Even the simplest action is cause for amazement. Have you ever caught your self speaking without knowing what you were saying, writing without knowing what word would come next, or walking without being conscious of where you were headed? These simple activities occur as if by magic. Looking closely at our actions, the hint arises that we may be bystanders to much of our life. Yet, there is a lifelong habit of believing we are in control.
Trying a new task, it is easier to see the process of acting. With a new task the habit of belief is weaker, so we are often surprised by our ability and attribute it to beginner’s luck. We are amazed, and do not feel we deserve all the credit for what happened.
This is where I see the value of artistic expression or creative endeavor as a door to self-inquiry. Art, in its purest form, is an attempt to discover the fount of creation. It is allowing the force of life/creation to manifest through your hand, or voice, or in whatever medium you work. Art allows you to observe that thought manifests through you. It allows you to admit to your powerlessness. In a sense, your only power is to shade the light of life with your ego. Because of this, moments of creation carry the sense freedom from the ego.
Artistic technique is not necessary to experience this. The process of watching your hand move over the piano, letting the hand be moved by a feeling, letting the feeling move out of darkness and into life without hindering it – this is what matters. This is meditation on creation.
The artistic spirit is one of play, of improvisation, of willingness to let go and watch what happens. Artists and some spiritual seekers are sometimes denigrated for letting go into hedonism. This is the line that separates grace and the fall from grace. Perhaps we must allow our hand to follow the impulse into the fire, yet once we have done that we needn’t do it again and again. We are interested in the process, moment, and observation of letting go and not the results. The Mona Lisa is not important, but how it, and you, came to be is.
So pick up a brush or pen, or other instrument, and play. Do not become enamoured of the results. If fact, you could destroy them each day. As you observe creation, you also observe the process by which your self came into being. “You” watch your birth. In the stunned silence of “you” watching “you,” a revelation may occur regarding your true nature. This is for you to discover, rather than believe any words I might leave.