399. Enabling Creativity

To be creative, I need to be loose. When I’m preoccupied with achieving a good outcome or with following a specific method, I’m too rigid to fully express myself. I become incapable of following the intuitions that arise from my awareness — the very intuitions that would help me create an artwork that is both vibrant and beautiful.

If I can notice my rigidity then I can do something about it. I can release myself from the intentions that are distracting my attention and impeding my ability to be creative. In this way, enabling creativity is the same as enabling compassion. When my attention is distracted by attachment to particular intentions, it is taken away from what I most need to see. By loosening the attachment, I become capable of adopting a more compassionate mode of being, which is also a more creative mode of being.

As my attachments limit my attention, they also produce suffering, which can further inhibit my creativity. When I’m suffering, I feel compelled to react to that suffering, and in doing so, I deepen my attachments, which further distracts me and causes even more suffering. When I’m completely trapped in this cycle of suffering, I can become so rigid that any kind of creativity feels impossible.

Only if I’m able to notice that I’m stuck in this cycle can I also break free of it. By recognizing that I’m distracted, I gain an opportunity to temporarily release my attention. This allows me to investigate my suffering and my attachments more closely, which helps my awareness broaden and deepen. When I can see my attachments and their consequences clearly, I can also see how they can be loosened in a more lasting way. And when my attention is always free and loose, I then become capable of incredible creativity in every moment.