THE CREATIVE PROCESS
THE MUSE: a sense of inspiration that initiates the process of creation
THE HARA: a place of quiet stillness from which expression arises.
THE ENERGY: the act of expression, the connection between the art and the artist. This is where the artist steps out of the way and lets the art happen freely.
How do we recognize inspiration when it arises? How do we learn how to nurture it so that it results in artistic expression?
One must first become familiar with this quiet place, not a place where thoughts don’t exist but the experience of not attaching to one’s thoughts. Sitting quietly each day and focusing on one’s breath is the most common approach to developing this awareness. As you sit and focus on your breath, simply allow the thoughts to pass through, observe them, do not comment on them, and just let them go. That’s all there is to it. It takes daily practice and one can do it anytime, all the time. This is the practice of meditation in daily life and once you are familiar with this quiet, this is the place from which you express. This is the place of intuition. This is the place where one’s true art arises.
Our world is filled with internal dialogue, judgments, assumptions and analysis. We choose these perspectives over having a “direct experience”. When we view the world with these perspectives, we do not see at all. We live in a world where certainty and familiarity are most important. There is another way.
“Usually we don’t really look at anything at all” Chogyam Trungpa
Today, go out a shoot a landscape or a sunset. Do not shoot it from your normal eyes. First go to a quiet place within and find the real sunset or landscape to express…not the familiar and usual. Find a way to express your own unique way of seeing the world, a way that’s true and meaningful for you.
“I shut my eyes in order to see”. Paul Gauguin
