I have just spent the last three days painting. It is as if I went into a time gap and I loved every moment of it. I have more of these moments of becoming immersed in creative expression these days. I am discovering that being creative as an artist is not separate from living. They are one and the same. Painting is an extension of my good fortune to be able to live creatively. They are both inseparable from the other. If I am living creatively I am more likely to be painting in the same way with the same energy.
When I am in meditation I am able to let go of the thinking that blocks my ability to live in this way. These days I can take my meditation with me where ever I am. The two hour bus rides to and from Biratnagar a few times a week to visit with Iris are opportunities to be in this way as are the moments when there is nothing to do here in Dharan. There can be many of them. Living in Nepal has helped me to come to be in this way.
I feel that it is our nature as humans to be creative. It is what we are. Our conditioning can interfere with this natural flow of energy that is one with being. What we may think we know as a result of what we have been told and taught gets in the way of living and loving. I have been blessed with the faith to doubt and I have learned to listen in a different way not often promoted by culture, convention and academia. This is to trust in the direct experience and to trust in what we intuit in a way that is beyond fact and mechanistic thinking. It is the burden of our conditioning that what has been handed and grilled into us in terms of knowledge and facts; identity and culture can block our truly creative curiosity.
Extreme and rigid attachment to nationalism, idealism and adherence and following of religious tenants without examination are some of the ways that can interfere with this quality of openness that is at the heart of being creative. For me religion, nationality, political affiliation, philosophy are just concepts not to be taken so seriously. We can use them in a way that helps s to see but we are more than these notion would suggest. We can go beyond these ways of identifying with life and others and the treasure to be rediscovered is freedom from self imposed limitation.
