The way of the Creative Man
“Form is emptiness, emptiness is form”
Buddhist Text (Heart Sutra)
Much of what is spoken about in spirituality today as well as in the past as found in scriptures and literature, has emphasized the immortal spirit of man. Jesus referred to it as the kingdom of God, Buddha referred to it as “nothing-ness”, Shankara referred to it as the “Self”. Essentially, much of the spiritual guidance boils down to helping man trace his steps back into his eternal reality. There is a crucial point here though which tends to get missed in spirituality and religion, that is that although there is one Self, one source of all existence, there are many different ways it operates in existence. While, it is highly critical that one learns the truth of one’s own self and confirms this to be his reality in a variety of settings, it is just as critical to learn the ways in which the eternal reality operates in the world. There is a meditative element in our lives which helps in recognizing, confirming and stabilizing in our true nature to be non-phenomenal awareness and a creative element which uses phenomena in existence relevant to the expression of a certain human-being to harness creative insight. While the meditative element acts as the root of the tree, the creative element acts as the apex. To live a fulfilling and content life with a capacity to inspire and transform both the meditative aspects and creative aspects of a human being must blossom. In the last blog post,
I spoke of the need to create systems that have evolutionary capacity, that have the capacity to allow the creative juices within us to flow so we can evolve into an enlightened society. This post is an attempt to further explore and clarify the subtle aspects surrounding the creation of such systems in the meditative as well as in the creative realm. I don’t know if I have the capacity to address the details of formation of systems on behalf of the collective (religion, law, spiritual movements etc. are such systems). But I’d like to think that I much like others have to or even need to muster the capacity to form systems within our own lives that help realize our meditative potential and harness our creative energies while engaging with ourselves and the people we are in contact with at large. Let the word systems not frighten us to think that we need to create complex machineries, but let us instead keep in mind that to create a system that interacts with the collective could be as simple as deciding to make and share art or music on social media, making music and interacting with a wider community, Sharing skills that could be beneficial to a certain community or collective, sharing general thoughts, engaging in entrepreneurial ventures and so on while a system that interacts with individual(s) might be something like taking a walk every morning, taking dance lessons with one’s partner, meditating and so on, . It is important that we become conduits through which there is freshness, lightness, freedom and love. I’d like to think that eventually this is a one man revolution and that one man is I.
Insight into the evolving context
“ Essentially as one moves through subtler and subtler contexts, lesser energy is required in the maintenance of operations in the being because the energy is not getting short circuited by the egoic filter.”
Meditation when realized within oneself can lead to a great number of insights. Out of many other insights, it can lead to insights into evolving contexts at an energetic level. Before we proceed further, I’d like to explain this idea of an energetic movement in consciousness. So what is an energetic movement in consciousness? An energetic movement is a growth or an evolution from one context to another larger context. Let’s take an example. Say, there is an impulse to be healthy and this can be seen as a context. The movement from a certain way of living to a healthy way of living can be seen as a movement of consciousness. These movements are intrinsic to consciousness and it uses these to refine and grow itself. The part of consciousness that is responsible for these movements is the vital force or energy. Movement in other words is a quantum leap from one context to another. Every time there is an evolution or growth from one context to another, there is a certain amount of energy that was required in the maintenance of the operations of the consciousness within that context that is no longer required and that is released within the being. Essentially as one moves through subtler and subtler contexts, lesser energy is required in the maintenance of operations in the being because the energy is not getting short circuited by the egoic filter. The higher intensity of energy also allows remnants of egoic shards to be removed much more effectively. This in-turn releases more energy and the whole process keeps growing exponentially. This energy revitalises the being and craves expression and this is where the construction of structures that have an evolutionary capacity finds its relevance. These structures act as a conduit to the additional energy that is released and they take on an evolutionary capacity of their own and this is the essence of the creative expression. As lesser and lesser energy is required for the maintenance of unconscious structures that govern the movements of being, the intensity of energy keeps rising. The energy can gather to such a large extent that it begins to flood newer channels of the being that are unpredictable before-hand. Here, channels refer to the various aspects or expressions of being — in relationships, in vocation, in health etc. Eventually it can gather its own momentum and can have a trajectory of its own. It’s hard to say what channels of being this energy does choose to flood and in what order and I wonder if in some cases why it doesn't choose certain channels and why? May be it’s the destiny of the being to focus the movement of its energies into some channels more than others, I don’t really know. Overall, the growth of consciousness is a non-linear process and even a small jump from one context to another means a cosmic leap eventually and has lasting repercussions in existence.
