Two great shocks happened today, which inspire this post – both deaths. The first was the tragic death of someone in my extended creative community, a photographer of the old school who was having a very hard time adjusting to the massive changes in our industry (including the commodification of photography and the subsequent decline in his income). The second death was of a vision that I have been building in collaboration with a number of fellow artists, which was killed by sudden blindside. Recently, there have been other deaths as well, friends of friends. Suffice it to say, this is a very intense time, which has stopped me in my tracks and caused me to reflect with all sincerity and humility on the subject of death.

Whether literal or metaphorical, death always comes as a huge shock for which we can never be fully prepared. This is true even when it is expected, and usually, death seems to come when least expected, often as a dramatic blindside. I write not to complain about death or to bemoan that it happens, but rather to share a very different view. I feel that death can be the most powerful clarifying force in life… that is, if we allow it to be. Death – in all its forms (in the death of a loved one or colleague, in a life-threatening prognosis, in the death of a vision that you’ve been trying to build with all your might) – enables us to see with great clarity what is truly important in life. Death helps us become aware that our time here on this planet is not unlimited, that all of our days are numbered, and therefore, that what we do each day (and each moment), has great importance. Awareness of death is the most powerful antidote to the ADD-inclination of our hyper-networked, consumption-focused society. [And if this is not true of society, I see how it is true of myself, and I also see how these inclinations dissipate in the awareness of death.] Put simply, as long as death doesn’t take us out, it offers an opportunity to deepen, clarify, and align our experience of life.

I see nothing morbid about this. There is neither gloom nor doom in this awareness. Actually, what I experience is liberation. Liberation from patterns of thought and behavior that do not serve one’s ultimate life purpose. Liberation form the struggle of trying to make things work that just won’t work (no matter how hard we try)… the radical liberation that empowers us to truly “follow your bliss,” as Joseph Campbell wisely advised us all to do.

Nor do I feel that we need to be philosophers, like Socrates, to embrace and benefit from this awareness of death. What does it mean to “make dying (our) profession”? First and foremost, I feel it is to experience this liberation and clarification of our lives catalyzed by awareness of death. To reflect upon, to stand naked before, and to reaffirm with all the power of our being our true life’s purpose. If we are able to do this not only during dramatic days, such as today, when death gets our faces, but if we’re able to do this on a consistent basis, then I feel that death and life reveal how profoundly inter-related and mutually-dependent they are, and in the process, we are given an opportunity to profoundly, humbly, powerfully, and radically align with life, with death, and with that which is far greater than ourselves. And this leads to the mystery beyond all words and description…

“Creativity is a discontinuous, non-algorithmic quantum jump from one pattern of thinking into a completely new one.

“It is a quantum leap – from one pattern to another without progressing through incremental steps in between. All great creative advances in the world’s of art, music, architecture, or science represent new leaps of imagination that could not have been predicted on the basis of the prevailing patterns.

“Once the creative leap is made, be it Einstein’s theory of relativity, Picasso’s cubism, or music by the Beatles, the world is forever changed…”

- Amit Goswami, author of “Quantum Creativity”

Of course, conceptual descriptions can only go so far in describing a process that is innately non-conceptual… perhaps even instinctual. Whether or not I happen to feel creative, none of us is ever far from the elemental creativity that created the universe, because each of us is a unique expression of this. Although this is perfectly obvious, this awareness can also be perfectly elusive sometimes. So whether or not we happen to feel creative at a given moment, the important thing for all creatives is to keep our creative tools close and to practice frequently, so that when the creative energies start to build, we’re able to grab our favorite tools and be carried off by them – beyond ourselves and our preconceived ideas and intentions – and carried into the the current of the creative force, off into the creative unknown.

Today’s post by Seth Godin neatly ties into this topic of the barrier- and category-leaping nature of creativity, although he shifts the focus from the creative process to the leap required to actually ship our creative products. This part of the equation is very important, and all creatives would benefit by paying attention to it… particularly those who are just getting into the swing of consistently shipping their creativity out into the world. I suggest checking out his post. He talks about leaping beyond the need for support to ship our world-changing art.

[One of my favorite lines from his recent awesome book (which I highly recommend), "Linchpin," is something to the effect of, "Don't just be an idea person. Be an idea-shipping person."]

