The first and most important question to ask ourselves is why we want to be creative. If our answer is not profound, then our chances of becoming truly creative are slim. Creativity arises in absence of the mundane. If we want to be creative so that we stand out from the rest, or become famous or wealthy; in other words, if we have a purpose in becoming creative, we probably wont. We might shift some old programs around in our minds and come up with something a little different, but thats not creativity. Creativity comes from a place not familiar at all with dead files of memory. Its an Ah-ha, a light bulb going off.
Writers cure their writing blocks by getting away; they know that the well of silence and solitude is where true creativity is born. The most creative people in history understood the well of silence. The Buddha and Christ both spent time in solitude, the Buddha six years, and their creativity changed the world.
When we constantly immerse ourselves into the conflict of life, and life is always conflict, we will produce no space for creativity to arise because creativity is fragile and intuitive. Creativity is never something we can practice or learn. Creativity is like falling in love, you just cant make it happen or plan it; it happens or it doesnt.
We can encourage creativity however. The mind must be at rest for true creativity to blossom. Einstein said that his Theory of Relativity suddenly came to him; it was not something that he worked out in his mind. That means that he was not thinking about time and space when this epiphany hit, it came from out of the blue.
The easiest way is to encourage creativity is to become thoroughly bored; we can never become creative by thinking things through. When we become bored by restricting all sense stimulation, including the sixth sense of mind or thinking, then its not long before ideas generate . . . from out of the blue. The trick is not jumping on the first idea that pops up, because as we continue to bore ourselves (resist sense stimulations), the insights deepen dramatically.
When we are able to go deep enough with this boredom, an interesting phenomenon occurs. The creativity begins to open our minds to unforeseen horizons. These mysterious possibilities then bring about a fundamental change in our entire being, and whatever goals we may have previously had give way to a completely different understanding. This we call insight, and it involves our becoming free from the conflict of life, which is the ultimate creativity.
Copyright E. Raymond Rock 2007. All rights reserved
E. Raymond Rock of Fort Myers, Florida is cofounder and principal teacher at the Southwest Florida Insight Center (SouthwestFloridaInsightCenter.com). His twenty-eight years of meditation experience has taken him across four continents, including two stopovers in Thailand where he practiced in the remote northeast forests as an ordained Theravada Buddhist monk. His book, A Year to Enlightenment (Career Press/New Page Books) is now available at major bookstores and online retailers (AYearToEnlightenment.com).
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