Secret #1: We are here to create.
Posted on | November 14, 2008 | No Comments
Secret #1: We are here to create.
Life is about allowing creation to flow from the field of spirit into physical existence. Some people call this the “quantum field,” or the “zero point field,” others call that field of spirit the “Tao,” “the Great Architect of the Universe,” or simply “God.” To do this one must understand certain metaphysical and spiritual principles that govern the world and the creative process. But understanding isn’t enough in our secular society. In addition to the spiritual and metaphysical principles, one must also master the rules of business and become familiar with the laws of intellectual property. It’s hard enough to come up with or recognize a great idea, but to make that idea manifest and successful in the physical world takes mastery of both sides on the spiritual and metaphysical divide.
This series of posts will help you become adept on both planes. We’ll discuss why we create, how we create, and what we do to balance the sharing and protection of our creative product.
Ask 100 people and I’ll bet you’ll hear 100 different answers to the question “why create?” Some will say they feel a calling. Some will say it gives them joy. Some will say they can’t avoid being creative. Still others will say it’s how they make a living. When you reduce all those answers to their essence, you will find a spiritual motivation. Humans create because it is our purpose on Earth, in this lifetime, now. There is a divine spark every human fueled ONLY through creativity. It’s the driving purpose in each human life to fan that spark into a roaring flame – to co-create with God the world in which we live. Hopefully, we’re filling the world with better things, experiences, products, services, and people.
We create. We co-create. But no creation happens in a purely human experience. There is always a touch, glimpse, or feeling of something greater coming into the world through our creativity. There’s a great story about a garden in an inner city that was a trash heap until one man sought to transform the area. This man turned ugliness into beauty. One day a priest walked by and said “Bless the work God has done here.” To which the gardener responded, “Yes, God had truly done miraculous things in this place, but you should have seen it when he had the whole thing to himself.”
Nothing happens in the lives of humans that has not been co-created by ourselves or Nature in connection with the almighty Maker.
This idea is not new. It’s at the core of every spiritual tradition. For example:
• Christ said, “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lamp stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
– Matthew 5: 14-16
• Solomon wrote, “The human mind plans the way, but the Lord directs the steps.”
– Proverbs 16:9
• The Tao says in Chapter Forty Two:
“The Tao begot one.
One begot two.
Two begot three.
And three begot the ten thousand things.
The ten thousand things carry yin and embrace yang.
They achieve harmony by combining these forces.”
What does all this have to do with a book about creativity?
Everything.
Humans have always created. First we created more humans. We created small communities and the infrastructure to sustain those communities. When we had successfully mastered the arts of mere survival and needed more advanced creative challenges, we created tools, language, writing, methods of transportation and building, advanced rituals, and the arts of storytelling. We continue to challenge ourselves by creating and solving more advanced problems. Creativity is so engrained in our lives that it’s very easy to lose our consciousness of the process. In fact, this loss of awareness is at the core of many of the problems of today. We create “lack” when we create systems that operate on a model of scarcity or hyperactive competition.
We create paintings, songs, plays, performances, dances, comedy routines, poems, books, rituals, businesses, and babies. If we are consciously fueling our sparks of divinity, these creations can’t help but advance our culture. When we are unconscious of what we’re creating, there’s a good chance we’re creating entropy, or destructive outcomes.
How do we gain or regain the conscious awareness of our creative power? By simplifying our approach and engaging in each step of the process mindfully. It’s not easy. It takes work and stillness in equal measure, and stillness is an ability often lost in the “advanced” world. Stillness wasn’t appreciated during the enlightenment or ennobled by the Protestant Work Ethic. Stillness wasn’t encouraged as a value in my Iowa farm-boy childhood. Stillness wasn’t even offered as creative methodology in my fine art undergraduate degree programming. Perhaps this lack of conscious stillness can be attributed to its relatively short, but un-proportionate importance in the creative process.
Before Napoleon Hill wrote Think and Grow Rich, before Dale Carnegie wrote How to Win Friends and Influence People, before all the business gurus and self-help coaches, before What the Bleep Do We Know, and The Secret; there was a little book that summarized the great thinking of the ancient masters of the Western Hermetic tradition, and incorporated the foundation tenets of the Eastern traditions of Taoism, Buddhism, and Hinduism at the same time. Titled The Kybalion and authored anonymously by “The Three Initiates” the book introduces its readers to the powerful tools needed to master both the spiritual and physical planes.
Tags: create > Creativity > god > metaphysical > quantum > Tao
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About Kevin
Kevin E. Houchin is an attorney, artist, teacher, author, and principal of
Houchin Consulting, PLLC, a copyright, trademark, arts & entertainment,
business development, and branding firm located in Scottsdale, Arizona.
To schedule Kevin for keynote speeches, workshops, or seminars, call 970.231.2426
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kevin@kevinhouchin.com.