On 04/28/2013 01:32 PM, turquoiseb wrote: > While I was on the train back to Paris this afternoon, zooming along at > 300+ kph, the guy in the next seat glanced over at my laptop screen and > asked what I was writing. Because he appeared in a talkative mood and I > was feeling anything but, I replied, "I'm not writing, I'm meditating." > > That worked. He shut up and went to sleep, and I continued meditating. > > The thing is, I wasn't entirely blowing him off. I *was* meditating, > because I was in the middle of writing something creative. > > Creativity IS my favorite form of meditation these days. If this sounds > strange to those who only think of meditation as something you can do in > silence, with eyes closed, they either haven't been around the spiritual > block very much or they don't have any creative ideas, or both. I still > meditate the old way, but the form of meditation that gets me the > highest these days is when I'm writing something that triggers the > creative flow. > > The thing I was writing this afternoon filled that bill just fine, thank > you. I had an idea for a short story while waiting for the train, and > following advice given to me many years ago by Ray Bradbury, I was > writing the idea down before it "got away." Ray was right on with that > advice. Creative ideas are like waves. You either catch them or you > don't. Wait too long after the idea first hits you, and it's > gone...you'll never be able to recapture the magic of it. > > So I was writing it down, surfing it for all it was worth, while the > wave was still building. Later I can go back to it and, because I caught > the original wave, I might be able to turn it into an interesting story. > If I had waited until I got to Paris, I wouldn't have been able to. The > idea would have lost its energy and its magic because the *flow* of it > would no longer have been present. > > Some may claim that this process isn't "really" meditation, but I beg to > differ with them. Getting out of the way and allowing the creative idea > to flow is (for me) the same process as getting out of the way and > allowing silence to flow. It's just that at the end of a regular > meditation session, all you've got to show for it is a smile on your > face. At the end of one of my writing meditation sessions, I've often > got a smile on my face *and* a story that I can sell somewhere. Such a > deal. > > I know that Curtis will get this, as perhaps will a few others here. > Creativity is a real high. Those of us who spent many years on a > spiritual path, especially those who became teachers, know well the high > of taking ideas in from others and then parroting them out again. Even > if all you are doing *is* parroting, there's a high to it. > > But it's a Whole Other High when the ideas are your own.,,
Not to mention that some people (namely media executives) seem to think that one can turn on creativity just like one can turn a light off and on. People go through creative periods and through dry periods, know to writers as "writer's block" but not exclusive to writers but music composers and painters as well. A creative process once started can make hours fly by without notice. This even occurs with software development and I've always argued that good software developers would more like fine artists, in spurts, rather than in 9 to 5 hours.