Back to the quantum creative force. I openly confess to being madly in love with and passionately devoted to this. And so here’s an attempt to give visual expression to this force, which I feel created and sustains the universe, of which we are intimate and essential parts:

If you’d like to continue to explore the subject of creativity with me, check out “Creative Powerhouse.” Who’s a creative powerhouse? You are. [More about this after the jump.]

Those words chilled me for a second, because of course, I’ve had the same thought. Why should anyone else care what I think? This touches that vulnerable, insecure place that I’ll bet everyone who has ever written anything in any format – digital, paper, or stone tablet – has experienced at some point… (and most likely, at many points – myself included).

Why should anyone care what you think?

I know why.

It’s something that’s perfectly obvious… so obvious, in fact, that it’s almost made invisible by how obvious and pervasive it is. People should care about what you think because you’re a frikkin’ creative powerhouse.

Realizing this obvious yet elusive fact was simplified by the fact that my friend who told this story is obviously a creative powerhouse. Which brings up another truth: It can be much easier to recognize virtues in others than it can be to really, truly recognize them within ourselves. Whether consciously or not (and usually it’s not), externalizing our inner experience is one of those things that we all tend to do. When I’m happy, whether it’s raining, shining, or hailing, everything is beautiful, luminescent, musical. When I’m upset, even a beautiful day can be annoying or gloomy. But I digress.

Back to the part about you being a creative powerhouse. What do you think or feel when you hear this? Are you thinking, “Yeah right.” Or “Bullshit.” Or, “You don’t even know me.” Or are you able to find how it’s true?

I say that you’re a creative powerhouse with absolute confidence – even if I don’t know you personally – because this is part of who we all are, at our essence. People don’t learn how to be creative. Any child will show you that this is true. Children – and all people – are naturally, innately creative. No, we don’t learn how to be creative. Sadly, tragically, we learn how to not be creative. Once that lesson has been learned, The Matrix has you. Our true nature becomes obscured by successive layers of illusion, apparent limitations, and distracting attempts to self-soothe ourselves out of the pain caused by this separation. As this separation replicates itself in the billions of psyches in our world, the net result is the generalized dislocation from essence that characterizes the dysfunctions of modern society. This is the problem. The solution, as I see it, isn’t to try to make society more soulful. The solution is for each of us to reconnect with the truth of our own beings, to tune into this, and to follow this.

It helps to have allies in this process… particularly when there’s so much evidence to convince us that we’re inadequate and that we need to compensate for this with profligate consumption.

It helps to have allies in this process… and my intention in writing this is to be one of your allies, reminding you of your true, radiant, infinitely creative nature.

If you’re still doubting the truth of this statement, let’s take a little thought experiment. Imagine yourself lying on your deathbed for a moment, having lived your life in two ways. In the first way, you lived your life with the recognition that your true nature was infinitely creative, and that the creativity of the universe expressed itself through you (and through everyone). In the second way, imagine yourself never having challenged your inherited stories of personal deficiency and limitation. Which life would you prefer to have lived?

I’m not saying that any of this is easy. I’ve spent more than a decade working on cultivating my creativity, and I struggle with it, one way or another, every single day. But this kind of struggle feels fruitful and significant and real, whereas the other struggle – trying to live with the shrill, unexamined beliefs in my own inadequacy – is nothing but depleting and demoralizing.

So let this be a reminder, a mirror of the creativity that lives within you, of which your very being is an expression of, from which you have never been separate (other than in your thinking). You’re a total creative powerhouse.

Feel it. Be it. And when you’re ready… share it. You and me both. This life is precious, and fleeting. Our candles burn brightly, but only for so long. So bring it!

PS – This exploration of creativity continues in a related post, “Quantum Creativity.”

Happiness cannot be found
through great effort and willpower,
but is already present, in open relaxation and letting go.

Don’t strain yourself,
there is nothing to do or undo.
Whatever momentarily arises in the body-mind
has no real importance at all,
has little reality whatsoever.
Why identify with, and become attached to it,
passing judgment upon it and ourselves?

Far better to simply
let the entire game happen on its own,
springing up and falling back like waves -
without changing or manipulating anything -
and notice how every thing vanishes and
reappears, magically, again and again,
time without end.

Only our searching for happiness
prevents us from seeing it.
It’s like a vivid rainbow which you pursue without ever catching,
or a dog chasing its own tail.

