Become your awareness
creation
Become your awareness
Be your presence
Host your vision
Know your light
Creativity. It’s great when it is flowing but what can we do when its not? Do we look outside ourselves for some kind of support or advice or try to get rid of it or replace it with addictive ways? Is it even possible to find your creative self by looking outward? How much you are disconnecting from inspirations, creativity and solutions that come naturally?
Sitting down, stopping and reconnecting to your inner refuge, even for a moment, is the plugging in to the source of your strength.
When you are in an open space of being, you have the possibility to be aware of qualities you already possess. It is a kind of non-meditation meditation, but not just passively sitting and observing life flowing by. Turning to this inner refuge means resting inside to find support in who we are already.
It is a portal… where we find silence and with the silence of the mind, there is no discursive thought, no monkey or elephant mind running amuck, no anger to be felt, no idle chatter and, worries can be looked at nakedly. By immersion in this empty yet full silence, solutions will come naturally within the open space of being. Inner refuge means dipping into that ocean of awareness. When we do this, the creativity that emerges and the benefits that become available are clearly seen.
This presence in silence is often referred to as the natural mind or unspeakable state and that only pure awareness can apprehend it… not by the moving, problem-solving mind. This awareness, this openness, is the well of creativity. To discover this source, this inner refuge, the key is to shift your attention from the problem or challenge itself, to awareness itself. Here you can observe without judgement.
When I lived in Hawaii, I often saw giant ocean waves on the north shore of Oahu, but no matter how large they were or whether they formed tunnels or became a Tsunami, any wave was 100% water. Their real form is one taste… the only difference is that we follow them and some thoughts make us happy or sometimes they make sufferings and miseries, but we have created all that by ourselves.
wooden maiden
Of course, just intellectually knowing about presence or awareness or inner refuge, doesn’t liberate anything. Having naked awareness, however, does. Naked means being without clothes… likewise naked awareness is without the clothing of concepts and thoughts. What is left when the concepts and thoughts are not obscuring? Pure presence… the spaciousness of creativity. If an artist creates from inner presence, and produces work on canvas, paper, computer or film… these expressions will have real power to ennoble the hearts of others.
awareness
Awareness is not something to believe in or some intellectual exercise. It is hard to understand that naked awareness itself is even possible when emotion is so strong, let alone understand that the emotion could dissolve by observing it. It seems impossible until you do it. Do it with naked awareness. The observer is very important. The observer has to nakedly observe, with no thoughts and then it happens.
It is never, ever too late to find this inner creativity… and I speak from real experience. My own illustrations and poetic creativity only really birthed less than a decade ago, and I am nearly 8 decades old. Creativity burst out of me when I took the leap to let awareness became my companion and guide. The ego, and its holding on to thoughts or emotions, is not an enemy. Ego simply behaves like an unruly child from time to time, but he child loves the parent… you and your inner wisdom. It is time to guide the ego in maturity.
My deepest wish is that these heartfelt words can offer a reminder from where creativity can emerge and become manifest.
With the next few blogs and emails, I will offer some practical tools and exercises to help cultivate your practice of dipping into the ocean of awareness and experiencing true creativity.