Art, Creativity and Spiritual Practise

Now, more presently, I don't really concern my self with grand dreams of musical success, or trying to "architect" a "hit". Sometimes I'll just feel like picking up an instrument, and whatever I create is whatever feels right in that moment, whatever captures the mood or emotion of the moment. It comes from a state of flow, improvisation, and intuition.

I am less hesitant to play around other people, less concerned with making "mistakes" and just more centered in enjoying the present. I think that spiritual practice could lead some people away from their musical hobbies and that eventually they may rediscover them, at least that is how things have gone for me so far.

Sometimes it feels like I want to re-experience things like songs or movies I liked in the past, because I get such a refreshing perspective on them now. I still love music and find great depth and spirituality in it. I hope everyone here chooses to continue expressing their awakening through art; such art, poetry, and music has been an inspiration to me!

metta!

Justin

This is such a fascinating arena. I don't think I can approach it yet from the perspectives of everyone else's posts yet - ideas about how meditation influences performance and conception of ideas - but for a while now I have been thinking that it would be a very nice thing to do to make art concerning the human condition, of which I think spirituality is such an enormous part. And creativity is such an enormous part. And so there's what we may be able to say about what life actually is. It would be very very nice to make art that revitalizes the aesthetic of meditation itself. It would amount to some very gritty stuff. Inspirational stuff, really unbelievable heuristics for people to cut the crap out of their lives. Heh, don't know what that is yet but I think there's a fascinating ground for creativity there.

This has inspired me to dust off my guitars this weekend. I used to be very diligent in making sure I practiced playing my guitar every day, now that effort has shifted to meditation. I never thought how it might actually help me worry less about making mistakes and allow me to enjoy playing for the sake of playing much more. Thanks Nadav for bumping this thread. A lot of my creative outlets had gone to the wayside in my recent spiritual developments.

I agree with many here - I find I am far less concerned with getting things wrong or overthinking how to write or draw - I just let inspiration run on its own and enjoy the process of writing or drawing and seeing where things end up. "Flow" seems more natural and easy than it used to. And I am less focused on how the final result should be and more focused on being absorbed in the process and letting the result arrive as and when it does. This sounds like it might result in sloppy or slow work, but I actually find I get things done faster, more efficiently and with the same or better quality as I would have produced if I'd fussed and fretted about the project. I don't play music anymore (used to play the violin), I mostly write (both technical writing and creative writing).

I ran across this fantastic piece on creativity and neuroscience at "On Being." I listened to the first 5 minutes and was hooked. If you've never heard On Being with Krista Tippett before, it really is a treat.

In this episode, Krista interviews neuropsychologist Rex Jung.

Show notes:
"How do we prime our brains to take the meandering mental paths necessary for creativity? New techniques of brain imaging, Rex Jung says, are helping us gain a whole new view on the differences between intelligence, creativity, and personality. He unsettles some old assumptions '” and suggests some new connections between creativity and family life, creativity and aging, and creativity and purpose."

Link to the show, notes, transcript, and extras:
being.publicradio.org/programs/2012/crea...-the-everyday-brain/

I just remembered there's a book out there about how concentration meditation (transcendental meditation) facilitates creativity by none other than David Lynch.

www.amazon.com/Catching-Big-Fish-Meditat...id=1334073054&sr=8-1

Would be neat to find a pirated version