Osho talks about creativity
From a Sudden Clash of Thunder. Chapter#4: Man is always an opening. Question #1
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Question: I
believed i was uncreative. What else can be creativity besides dancing and
painting and how to find out what my creativity is?
Creativity has nothing to do with any activity in particular -- with painting,
poetry, dancing, singing. It has nothing to do with anything in particular.
Anything can be creative -- you bring that quality to the activity. Activity
itself is neither creative nor uncreative. You can paint in an uncreative way.
You can sing in an uncreative way. You can clean the floor in a creative way.
You can cook in a creative way.
Creativity is the quality that you bring to the activity you are doing.
It is an
attitude, an inner approach -- how you look at things.
So the
first thing to be remembered: don't confine creativity to anything in
particular. A man is creative -- and if he is creative, whatsoever he does, even
if he walks, you can see in
his walking there is creativity. Even if he sits silently and does nothing, even
non-doing will be a creative act.
Buddha sitting under the Bodhi Tree doing nothing is the greatest creator
the world has ever known.
Once
you understand it -- that it is you, the person, who is creative or uncreative
-- then this problem disappears. Not
everybody can be a painter -- and there is no need also. If everybody is a
painter the world will be very ugly; it will be difficult to live. And not
everybody can be a dancer, and there is no need. But everybody can be creative.
Whatsoever you do, if you do it joyfully, if you do it lovingly, if your act of
doing it is not purely economical, then
it is creative. If you have something growing out of it within you, if it gives
you growth, it is spiritual, it is creative, it is divine.
You
become more divine as you become more creative. All the religions of the
world have said: God is the Creator. I don't know whether He is the Creator or
not, but one thing I know: the more creative you become, the more godly you
become. When your creativity comes to a climax, when your whole life becomes
creative, you live in God. So He must be the Creator because people who have
been creative have been closest to Him.
Love
what you do. Be meditative while you are doing it -- whatsoever it is!
Irrelevant of the fact of what it is.
Have
you seen Paras cleaning this floor of Chuang Tzu auditorium? Then you will know:
cleaning can become creative. With what
love! Almost singing and dancing inside. If you clean the floor with such love,
you have
done an invisible painting. You lived that moment in such delight that it
has given you some inner growth. You cannot be the same after a creative act.
Creativity means loving whatsoever you do -- enjoying, celebrating it, as a gift
of God! Maybe nobody comes to know about it. Who is going to praise Paras
for cleaning this floor? History will not take any account of it; newspapers
will not publish her name and pictures -- but that is irrelevant. She enjoyed
it. The value is intrinsic.
So if
you are looking for fame and then you think you are creative -- if you become
famous like Picasso, then you are creative -- then you will miss. Then you are,
in fact, not creative at all: you are a politician, ambitious. If fame happens,
good. If it doesn't happen, good. It should not be the consideration. The
consideration should be that you are enjoying whatsoever you are doing. It is
your love-affair. If
your act is your love-affair, then it becomes creative. Small things become
great by the touch of love and delight.
The
questioner asks: "I believed I was uncreative." If you believe in that way, you
will become uncreative -- because belief is not just belief. It opens doors; it
closes doors. If you have a wrong belief, then that will hang around you as a
closed door. If you believe that you are uncreative, you will become
uncreative -- because that belief will obstruct, continuously negate, all
possibilities of flowing. It will not allow your energy to flow because you will
continuously say: "I am uncreative."
This
has been taught to everybody. Very few people are accepted as creative: A few
painters, a few poets -- one in a million. This is foolish! Every human being is a born creator.
Watch children and you will see: all children are creative. By and by,
we destroy their creativity. By and by, we force wrong beliefs on them. By and
by, we distract them. By and by, we make them more and more economical and
political and ambitious.
When
ambition enters, creativity disappears -- because an ambitious man cannot be
creative, because an ambitious man cannot love any activity for its own sake.
While he is painting he is looking ahead; he is thinking, 'When am I going to
get a Nobel Prize?' When he is writing a novel, he is looking ahead. He is
always in the future -- and a creative person is always in the present.
We
destroy creativity. Nobody is born uncreative, but we make ninety-nine percent
of people uncreative.
But
just throwing the responsibility on the society is not going to help -- you
have to take your life in your own hands. You have to drop wrong conditionings.
You have to drop wrong, hypnotic auto-suggestions that have been given to you in
your childhood. Drop them! Purify yourself of all conditionings... and suddenly
you will see you are creative.
To
be and to be creative are synonymous. It is impossible to be and not to be
creative. But that impossible thing has happened, that ugly phenomenon has
happened, because all your creative sources have been plugged, blocked,
destroyed, and your whole energy has been forced into some activity that the
society thinks is going to pay.