Although peace and happiness do not exist
as an actual thing or place,
it is always available
and accompanies you every instant.

Don’t believe in the reality
of good and bad experiences;
they are like today’s ephemeral weather,
like rainbows in the sky.

Wanting to grasp the ungraspable,
you exhaust yourself in vain.
As soon as you open and relax this tight fist of grasping,
infinite space is there – open, inviting and comfortable.

Make use of this spaciousness, this freedom and natural ease.
Don’t search any further.
Don’t go into the tangled jungle
looking for the great awakened elephant,
who is already resting quietly at home
in front of your own hearth.

Nothing to do or undo,
nothing to force,
nothing to want,
and nothing missing.

- Venerable Lama Gendun Rinpoche

The Venerable Lama’s poem, plus the beauty of the season, inspired me to create this image to accompany it:

Information about the Venerable Lama Gendun Rinpoche can be found here.

There are countless voices that pronounce the ego loudly to the world, that tell us the convincing and familiar story of our separateness, that define success in terms of material acquisition, that urge us to produce so we can consume, produce and consume, produce… consume… These messages are so pervasive in modern society that they’ve almost become undetectable, like the ever-present feeling of air passing through our nostrils.

Who speaks for that which is greater than ourselves, for that great mystery of our common origin? Who speaks for (dare I say it?) the Unified Field of One? The reggae prophet Vaughn Benjamin of “Midnite” does. [I got the phrase from one of his songs, called "Won" - one of my favorite songs of all time. And he most likely got the phrase from Einstein, who applied his genius for much of his life to the creation of a Unified Field Theory.] I feel that “Avatar” is another expression of this elemental, essential message for we who have become deeply and tragically convinced of our existential separateness from nature and from each other. This sense of separateness, this failure to recognize our interdependence on other life-forms with whom we share this planet has had drastic consequences both for ourselves and for our fellow inhabitants of this planet. We have entered an era that scientists ominously call “6 X” – the sixth major period of mass extinctions in our planet’s history. If this doesn’t serve as a wake-up call, if this doesn’t jolt us out of habitual patterns of global myopia and provincial complacency, what will?

I know I wasn’t the only one who heard the ancient wisdom of the plant teachers, shamans, and of Gaia Herself in “Avatar.” [Here's an interesting article entitled "Aya Avatar: Drink the Jungle Juice," about the link between the movie and the shamanic elixir, ayahuasca.] Friends who have taken the time to sit, clear their heads of habitual thoughts, and listen to Spirit have shared with me that they felt similarly. Nor was I the only one who yearned to remain in Pandora once the credits rolled. It’s hard living in a world where the priorities seem so topsy-turvy, where creating profit is prioritized so highly, where the earth is viewed as an intert resource to be plundered, where animals are seldom treated with dignity (save a privileged few), where techno-infatuation supplants real human interaction (Facebook instead of face-time, for example). I’ll stop myself here, because I have something much more important to share than my personal sensitivities and challenges.

Perhaps you’re thinking that “Avatar” (which has already pulled in more than $1.1 billion worldwide) is itself an expression of the very profit-imperative that I’ve just criticized. This is true… on the surface. And I feel that this is part of the brilliance of the movie. Like “The Matrix,” the paradigm-shattering film that used the mainstream media to deliver a revolutionary message of consciousness-expansion, “Avatar” functions as a Trojan Horse. It’s wrapped in a big, glossy, pretty package, and gives every appearance of being a big chunk of entertainment (Pocahontas redux, as some have quipped). However, it’s packed full of messages, awareness, and archetypes that are both timeless and are also entirely relevant to this precise moment in time. “Avatar” encourages us to look upon Pandora – and by extension, upon the earth – as a living entity interconnected by all of the organisms and all the elements of our biosphere. Have we become too jaded to hear these messages with open hearts? I trust that we have not. “Avatar” also helps us look upon animals that are killed to be eaten with dignity, to truly see them and to acknowledge the ultimate sacrifice that they’re forced to make. Can we emerge from the fog created by the inhumane, profit-driven slaughterhouse industry and let this basic truth touch our hearts? [Check out animated short, "The Meatrix," if you haven't see it yet.] I believe that we can. Continuing the parallel with Pandora, “Avatar” suggests that every step that we take on our precious and only earth glows. Am I stretching the parallel too far to suggest that this may be actually true? Emerging scientific evidence substantiates this. It has been shown by mycologist, author, and planetary activist Paul Stamets that the forest floor is interconnected by a vast network of mycelium through which there is multi-directional flow of nutrients and information. He calls this “the earth’s natural internet,” and each impression upon this network – each footstep upon the forest floor – is sensed and registered by it. And so, as on Pandora, every step upon healthy soil here on earth does actually glow, in a very unique way that can be detected with subtle instruments and awareness. [It seems likely that this research about mycelial networks was sourced by James Cameron as has was envisioning the interconnected organic nature of Pandora.]

