Where to Now?

Creativiy is the natural expression of our inner consciousness. How inner is inner? As inner as we choose to explore. Inner is infinite in dimension. However, the immediate inner is our spiritual consciousness. It gives rise to expressions of creativity we describe as intuition, inspiration, imagination, and genius. When Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat of that bus in Montgomery, Alabama, which ignited the Civil Rights Movement, I suspect her inner spiritual consciousness took over. Defying the presently existing tradition and law at that time was simultaneouly invalidating a myth in her own mind. Hence, Picasso's statement: "The act of creation is simultaneously the act of destruction." Destruction of a humanly-programmed myth of sitting behind a screen.

The point here is that whenever we live our lives in concert with our spiritual consciousness, we are living a creative life--moment by moment of existence. I have previously made a distinction between religion and spirituality. Religion is belief-driven and spirituality is wisdom-driven. Belief is of the mind and spirituality is of the Soul (for lack of a better word). The spiritual domain can never be accurately described by words because it is a wordless domain. It is characterized by a natural "way of being." We live normal lives most of the time. Being normal is living by the dictates of how we best conceive the world should operate to accommodate the "perceived" survival of human beings--arbitrarily balancing the the welfare of the individual versus the collective.

The most incredible aspect of creativity is that you can live a happy and fulfilling life almost regardsless of your circumstances. This process begins with creating a two-way street between your bodymind self and your inner spiritual self. That is, learning how to freely access it rather than have it access you in dire situations. Most of us are creative or spiritual when we are in crisis, rather than living that way day-to-day.

Even if you are at work right now, here's a quick starter exercise: Focus on a spot on your desk or the wall. Let the stream of thoughts flow through your mind of everything that is going on in life. (about 5 minutes) Then notice there are periods when you are not there! These are timeless moments where your consciousness is in a "mindless" state. Notice how you feel when you reenter: scared, exhilarated, changed, courageous, calm, confused, etc. These are all feelings that result from reentry because "something happened" when you were mindless. To discover what happened, recall Picasso's statement above. You've begun to create the two-way street. Practice it for a week and you will have free entry back and forth. After a while, it will feel like "going back home," the most natural place you could be.

When you have mastered your two-way street, you might begin having a conversation with your inner, spiritual self to discover your natural expression in the world that is of service and involves the well-being of others. I think what you might find is that serving others brings the greatest meaning to your own life. Therein lies your "life purpose." This is all creative stuff.

Next time we will move into creating an idea, concept, paradigm that translates into "some thing" through the innovation process.