‘Today, like every other day, we wake up empty
and frightened. Don’t open the door to the study
and begin reading. Take down the dulcimer.

Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.’ ― Jelalludin Rumi

Remember as children when we would create for the sake of creativity, joyfully immersing ourselves in art, music, dance, and play? Lost for hours with little thought to time, responsibility, or the world around us. Many of us have tried to replicate those moments throughout our lives, or even incorporated them into our jobs. Yet the emergence of goal-orientated artistic endeavour has a way of seeping the joy from our creative process.

To me, free, creative expression is a spiritual state of no less value than meditation, prayer, or worship. In those moments of complete immersion of focus in the goal of creating beauty simply for beauty’s sake, we fall in line with what has been termed ‘Tao’ by thinkers of the East, ‘Logos’ by ancients in the West, and ‘flow state’ by modern psychologists. In this state, the small self gets out the way and we are freed up to commune with what feels like a force outside of ourselves.

This force has the power to create objects of mystical beauty. I was struck by this several years ago when visiting the Alhambra in Granada, Spain, a beautiful Islamic palace that sits on the hillside overlooking the town. Inside, the intricacy and beauty sent me into a state of total awe.

Walking for hours round chambers of ornate mandala-like carvings the building continues to open up to you in ever bigger halls that bloom out of one another, full from top to bottom with carvings of otherworldly skill and beauty. Water winds through the outside spaces and the greenery beautifully compliments the structures of human making, a perfect aligning of nature’s creation with our own.

The Alhambra provided me with a much-needed reminder of the capacity of human beings to manifest incredible beauty, a beauty so profound it can only be described as a physical act of worship.

Summoning the Muse

Throughout history and across cultures people have seen the creative force as emanating from outside of themselves. In Greek mythology, the Muses are often depicted as the nine daughters of Zeus and were seen as the source of artistic and creative inspiration. Writers of the time would invoke the muses at the beginning of a piece of writing. Asking them to use the author as a mouthpiece for their divine art.

We can often look at these practices in a modern context and find them archaic, yet if we are able to suspend our literal mind, we may find these myths as useful now as they were thousands of years ago. We live in a world where truth is discovered through observable facts and although there is obviously great knowledge to be attained through these methods, sometimes wisdom is better understood through stories, myth, and poetry.

This idea of creativity existing outside of us also reminds me of the tao (the way) in Taoism. Lao Tzu suggests that the aim is not to struggle against nature, building monuments to human pride but instead to fall in line with the natural order by an approach of non-forcing (wu wei). It is when we allow ourselves to be guided by the tao that true beauty emerges.

In Taoism, they use the word ‘Li’ to describe the patterns of nature, the lines in wood, the flowing form of water, the markings on rock, all are examples of Li. No matter how random and diverse they appear there is always perfection in these patterns. Human hands have created objects of both great beauty and also great ugliness and yet nature when left uninterrupted always seems to manifest beauty. Therefore, it makes sense to try and align ourselves with nature’s way and channel the natural patterns of the universe.

A Taoist Solution for Creative Block

I wonder then if this explains the pain of creative block. For those of us who rely on creative art to turn off the thinking mind and commune with something greater than ourselves, to be denied this access can at times feel physically painful.

In Greek mythology, Eros, the god of love, is characterized by both creation and connection. I think this demonstrates the ancient’s understanding of the deep unity between the two. Therefore, for many of us, when the creative outlet is denied it can feel like our rope to the universe, others and the divine is cut.

I think it is at this point that it becomes important to reconnect with creation for creation’s sake, or to make something beautiful as an act of worship. The creative arts can often become enmeshed with other desires, whether it be notoriety, money, or validation. I think these desires often muddy the waters of pure creative expression.

When I notice any conflict around creativity beginning to emerge, I like to go into the garden. I will never receive notoriety or money for my primitive gardening skills, nor will I receive much validation more than my Mum complimenting my marigolds when she pops over.

Therefore the blank canvas of the garden provides an opportunity to create with no expectation of reward. A chance to create beauty as an act of gratitude, worship, and connection. Furthermore, much like the Taoist philosophy discussed earlier, the best gardens are so often those ones that don’t oppose the natural patterns of nature. I think the most skillful gardeners are those that let themselves be a servant to natures will, to protect, nurture, and flow with its natural unfolding rather than seeing themselves as the designer, creator, or tyrant. This process naturally combats hubris and reaffirms our place in the greater whole.

“You have the right to work, but for the work’s sake only. You have no right to the fruits of work. Desire for the fruits of work must never be your motive in working. Never give way to laziness, either.

Perform every action with you heart fixed on the Supreme Lord. Renounce attachment to the fruits. Be even-tempered in success and failure: for it is this evenness of temper which is meant by yoga.

Work done with anxiety about results is far inferior to work done without such anxiety, in the calm of self-surrender. Seek refuge in the knowledge of Brahma. They who work selfishly for results are miserable.” ― Bhagavad Gita

Rekindling Our Love of Art

I think the key then to reigniting passion for our creative projects is to follow the wisdom of this passage from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita, and to renounce the fruits of your creativity.

If you are writing, forget for a while the subjects or styles that you think will be popular and gain you followers, notoriety, or money and instead spend some time looking within and working out what is burning to be written. The same goes for any creative endeavor, sometimes it is vital to step back and maybe even completely away for a little while to reconnect with ourselves. Many find going into nature and quieting the mind an essential reset for the creative process.

Ultimately, I think the lesson of many of the ancient traditions was that in order for great art to emerge it is often crucial to take the human ego out of the equation.

By seeing the beauty and mythic value of our creations as emanating from outside of ourselves we are able to let go of pride and surrender to the creative process without the constant calculations of the ego. In our modern cultures, we often correlate success with striving, but maybe the path to truly fulfilling work and art of greater beauty instead demands the path of surrender.

• Source: The meduim