~~
"Therapy" by David Lynch, filmaker and philanthropist
I went to a psychiatrist once. I was doing something that was becoming a pattern in my life, and I thought, “ Well I should go talk to a psychiatrist.” When I got into the room, I asked him, “Do you think that this process could in any way, damage my creativity?” And he said, “Well, David, I have to be honest: it could.” And I shook his hand and left.
David Lynch :: from “Catching the Big Fish: meditation, consciousness,and creativity”
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
Inspiration Comes From?
~~ Naturally Inspried to Create from a Settled Soul:
Genuine inspiration is not particularly dramatic. It's very ordinary. It comes from settling down in your environment and accepting situations as natural. Out of that you begin to realize that you can dance with them. So inspiration comes from acceptance rather than from having a sudden flash of a good gimmick coming up in your mind. Natural inspiration is simply having something somewhere that you can relate with, so it has a sense of stableness and solidity. Inspiration has two parts: openness and clear vision, or in Sanskrit, shunyata and prajna. Both are based on the notion of original mind, traditionally known as buddha mind, which is blank, nonterritorial, noncompetitive, and open.
From Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche "One Stroke" in DHARMA ART, page 100
This was quoted (perhaps edited a bit first?) on a favorite- fellow blog of mine:
Link to: http://beingknowingdoing.blogspot.com/
Whereas a conventional artist starts painting a canvas
knowing what she wants to paint, and
holds to her original intention until the work is finished,
an original artist with equal technical training commences with a deeply felt but undefined goal in mind,
shapes emerging on the canvas, and ends up with a finished work
that probably will not resemble anything she started out with.
If the artist is responsive to her inner feelings, knows what she likes and
does not like, and pays attention to what is happening on the canvas,
a good painting is bound to emerge. On the other hand,
if she holds on to a preconceived notion of what
the painting should look like, without responding to the possibilities suggested
by the forms developing before her, the painting is likely to be trite.
MIHALY CSIKSZENTMIHALYI:
__Flow, The Psychology of Optimal Experience--
Genuine inspiration is not particularly dramatic. It's very ordinary. It comes from settling down in your environment and accepting situations as natural. Out of that you begin to realize that you can dance with them. So inspiration comes from acceptance rather than from having a sudden flash of a good gimmick coming up in your mind. Natural inspiration is simply having something somewhere that you can relate with, so it has a sense of stableness and solidity. Inspiration has two parts: openness and clear vision, or in Sanskrit, shunyata and prajna. Both are based on the notion of original mind, traditionally known as buddha mind, which is blank, nonterritorial, noncompetitive, and open.
From Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche "One Stroke" in DHARMA ART, page 100
This was quoted (perhaps edited a bit first?) on a favorite- fellow blog of mine:
Link to: http://beingknowingdoing.blogspot.com/
Whereas a conventional artist starts painting a canvas
knowing what she wants to paint, and
holds to her original intention until the work is finished,
an original artist with equal technical training commences with a deeply felt but undefined goal in mind,
shapes emerging on the canvas, and ends up with a finished work
that probably will not resemble anything she started out with.
If the artist is responsive to her inner feelings, knows what she likes and
does not like, and pays attention to what is happening on the canvas,
a good painting is bound to emerge. On the other hand,
if she holds on to a preconceived notion of what
the painting should look like, without responding to the possibilities suggested
by the forms developing before her, the painting is likely to be trite.
MIHALY CSIKSZENTMIHALYI:
__Flow, The Psychology of Optimal Experience--
Monday, May 7, 2007
A Future Full of Hope when Hope is a Commodity
This 'secret toast' entry came to me because Sara Stone at stonesofremeberance.blogspot.com invited her readers to write, like an assignment, about the beauty of Christ. This first 'secret toast' entry contains several different but connected thoughts that may stimulate readers to ponder further...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The beauty in the Spirit of Hope is found in each person’s “settled soul.”
And the Spirit of Christ, our hope, is always present whether we fully experience this all the time or not.
The “half-life” of Hope as a commodity--
We hope the pills we take for our illnesses will work for us until we are cured or relieved. But before long we hear they are taken off the market as unsafe, too many side effects, something more effective comes on the market and we can shift our hope onto that little pill sitting in the palm of our hand. That is hope as a something we buy.
We live in a Theological Commodities Market-- Consumerism insinuates itself into our spiritual lives in ways we hardly expect. It acts like "spiritual terrorism" -- very sneaky. Consumerism dulls the bright beauty of our spiritual life. Are Faith, Hope and Love those virtues that every life revolves on also things that can be traded or increased like a bank account?
Can Hope be given and taken away? How about Love? and Faith?
We experience love in this world mostly by its being given or expressed daily. In some ways we trade acts of love with one another. Sadly, we know love is often withdrawn, twisted, or abused with life-changing consequences.
Certainly faith is a gift, a pure, freely given gift from God. So then it is like a spiritual commodity, although not a tangible thing. As with hope and love, we can lose our faith. Not only in God, but in our friends,or a family member, or when things are darkest, our faith in humanity's goodness seems to die. Faith is also a specific path that God wants us to follow for full Divine union. So, considered in this way it is not a “thing” to get and hold onto, but a kind of mystery. We may not fully understand yet, but we know when we’ve got it and when we are on the 'path of faith.' When Jesus says to us, "I am the Way," following him, the very path we tread, we make it an act of faith. And is it always a beautiful path? Beauty is one of the most tempting illusions in the world of commodities, spiritual or otherwise.