Our
whole attitude about life is money-oriented. And money is one of the most
uncreative things one can become interested in. Our whole approach is
power-oriented and power is destructive, not creative. A man who is after money
will become destructive, because money has to be robbed, exploited; it has to be
taken away from many people, only then can you have it. Power simply means you
have to make many people impotent, you have to destroy them -- only then will
you be powerful, can you be powerful.
Remember: these are destructive acts.
A creative act enhances the beauty of
the world; it gives something to the world, it never takes anything from it. A
creative person comes into the world, enhances the beauty of the world -- a song
here, a painting there. He makes the world dance better, enjoy better, love
better, meditate better. When he leaves this world, he leaves a better world
behind him. Nobody may know him; somebody may know him -- that is not the point.
But he leaves the world a better world, tremendously fulfilled because his life
has been of some intrinsic value.
Money,
power, prestige, are uncreative; not only uncreative, but destructive
activities. Beware of them! And if you beware of them you can become creative
very easily. I am not saying that your creativity is going to give you power,
prestige, money. No, I cannot promise you any rose-gardens. It may give you
trouble. It may force you to live a poor man's life. All that I can promise
you is that deep inside you will be the richest man possible; deep inside you
will be fulfilled; deep inside you will be full of joy and celebration. You will
be continuously receiving more and more blessings from God. Your life will be a
life of benediction.
But it
is possible that outwardly you may not be famous, you may not have money, you
may not succeed in the so-called world. But to succeed in this so-called
world is to fail deeply, is to fail in the inside world. And what are you
going to do with the whole world at your feet if you have lost your own self? What will you do if you possess the whole world and you don't possess
yourself? A creative person possesses his own being; he is a master.
That's
why in the East we have been calling sannyasins 'swamis'. 'Swami' means a
master. Beggars have been called swamis -- masters. Emperors we have known, but
they proved in the final account, in the final conclusion of their lives, that
they were beggars. A man who is after money and power and prestige is a
beggar, because he continuously begs. He has nothing to give to the world.
Be
a giver. Share whatsoever you can! And remember, I am not making any
distinction between small things and great things.
If you can smile whole-heartedly, hold
somebody's hand and smile, then it is a creative act, a great creative act. Just
embrace somebody to your heart and you are creative. Just look with
loving eyes at somebody... just a loving look can change the whole world of a
person.
Be
creative. Don't be worried about what you are doing -- one has to do many things
-- but do everything creatively, with devotion. Then your work becomes
worship. Then whatsoever you do is a prayer. And whatsoever you do is an
offering at the altar.
Drop
this belief that you are uncreative. I know how this belief is created: you may
not have been a gold medalist in the university; you may not have been top in
your class; your painting may not have won appreciation; when you play on your
flute, neighbors report to the police. Maybe -- but just because of these
things, don't get the wrong belief that you are uncreative. That may be because
you are imitating others.
People
have a very limited idea of what being creative is -- playing the guitar or the
flute or writing
poetry -- so people go on writing rubbish in the name of
poetry. You have to find out what you can do and what you cannot do.
Everybody cannot do everything! You have to search and find your destiny.
You have to grope in the dark, I know. It is not very clear-cut what your
destiny is -- but that's how life is. And it is good that one has to search for
it -- in the very search, something grows.
If God
were to give a chart of your life to you when you were entering into the world
-- this will be your life: you are going to become a guitarist -- then your life
would be mechanical. Only a machine can be predicted, not a man. Man is
unpredictable. Man is always an opening... a potentiality for a thousand and one
things. Many doors open and many alternatives are always present at each step --
and you have to choose, you have to feel. But if you love your life you will be
able to find.
If you
DON'T love your life and you love something else, then there is a problem. If
you love money and you want to be creative, you cannot become creative. The very
ambition for money is going to destroy your creativity. If you want fame, then
forget about creativity. Fame comes easier if you are destructive. Fame comes
easier to an Adolf Hitler; fame comes easier to a Henry Ford. Fame is easier if
you are competitive, violently competitive. If you can kill and destroy people,
fame comes easier.
The
whole history is the history of murderers. If you become a murderer, fame
will be very easy. You can become a prime minister; you can become a president
-- but these are all masks. Behind them you will find very violent people,
terribly violent people hiding, smiling. Those smiles are political, diplomatic.
If the mask slips, you will always see Genghis Khan, Timur Leng, Nadir Shah,
Napoleon, Alexander, Hitler, hiding behind.
If you
want fame, don't talk about creativity. I am not saying that fame never comes to
a creative person, but very rarely it comes, very rarely. It is more like an
accident, and it takes much time. Almost always it happens that by the time fame
comes to a creative person, he is gone -- it is always posthumous; it is very
delayed.
Jesus
was not famous in his day. If there were no Bible, there would have been no
record of him. The record belongs to his four disciples; nobody else has ever
mentioned him, whether he existed or not. He was not famous. He was not
successful. Can you think of a greater failure than Jesus? But, by and by, he
became more and more significant; by and by, people recognized him. It takes
time.
