Acquire the belief that I am connected to a higher power, others and myself.
• Discard the beliefs that I'm not connected, that I'm alone, that I'm not worthy.
• Acquire the belief that I'm creative because I must be/am and that I cannot not be creative.

These compare favorably with Julia Cameron's Basic Principles in The Artist's Way.

Become a Generative Leader

   Become a generative leader. Prof. Ray says that generative leaders pass along their experience of the highest goal and ignite creativity in others. They share the fruits of their quest for the highest goal with others and spread its effect in a beneficial spiral.

  He says further that the ultimate challenge of sharing our gifts is bringing our inner resources, our highest Self out into the world for others. Unless we can find a way to do this at some level, we haven't really achieved the highest goal.

   As we find a way to do this, we begin to receive from others and the universe. As we give and receive, we get into a larger flow than just the flow of absorption in the moment. Our inner resources connect with the systems around us and at the same time these systems nurture us.

   Our quest for the highest goal is fed in a natural way because being in this flow is the highest goal itself. To be of service and make the contribution only we can make to the universe, we must become a generative leader no matter what our role in life.

   We can be a leader to ourselves, to one other person or to the world. But if we start right now with an intention of being generative, of letting our creativity create creativity around us, of giving and receiving, we see remarkable things happen.

Experience Synergy in Every Moment

   Experience synergy in every moment.  Prof. Ray says that we can achieve synergy in our lives by developing organizing structures based on our highest goal and by getting into the flow of intuitive decision-making. By practicing observation and asking penetrating questions, we can hear what our inner intuitive voice has to say. Instead of agonizing over each decision and how it affects our ability to have balance, it is better to listen to our inner intuitive voice which comes to us as a sense of rightness rather than emotion or desire.

   He says further that Intuition is a powerful resource that we all have but we must develop. It is an inner knowing beyond and deeper than our emotions. When we live from intuition we achieve the highest goal in each moment.

   For me this means to just do the next thing in front of me. I don't have to see if that next thing has anything to do with balance. I do ask myself if it is the right thing to do. In so doing, I get the answer as long as it is connected to the hightest goal or higher power. I'm not attached to the outcome

Relate from Your Heart

   Relate from your heart. Prof. Ray defines compassion as seeing the highest in your Self first and then seeing the highest in others. He says if we have a full, rich feeling of self-worth, we have already taken the first step toward having compassion. If we see others from this perspective, we begin to change the nature of our relationships for the better. We make connections that move us toward the highest goal.

  He says further that when we experience compassion we experience our vast inner resource in the form of love we have within us. When we experience this we are experiencing the highest goal. This love doesn't come from the other person. It's within us. In fact, he says, a great teacher once said there is enough love in the individual human heart to fill the universe. When we relate with our heart we understand that there is only one way to meet the challenge of relationships with the people in our world: the way of compassion - seeing the highest first in yourself and then in others.

   Somewhat recently I've experienced what Prof. Ray is talking about consequent to sitting meditation. I had been told that I was well-defended by my therapist. I took this as a compliment at the time. I could probably add that I might have been a bit shallow as well. During meditation I noticed that my chest felt like it had been cracked open. I felt joy but also sadness simultaneously. I've come to see this as the experience of compassion. Indeed, my perspective has changed for the better of myself and others.

Turn Fear Into Breakthroughs

   Turn Fear Into Breakthroughs. When we have the grounding of the highest goal, we can see our fears for what they are. Learn from them, and turn their energy into breakthroughs and opportunities of the most lasting kind.

   Prof. Ray says an option is to move toward our fears rather than moving away or fighting them. By approaching them, we get to know them and where they come from. Observe the fear, stay with it, and learn what the most appropriate reaction might be. When fear comes, observe what happens. Note your physical sensation. What can you learn from the fear? It will normally disappear, and the mind becomes clear.

   Sakyong Mipham says in Turning the Mind Into an Ally that many of us are slaves to our minds. Our own mind is our worst enemy. We try to focus, and our mind wanders off. We try to keep stress at bay but anxiety keeps us awake at night. He says further that if we want to undo our own bewilderment and suffering and be of benefit to others and the planet, we're going to have to be responsible for learning what our own mind is and how it works, no matter what beliefs we hold. Once we see how our mind works, we see how our life works too.That changes us.

Find True Properity

   Find True Prosperity. The more we express and experience our highest qualities, the more we are filled with a rich feeling of self-worth, and the wealthier we will become in the truest sense. Find the prosperity that will sustain us through the ups and downs of life and keep increasing, even through difficulties.

   The heart of the challenge is to find true prosperity: In our culture , we look for prosperity outside ourselves, and all the while it waits for us internally. True prosperity is being happy and continuously  experiencing the variety and infinity of qualities that make up our Self. That is the way we can touch the experience of the highest goal. You achieve true prosperity by having a full rich feeling of self-worth.

   Prof. Ray suggests writing a statement of our highest purpose.  Mine is as follows: To be a warrior on the path of service.

   Then respond to the following:

   1. Do only what I love. Now that I'm retired, I can devote my time to a spiritual path.

   2. Love everything I do. If I don't love it, I don't do it. How do I feel inside?

   3. Be conscious of my experience. I can only do this through the practice of meditation.

   4. Get in to the flow of faith, purpose and prosperity. Life has taken on a completely different meaning for me. It's no longer based on the material as a measure of self-Worth. I am worthy, valuable.

Live with the Highest Goal

   Live with the Highest Goal. Prof. Ray says that because everything in the world is a connected system, we can't beat it. We can only join it. The best way is to live with heuristics - generalizations or rules of thumb for learning and discovery. Some of the more common examples of heuristics are Pay Attention, Ask Dumb Questions, and See with Your Heart.

   For this section it's important to select a pressing issue. For me the most pressing issue has been to find work in the form of helping others and to be able to earn a living from it. It's important for me to be of service, to participate, and to earn a living. This has caused me to exercise persistence. Two heuristics that come to mind and that have been useful are Just do What's in Front of Me and Have no Attachment to Outcome.

   I have found that if I practice these two, I don't consider the past or the future. I just do whatever is next and then test to see if it feels right or not. If it doesn't feel right, then I do something else. What is important is that I do something rather than remain inert. I notice too that I've been living with heuristics all along and didn't know it.