I don’t feel that it’s possible to overstate the importance of the messages that lie just beneath the surface of this film. And once we attune to and receive these messages, whether though “Avatar,” or as a result of a long walk through the hills, or sitting and listening to birdsong, or however we happen to connect with Spirit (each in our own unique way), I feel that the way we live our lives is naturally affected and enriched by this. However this message lands for us and assimilates into our lives – this message of connection with, and dependance upon, something greater than our separate little selves – what matters is that this essential message does land, somehow, and that it’s received, all the way into the fertile cores of our beings. What happens next is up to each of us.

With love for the earth, and all its inhabitants,
Shalom

PS – In this video, below, Paul Stamets, gives an amazing, lucid, compelling presentation at TED about how mushrooms can help save the world. I highly recommend checking it out.

If you have any thoughts, comments, or criticisms, I would love for you to share them in the comments, below.

What can we do?

I wish I had the answer, but of course I don’t. However, a few things occur to me that I feel can help this situation, which clearly needs a lot of help.

1) Let’s acknowledge water’s true value. All life relies upon water. To deprive a person (or any organism) of clean water for too long is to deprive them of life. If anything in this world can be called truly sacred, I feel that the life-giving, life-sustaining property of water deserves earns this description for it. Given this fact, is access to clean water something that should be entrusted to corporations whose primary objective is to create profit? This leads to the next point…

2) Let’s acknowledge that privatization of municipal water supplies is truly corporate theft from the needy. It’s important to call things by their true names. The multinational corporations that control municipal drinking water supplies are not charities that operate for the common good; they exist to make quarterly profits for their shareholders. Should rich, powerful companies be allowed to control and own water supplies, and sell it back to people who can barely afford – and in many cases cannot afford (and therefore suffer dire consequences) – to pay for it? I believe that they should not, and that this is a violation of the basic human right of all people to clean, safe drinking water.

3) Let’s advocate for clean water as a basic, inalienable human right. Article 31 is a petition to the United Nations that states: “Everyone has the right to clean and accessible water, adequate for the health and well-being of the individual and family, and no one shall be deprived of such access or quality of water due to individual economic circumstance.” Here’s a link to the petition, which I urge you to sign.

4) Let’s pull the plug on bottled water: There is no governmental regulation of the huge bottled water industry (which is currently a roughly $60 billion per-year business). In many cases, it is just packaged tap water, and sometimes it’s worse for us than tap water, containing more contaminants than its (virtually) free counterpart. At the root of it, bottled water is all about corporate profit and corporate control of our water. Bottled water also creates a tremendous amount of plastic waste. [Plastic water bottles aren't truly recyclable; they're "downcyclable." This means that old water bottles aren't used to create new ones, rather, they're used to create other products of reduced functionality. And many water bottles aren't recycled (or downcycled) at all, and end up in landfills.]

For more reasons to end the bottled water habit, check out the article “Five Reasons Not to Drink Bottled Water.” In case the article goes offline, I’ll summarize: 1) Bottled water isn’t a good value, 2) It’s no healthier than tap water, 3) Bottled water means garbage, 4) Bottled water means less attention to public systems, 5) It contributes to the corporatization of water. Additionally, bottled water collection often has a negative impact on the environment surrounding the water bottling plants.

5) Let’s learn about and support the clean water innovators. “Flow” features several innovators who are helping the poor gain increased access to safe drinking water. One such person is Dr. Ashok Gadgil, who created a UV water purification system doesn’t require pressurized water delivery or even electrical outlets. Here’s more information about the success story of his UV Waterworks System. I hope that there will soon be breakthroughs in desalinization technologies, which will make this process much more energy-efficient and which can help provide pure water to people and crops in coastal areas. We know about energy-creation using wind and tidal forces… why not harness these renewable energy resources to desalinize water? I believe that this kind of thinking needs to be supported both in the private sector and in our governments as well.

