Creation
Life is a creative process. We are not always aware that it is but all the time, in each and every moment, the creative process is happening. Because what we are and what is around us seems always to be there we forget that it is being created. Everything is different, at some level, from one moment to the next. There is a constant process of change and therefore a constant creation of each new moment.
We can observe this creative process. We can observe our mind constantly creating thoughts, impulses and desires. We can observe emotions being created even if we don’t know from where they come. We can observe new situations arriving in our life. We can observe new feelings arising in the body. To truly appreciate this newness of every moment is to feel fully alive and at one with the living, creative process in which we find ourselves.
It is easy to claim ownership of some of the creative processes that go on. We claim that “we” had a great idea or “I” made this beautiful something or another or “I” made this mess or this mistake. It seems as if we are creating all kinds of things, some good and some bad. However, from a deeper, more profound perspective it all just happens and no one is making it happen. From that perspective there tends to be more a sense of marvel and humour at the whole creative process of which we ourselves are inextricable a part.
There are many things that we think we create and therefore assume to be ours that on closer inspection can be seen to be no more our creation than the stars in the sky. For example our thoughts, our dreams, our breathing, our movements, our feelings all arise spontaneously. In fact if we are totally relaxed we don’t feel ourselves to be doing anything. Maybe that is the cause of stress then, to imagine that we are doing something.
So one discipline that is recommended to encourage relaxation and a profounder sense of reality is to always allow things to be or in other words to allow the creative force of life to freely flow. Then we allow the superior intelligence that life possesses to come into our life. This goes against our desire to want to control things for ourselves. This desire comes from fear and so to allow things to be and unfold according to life’s design will necessarily bring us up against our fears. These fears, however, are imaginary, once we realise this it will be easier to go through them and find the freedom and release that is on the other side of all fears.
It might be worthwhile thinking about exactly when we got this feeling firstly that we are an “I” and secondly that we “do” things or “create” stuff. It is impossible not to at some time, identify with what the body and mind produce, although we prefer not to identify with some of the body’s productions. What we create depends very much on where the creative impulse comes from. Artists of all kinds are trying to get in touch with creative impulses from deep within them and many of them succeed. Creative impulses from our deepest part create harmony and peace and these feelings are often felt in great works of art.
In a way, each of our lives is a work of art, whether it creates harmony and peace depends on the depth to which we connect on a daily basis. If all we connect with are our reactive emotions like anger and greed then the life we create and the feeling we have will reflect this. If, however, our impulses come from the profoundest depth of our being we will tend to create a life of harmony, love and peace and feel likewise.