The
greater a person is, the more time it takes for people to recognize him --
because when a great person is born, there are no criteria to judge him by,
there are no maps to find him with. He has to create his own values; by the time
he has created the values, he is gone. It takes thousands of years for a
creative person to be recognized, and then too it is not certain. There have
been many creative people who have never been recognized. It is accidental for a
creative person to be successful. For an uncreative, destructive person it is
more certain.
So if
you are seeking something else in the name of creativity, then drop the idea of
being creative. At least consciously, deliberately, do whatsoever you want to
do. Never hide behind masks. If you really want to be creative, then
there is no question of money, success, prestige, respectability -- then you
enjoy your activity; then each act has an intrinsic value. You dance because you
like dancing; you dance because you delight in it. If somebody appreciates,
good, you feel grateful. If nobody appreciates, it is none of your business to
be worried about it. You danced, you enjoyed -- you are already fulfilled.
But
this belief of being uncreative can be dangerous -- drop it! Nobody is
uncreative -- not even trees, not even rocks. People who have known trees and
loved trees, know that each tree creates its own space, each rock creates its
own space. It is like nobody else's space. If you become sensitive, if you
become capable of understanding, through empathy, you will be tremendously
benefited. You will see each tree is creative in its own way; no other tree is
like that -- each tree is unique; each tree has individuality, each rock has
individuality. Trees are not just trees -- they are people. Rocks are not just
rocks -- they are people. Go and sit by the side of a rock -- watch it lovingly,
touch it lovingly, feel it lovingly.
It is said about a Zen master that he was able to pull
very big rocks, remove very big rocks -- and he was a very fragile man.
It was almost impossible looking at his physiology! Stronger men, very much
stronger than him, were unable to pull those rocks, and he would simply pull
them very easily.
He was
asked what his trick was. He said, "There is no trick -- I love the rock so the
rock helps. First I say to her, 'Now my prestige is in your hands, and these
people have come to watch. Now help me, cooperate with me.' Mm? -- then I simply
hold the rock lovingly... and wait for the hint. When the rock gives me the hint
-- it is a shudder, my whole spine starts vibrating -- when the rock gives me
the hint that she is ready, then I move. You move against the rock; that's why
so much energy is needed. I move with the rock, I flow with the rock. In fact,
it is wrong to say that I remove it -- I am simply there. The rock removes
itself."
One
great Zen master was a carpenter, and whenever he made tables, chairs, somehow
they had some ineffable quality in them, a tremendous magnetism. He was asked,
"How do you make them?"
He
said, "I don't make them. I simply go to the forest: the basic thing is to
enquire of the forest, of trees, which tree is ready to become a chair."
Now
these things look absurd -- because we don't know, we don't know the language.
For three days he would remain in the forest. He would sit under one tree, under
another tree, and he would talk to trees -- and he was a mad man! But a tree is
to be judged by its fruit, and this master has also to be judged by his
creation. A few of his chairs still survive in China -- they still carry a
magnetism. You will just be simply attracted; you will not know what is pulling
you. After a thousand years! -- something tremendously beautiful.
He
said, "I go and I say that I am in search of a tree who wants to become a chair.
I ask the trees if they are willing; not only willing: cooperating with me,
ready to go with me -- only then. Sometimes it happens that no tree is ready to
become a chair -- I come empty-handed."
It
happened: The Emperor of China asked him to make him a stand for his books. And
he went and after three days he said, "Wait -- no tree is ready to come to the
palace." After
three months the Emperor again enquired. The carpenter said, "I have been going
continuously. I am persuading. Wait -- one tree seems to be leaning a little
bit." Then he
persuaded one tree. He said, "The whole art is there! -- when the tree comes of
its own accord. Then she is simply asking the help of the carpenter."
You can
go and ask Asheesh -- he has a feel for wood, and wood also has a feel for him.
If
you are loving you will see that the whole existence has individuality. Don't
pull and push things. Watch, communicate; take their help -- and much energy
will be preserved.
Even
trees are creative, rocks are creative. You are man: the very culmination of
this existence. You are at the top -- you are conscious. Never think with wrong
beliefs, and never be attached to wrong beliefs, that you are uncreative. Maybe
your father said to you that you are uncreative, your colleagues said to you
that you are uncreative. Maybe you were searching in wrong directions, in
directions in which you are not creative, but there must be a direction in which
you are creative. Seek and search and remain available, and go on groping
-- unless you find it.
Each
man comes into this world with a specific destiny -- he has something to
fulfill, some message has to be delivered, some work has to be completed. You
are not here accidentally -- you are here meaningfully. There is a purpose
behind you. The Whole intends to do something through you.
From Osho: a Sudden Clash of Thunder. Chapter#4: Man is always an opening.
Question #1
Listen to Osho A Sudden Clash of Thunder
#4 question 1 Creativity
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