6) Let’s be mindful of our own water use, on a daily basis. Taking shorter showers in California won’t end water shortages in Bolivia, but it will help us to remain aware of and connected to the issue that’s happening on a global level. Are there ways that we can be more efficient with our water use? Are all of our toilets efficient low-flow? Could we use cisterns for water catchment in our homes? Could a gray water reclamation system be added to our homes for our landscape irrigation? I feel that questions like these are important for all of us to consider, wherever we happen to live.

I have no intention to make myself or anyone else feel guilty about having access to an abundant supply of clean water. To the contrary, I feel that all beings (human and otherwise) should have access to clean, pure, life-sustaining water. I simply write to share my thoughts about what I feel is one of the most important issues of our day. Although most Americans have had the luxury of not having to think about this issue (with increasing numbers of notable exceptions, such as this family whose tap water was actually flammable because of contamination from a nearby gas wells), the fluid, boundary-eroding, universal solvent quality of water ensures that what happens to water happens to all living creatures on this planet.

Water is life. Water is sacred. I feel the time has come for us – individually and collectively – to start treating it as such.

PS – If you’re working on a new water desalinization invention powered by renewable energy or something similar, or if you’ve just heard about innovations like this, or any other related success stories, please let me know. And if you have any thoughts, comments, or suggestions, I’d love to hear them in the comment suggestion. Let’s use the power of group-think to discover new ways to overcome the challenges that are facing us and our precious and only planet.

So as I drove home, rather than listen to the radio, I chose to invoke meditative awareness while driving. Alert mind, open eyes, deep breath, shining light on dark water, hands on steering wheel, foot on gas petal, body in car seat. That’s when the interesting experience happened: thought of my friend, Frank, came into my mind so vividly that I chose to pick up my phone and contact him. And just as I touched my phone, it rang… and it was Frank, calling me.

This isn’t an earth-shaking synchronicity or coincidence, but for me, it was a very rich moment, because it helped me to experience in one instant the three main themes of my evening: Inner, Outer, and Intuition. And it helped me to see (without necessarily understanding) that they’re all the same thing.

Although I haven’t stated it explicitly, I’ve already touched on the Inside and Outside themes, above. When I meditate with eyes open, sometimes I feel quite conscious of and influenced by what is around me in the so-called “outer” world – the grain of the wood in the floor of the dharma room, the person whose head kept bobbing during our sit, the small bug who flew into, out of (and back into, and back out of) my field of vision. When I allowed my eyes to close during tonight’s meditation, I felt more absorbed in the “inner” world, with the different levels of absorption that can arise in a focused, eyes-closed meditation.

As you know, Zen doesn’t have much patience for mentally-constructed dualities like this. Talking too much about “inner” and “outer” worlds is a direct invitation to get whapped with a (literal or proverbial) Zen stick. And this is where the third, resolving theme of my evening makes its appearance: Intuition.

In his dharma talk, Kwan Sahn sa-nim shared with us a quote by Zen Master Seung Sahn sa-nim, the Founding Teacher of the Kwan Um School of Zen, who said something to the effect that when we experience intuition, “the inner and the outer disappear.”

This was my experience when I picked up the phone tonight to contact my friend, only to see his inbound call appear in my hand. And this was the truth that I knew that resolved the mental confusions of “inner” and “outer” created by my thoughts about closed-eyed and open-eyed meditation.

How, precisely, this all fits together is far beyond my ability to communicate, and I don’t understand it anyway. But I can feel the relationships. And I’m very grateful to the teachers at Empty Gate for their wise Dharma Talks, and to my friend Frank, for calling me when he did, so all of this could come together in a moment where ideas of “inner” and “outer” disappeared…

… at least for an instant.

Her story moved me deeply.

How big can our problems seem now?

I didn’t create this piece; I just reformatted it. If you know who created it, please let me know, as I’d love to be able to give her or him credit and thanks. Which also inspires me to give appreciation to the makers of my favorite camera ever made: the Hubble Space Telescope.

If you like this, check out Saul Williams’ other work. Much respect!

Hat-tip to Media Assassin for the pointer.