Creativity of Silence, by Dada

We can discover a new beauty of life in silence. When once you see that beauty, you will not be interested in the agitated cravings of the mind. You will see the limitations of your desires and wishful hopes which continue to keep you away from the creative present. The chain of desire and hope hinders the experiencing of the present. Hope is the pursuit of thought in time. With that pursuit we will never experience the creative state of timelessness.

We do have to act and work on the external level. But through the mind and its ambitious plans waiting to be fulfilled in the future, we remain busy all the time in the outer game. This constant outer drive becomes a chronic habit of the mind. Mind gets caught up in its own inertia. In this way, the mind dissipates all the energy of life with its mechanical and mundane drives in the outer world. Such one-sided activity of the energy creates an imbalance, divides the life, and makes one incapable of entering within.

The truly artistic state of being is not a life in isolation but the fullness of life. The whole person is involved. Body, mind, senses and spirit are jointly involved in a unique amalgamation. There is no separation between understanding and action, or between intelligence and _expression. The whole movement of life in the present is spontaneous and total.

He who works in this totality of being and spontaneity is an artist. He may work in any field of life, with any mode of expression, but a genuine artist will he be because of that quality of energy he carries within. For him, the work in the kitchen will be as meaningful as the work on canvas.

Art or creativity is the spontaneous expression of inner intelligence. Art is not merely a skill or a talent to be acquired through technique and practice, but it is an expression of the inner being, which is to be discovered in the state of total attention and silence. Silence of total energy is the womb of creativity.

--Dada

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1 Past Reflections

Nipun

Jun 12, 2006

Guy Kawasaki, one of the Macintosh inventors: "Maybe you have mistaken me for a creative type. I'm not creative. I just work like a dog. If people think writing is about releasing the creative muse with a fountain pen on a windswept beach while sipping cappuccinos, they're on drugs. Writing is about editing, and editing is about grinding it out. Speaking is the same. Speaking is about repetition and polishing, working on a speech and giving it dozens of times until it sounds spontaneous." Robin Williams, same act on two different shows and made it seem spontaneous both times. Creativity is bringing to bear your personality to the seeds that have been planted for a long time architecture: it's not something that just comes ot you; you actually have to do something article: science drives art; as technology improves, capability of art improves. creative -- the word means to create something different; why? to stand out. why? because you need identity. Most scientists find... View full comment

Guy Kawasaki, one of the Macintosh inventors: "Maybe you have mistaken me for a creative type. I'm not creative. I just work like a dog. If people think writing is about releasing the creative muse with a fountain pen on a windswept beach while sipping cappuccinos, they're on drugs. Writing is about editing, and editing is about grinding it out. Speaking is the same. Speaking is about repetition and polishing, working on a speech and giving it dozens of times until it sounds spontaneous."
Robin Williams, same act on two different shows and made it seem spontaneous both times.
Creativity is bringing to bear your personality to the seeds that have been planted for a long time architecture: it's not something that just comes ot you; you actually have to do something article: science drives art; as technology improves, capability of art improves. creative -- the word means to create something different; why? to stand out. why? because you need identity.
Most scientists find the solution first, and then look for a problem.
Why do we need to be creative?
Ever existing, ever new joy -- nature of our being. creativity is to tune into that root nature. Becoming co-creators.
Where does silence fit into creativity? silence between the notes defines the creativity of the music not getting caught up in hope.
We are all already creative, it's just a matter of discovering it.
I see creativity in people who do the same things, but constantly find new ways to do them.
Everyone has a little bit of creativity. I get something new from every person I meet.
When I sculpt, all that exists is the stone and the tools I'm using - my mind doesn't chatter.
At 8 years old I was diagnosed with moderately severe hearing loss, it was tough to reconcile silence, not wanting to miss anything which might have been said. It took a lot to get comfortable with the sound of silence.
Sign language is a whole form of expression based on silence.
Creativity is part of livingness, my grandmother needed it as much as I need oxygen.
My creative superheroes are people who have Contagious Faith without unnecessarily bowing to social conditioning, but rather living their own truth.
When eating food, does my body create energy?
"Silence is not the absence of sound, rather it is the absence of Self"
Creativity abounds in nature - six billion people on this planet and no two are the same!
An artist told me that when creating there is no drive to do anything in particular, creativity just comes.
Creativity is something you can catch only if you are there, like waking early to catch the most beautiful sunrise. It might take practice, practice, practice to be present for that moment.
To create doesn't have to be something new, it just has to come from you.
Henry James said "I think creativity is in the all" - for me, it's not about What I create, like creating something profound, but I do know how marvelous I feel when I am creative, it makes me free, makes me loving.
Creativity is the sustained attention to the freedom within movement
Faith is a withholding of conclusion so you allow what is to arise. Silence is the withholding of conclusion so you allow what is to arise.
An artist is not a special kind of person, every person is a special kind of artist.
"Wait without hope, because hope can be hope of the wrong thing" T.S. Elliot
"Service doesn't start when you have something to give, it starts when you have nothing left to take" Nipun Mehta
We don't really have a choice to be not creative. When we say creativity, we are referring to the mystery, the ah-ha of the choices life gives us.
Silence is not just the absence of sound, it is a state of tranquility.
Creative role model seems to be a contradiction in terms.
There's a couplet in Urdu "My silence echoed in such a way that I was hearing answers from all directions."
How does the drive to creativity bring us back to balance, to inner silence & steadiness? When you push down a spring, the closer you are to the base, the root and the more force you are creating. Similarly, the closer you are to your own root, your own nature, the more creative force you have.

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