Honing the creative expression
“While considering a certain job for a livelihood, does the job have the capacity to expand beyond its initial scope? Does the scope and depth of the job have the capacity to grow in relation to my own growth? And as it grows does it grow at the cost of my well-being? What I mean to ask is — does it grow at the cost of my health? Does it grow at the cost of me spending time with my family? if so, what is implied in that?”
Complementing meditative practices, I want to speak a little about creative systems and creative practices that might aid one on the path especially if one’s energies are naturally flowing back into the world. In the last section we looked at what happens at the energetic level when one is engaged in a meditative practise or has a contemplative outlook — In this paragraph we will examine what is implied by meditative outlook within the world we operate in and in the evolution of our creative capacities and systems that extract our capacities. When we are not very conscious of the way we engage with the world, we seem to be very short sighted in the way we make decisions. Essentially, it seems that not a lot of holistic information seems to be facilitating our decision but rather cerebral information which can often be limited by our own limited sense of self. Not all conduits our energies flow into might be healthy for us especially since it might be influenced by egoic thought. Let’s take the example of a job as a system. Now, while considering a certain job for a livelihood, does the job have the capacity to expand beyond its initial scope? Does the scope and depth of the job have the capacity to grow in relation to my own growth? And as it grows does it grow at the cost of my well-being? What I mean to ask is — does it grow at the cost of my health? Does it grow at the cost of me spending time with my family? if so, what is implied in that? and so on. While I am prompting the reader to explore these things, I must also mention that this exploration has to occur over a background of unknowing. It must occur with the background of a sense that the joint destiny we share with other human beings or with any other activity might bring about things in our life that are totally unimaginable and it is always good to be open to this possibility otherwise we might become too narrow in our exploration of creative systems. As far as creative practices are concerned, more than focussing on the conduits in which these energies flow into (because different creative practices/professions have nuanced complexities which the practitioner himself might be better suited to resolve) I would focus on being awake to the movement of energy and what drives it because it is this energy that is the critical factor in our expression. I would encourage not treating any practice in isolation and considering it as a holistic unit of existence. For example when we encounter a certain problem in our creative expression, we must be able to examine it from various perspectives, like the perspective of the mind and emotion through meditative practices like contemplative inquiry, surrender etc., from the perspective of body through physical exercise, yoga or whatever one is inclined to, from the perspective of breath through breath awareness, breathing practices and so on. Sometimes the problems we face in our lives can be quite textured and a superficial solution to it may not ensure the right output is attained. For this reason, we might be better suited to treat the problem on the whole and be open to the possibility of solving problem from perspectives we haven’t considered before and aren’t familiar with even. This way gradually we gain a deeper insight into how a problem has roots in many different realms, and although sometimes rooting it out on one level might root it out on every level sometimes it may require a bit of tweaking at various different levels. This holistic examination and exploration must be accompanied by honing the one’s craft in the profession one belongs to as well — then we stand a chance to experience and bring about through our creative expression a new kind of evolving zeal that slowly aligns the fabric of our lives and eventually the society with a kind of intelligence that is rooted in sensitivity. Finally, I’d like to say that the same analogy can be extended to how we function in relationships, how we function in our jobs and so on, so understanding this has the capacity to change the way we operate in these fundamental limbs of the energetic network of being therefore effecting the change in ourselves that we wish to see in the world.
Dharma of the universal heart
While the symptoms of being unable to progress on the meditative front might be fear, anxiety, panic, guilt etc. the symptoms of being unable to progress in the creative front could be meaninglessness, boredom, depression etc. so it’s essential that we progress on both fronts in our lives. This is a very sensitive realm where we cannot go with existing tools blindly. The difficulty that may arise at this juncture could be that instead of evolving through different contexts through meditative practices, more and more systems or energetic conduits are created unnecessarily and blindly for the creative juices to flow without really addressing the root issue. When such is the case irrespective of the number of systems created, the problem doesn't get solved. So it is important to discern if one must create newer systems or resolve existing systems through meditative practices. This whole post has been an attempt to convey the path of a human being that considers and views himself as an integrated creative and meditative being and that is awake to his energetic movements and is aware if there is a balance in his energetic movement. The creation of systems or in other words energetic conduits is the way in which we are able to interact with the world and by accessing creative energy within ourselves and in the universe, it begins to flow into existing structures within our lives and affect the people around us. We might not even realize the effects of this in an obvious way to begin with, but quietly but surely, we would have moved closer to aligning ourselves and the world with the dharma of the universal heart.