Faith ebbs and flows during our lives. I do not think a person of faith can truly say that living and walking in faith with Christ their path is always comfortable, or bright and pleasant. But the beauty is there even when the road gets rocky and rough. There is a sense of relief and satisfaction of knowing we are on the path God has called us to walk. We feel settled in our soul.
And what about the Spirit’s gift of Hope?
Jeremiah: “I promise you a future FULL of hope.” Historically, hope was the pay back for the current suffering the Hebrews were experiencing. A full measure of hope lies waiting for each of us at the end of this time of hardship, Jeremiah promises.
I think a lot of us see hope in this way, as a reward for sufferings. A thing to cling to. I think this concept of hope sustained Jeremiah himself whose hard life, the very hard life of a prophet of God, wore him down. But that makes hope into a theological or spiritual commodity: a divine thing to be held onto, let go of, or perhaps even traded for "something better."
That’s okay. We might also think of Hope as a storehouse of God’s wealth, with God’s Rich Spirit infused in each Christian at baptism. So, in some sense, some spiritual sense, Hope could be thought of in a material way. But the gifts in that storehouse are much better and more long-lasting than material commodities. Now might be a good time to settle down and enter with Christ into his Spirit: the storehouse called Hope, that he has given each of us and where true and perfect beauty can be found.
This is not the time to live in the past hoping for a brighter future. The beauty of the future is here, right now.
Because the past is found in the present, and the present is moving into the future, yet the future is Now. Now is where life in the Spirit may be found. So, let's spend our vast wealth of Hope right now, why wait for the future that never comes? Fill up with Hope, the beauty of Christ, and give it away... freely. Ω
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The beauty in the Spirit of Hope is found in each person’s “settled soul.”
And the Spirit of Christ, our hope, is always present whether we fully experience this all the time or not.
The “half-life” of Hope as a commodity--
We hope the pills we take for our illnesses will work for us until we are cured or relieved. But before long we hear they are taken off the market as unsafe, too many side effects, something more effective comes on the market and we can shift our hope onto that little pill sitting in the palm of our hand. That is hope as a something we buy.
We live in a Theological Commodities Market-- Consumerism insinuates itself into our spiritual lives in ways we hardly expect. It acts like "spiritual terrorism" -- very sneaky. Consumerism dulls the bright beauty of our spiritual life. Are Faith, Hope and Love those virtues that every life revolves on also things that can be traded or increased like a bank account?
Can Hope be given and taken away? How about Love? and Faith?
We experience love in this world mostly by its being given or expressed daily. In some ways we trade acts of love with one another. Sadly, we know love is often withdrawn, twisted, or abused with life-changing consequences.
Certainly faith is a gift, a pure, freely given gift from God. So then it is like a spiritual commodity, although not a tangible thing. As with hope and love, we can lose our faith. Not only in God, but in our friends,or a family member, or when things are darkest, our faith in humanity's goodness seems to die. Faith is also a specific path that God wants us to follow for full Divine union. So, considered in this way it is not a “thing” to get and hold onto, but a kind of mystery. We may not fully understand yet, but we know when we’ve got it and when we are on the 'path of faith.' When Jesus says to us, "I am the Way," following him, the very path we tread, we make it an act of faith. And is it always a beautiful path? Beauty is one of the most tempting illusions in the world of commodities, spiritual or otherwise.
Faith ebbs and flows during our lives. I do not think a person of faith can truly say that living and walking in faith with Christ their path is always comfortable, or bright and pleasant. But the beauty is there even when the road gets rocky and rough. There is a sense of relief and satisfaction of knowing we are on the path God has called us to walk. We feel settled in our soul.
And what about the Spirit’s gift of Hope?
Jeremiah: “I promise you a future FULL of hope.” Historically, hope was the pay back for the current suffering the Hebrews were experiencing. A full measure of hope lies waiting for each of us at the end of this time of hardship, Jeremiah promises.
I think a lot of us see hope in this way, as a reward for sufferings. A thing to cling to. I think this concept of hope sustained Jeremiah himself whose hard life, the very hard life of a prophet of God, wore him down. But that makes hope into a theological or spiritual commodity: a divine thing to be held onto, let go of, or perhaps even traded for "something better."
That’s okay. We might also think of Hope as a storehouse of God’s wealth, with God’s Rich Spirit infused in each Christian at baptism. So, in some sense, some spiritual sense, Hope could be thought of in a material way. But the gifts in that storehouse are much better and more long-lasting than material commodities. Now might be a good time to settle down and enter with Christ into his Spirit: the storehouse called Hope, that he has given each of us and where true and perfect beauty can be found.
This is not the time to live in the past hoping for a brighter future. The beauty of the future is here, right now.
Because the past is found in the present, and the present is moving into the future, yet the future is Now. Now is where life in the Spirit may be found. So, let's spend our vast wealth of Hope right now, why wait for the future that never comes? Fill up with Hope, the beauty of Christ, and give it away... freely. Ω
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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