creativity

Creativity and the Celestial Mind

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In my readings of Taoist mysticism, there’s an idea from some works (that dates back a bit over 1000 years by my guess) that describe the Human Mind and the Celestial Mind. The Human Mind is often described in terms of Yin, the receptive force of the universe, but a very pathological form – grasping, distracted, etc. Meanwhile the Celestial Mind, the enlightened mind, is described as Yang, the creative force, but concealed by the Human Mind. The creative power and the receptive form-giver are out of wack.

I found this concept helped appreciate my artistic creativity and it’s helped me in my meditations. In fact, I plan to write on this more.

The metaphor of the Human versus Celestial Mind is a helpful metaphor understand meditation. Our human mind, pursuing various activities like breathing, clarifies and calms itself, so something else emerges – the Celestial Mind. We’ve probably all been there – a state of clarify, powerful, subtle, and of course something we keep getting back to again and again as we keep getting away fro it.

With this metaphor of this Celestial Mind, this clear and calm yet somehow powerful and creative force, I began noticing something about my creativity.

When I was really creative, such as with my surrealist art, there was something about it. It was emergent, it wasn’t exactly part of my “everyday mind.” After a good art session I felt different, in touch with something, though it was almost like there was a hole in my regular self that something else poured through. It felt similar to what happened in meditations, those moments where you’re gone but something is there.

I also noticed similar experiences with energy work. Meditating on bodily energies (wether you consider them more metaphor like me or not) leads to a kind of clarity and a sense of something deeper within us. When you’re aware of your body, you’re aware of all the STUFF going on. This was also similar to that sense of creativity, of touching something greater.

Using the above metaphor of Human and Celestial Mind, of a pathological form of Yin and a concealed Yang, I appreciated the meditative element of creativity. When you really get going something shifts, the everyday you fades away and something else comes out. The “you” experienced in meditation and the creative you are similar if not the same thing.

I even began noticing how taking time to work on creativity seemed to correspond with better experiences in meditation. The way to the Celestial Mind was primed by both.

I hope to keep exploring this idea, as I find it in a few Taoist Documents, and I think it’s useful. I also now see how Creativity really can be a kind of meditation, and how it enhances our experiences. That Celestial Mind is there, and that’s one way to be in touch with it.

  • Xenofact

Writing, Publishing, and What’s Next

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Bundling up my columns here as my Xenofact Xines (yes, I’m sticking with Xine not zine) was both an artistic endeavor and an experiment. It was an artistic endeavor as it seemed fun and creative, something to do as it was neat not out of some calculation and coordination. It was also an experiment to see how that helped me reach out to, connect with, and communicate with people. As a writer under several names, a good experiment keeps you from falling into a rut.

I was thrilled when one of the Xine readers said they had sat down and read the whole thing, taking notes. While talking on the phone they had so much to tell me, to ask, and to speculate on. However they had a question.

“What do I do now?”

Was the phone right? An email? Should they write in their own blog? Should they post things to my website? My answer was simple.

“I don’t know!”

This was an experiment! I wanted to mess around, reach out to people in a different way, and see what happened. Well, what happened was one of my friends felt inspired and wanted to communicate more. I figured we’d work out the fine details eventually, but at least something was happening.

Experiment successful – something happened.

Experiment ongoing – we’re still figuring out what to do.

So many times we get stuck in one creative way of communicating. We do art in one medium, publish our written works only as ebooks or only as blog posts, and so on. So many of us fall into habit, into expectation, and into doing thing “the right way.”

But communication is about connecting and reaching people. It must by it’s nature be experimental because everyone is different and every communication is new. To over-organize it is to make it less communicative and more rote – data without information.

So, my friends, I invite you to look at your creative communications – art, writing, blogging, podcasting, publishing, costume, whatever. I challenge you to try something different as an experiment (it may also be fun). See what happens when you use a different medium, publishing method, or, well, anything.

Let’s see what happens.

(Oh and you can get a PDF of my first Xine here and here, or a print copy here.)

– Xenofact