Monday, 04/20/2026
Posts
How to Unleash The Great Perfection of Creativity
Update: 08/10/2016
Whether you are trying to compose a symphony, write\r\nan essay, find a job, cook a meal, or express an opinion, you cannot achieve\r\nyour goal if you are not creative. But the fruits of your efforts will depend,\r\nin good part, on how you define creativity. According to the Dzogchen (Great\r\nPerfection) teachings of Vajrayana Buddhism, true creativity has to do with\r\nmore than just ability or skill, or even actions or behaviors. While those play\r\nan important role, creativity ultimately has to do with our state of being.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Creativity can be seen as a state of natural flow,\r\none that spontaneously and effortlessly gives birth not only to manifest form,\r\nbut to all experiences of body, energy, and mind. This state of flow, which has\r\nits roots in openness, occurs only in the absence of hope and fear. It is at\r\nonce naturally joyful, peaceful, compassionate, expansive, and powerful.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
When you know how to tap fully into this open,\r\ncreative flow, its beneficial qualities can extend to any area of your life.\r\nYou can paint more masterful paintings. Your music can have more depth of\r\nconnection. Your writing can be more genuine and moving. You will be able to\r\nsolve problems at work, resolve conflicts with loved ones, or even shift your thought\r\npatterns with more natural spontaneity.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
The wrong way to create
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Let’s say your creative goal for today is something\r\nvery utilitarian—to convince your boss that you deserve a promotion. You know\r\nthis new job opening is meant for you; you have been thinking about it for\r\nweeks. But you know skill will be needed to sell the idea to your boss.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
If you enter the meeting with him or her feeling\r\npositive and spacious, you are far more likely to present a skillful argument\r\nfrom a place of genuine self-confidence, connection, and enthusiasm. These are\r\nqualities any boss would treasure in an employee.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Most people, however, seek solutions from a place\r\nwhere the creative flow is blocked and, as a result, their words and actions\r\nare contrived and effortful. For example, imagine that on the morning of the\r\nday you are meeting with your boss, you wake up in a bad mood. For whatever\r\nreason, you are feeling a little depressed, pessimistic, edgy. The problem is\r\nself-image; you identify with the negative energy. You think, “I am feeling\r\nbad,†or “something is wrong with me this morning.†It’s a familiar feeling of\r\nunworthiness we often wake up to.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Let’s say you don’t do anything to clear the\r\nnegative energy. You sit on your bad mood as usual. As the appointed meeting with\r\nyour boss approaches, it is from this place of negative self-image that you\r\nbegin to feel nervous. You sit with agitation and your mind becomes\r\nincreasingly active. You wonder: “Has my co-worker already been chosen for the\r\nnew position?†“Has anyone even noticed all my contributions at work?†“That\r\nmistake I made last month—will my boss hold it against me?â€
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
If these thoughts continue, then by the time you sit\r\ndown across the table from your boss, you will actively be trying to hide your\r\nfear and agitation. You are dressed professionally, speaking well, expressing\r\nall your well-rehearsed arguments for why you deserve the promotion, but the\r\nright causes and conditions are not realized internally. No matter how well you\r\nsmile or speak, your words come out as planned and effortful.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n
Instead of seeing genuine confidence and enthusiasm,\r\nyour boss will instead sense conflict and doubt behind a confident facade. At\r\nbest your boss will assume this is due to nerves. At worst, he or she will\r\nconclude that you doubt your own ability to take on new responsibilities. Maybe\r\nthat promotion is not right for you.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Adjusting\r\nyour Focus
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Particularly in stressful situations, like meeting\r\nwith the boss, people tend to focus too much effort on creating results and too\r\nlittle on taking steps that will allow the intended results to spontaneously\r\narise.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
If you play piano fretting about what the audience\r\nthinks of the music, your notes may come out as stilted. If you paint a\r\nwatercolor worried about messing up a brushstroke, the finished artwork may\r\nlack soul. If you give a gift worrying about how its value will be perceived,\r\nthe recipient may dismiss it as not coming from the heart. To keep from getting\r\ncaught up in these hopes and fears, you must first stop focusing so much on the\r\ngoal.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
In football, place-kickers are trained to focus not\r\non the goal but on making solid contact with the ball. They remain conscious of\r\nthe goal posts, but just before they kick they keep their head down and their\r\neyes on the ball. Target shooters are given similar advice. They focus not on\r\nthe target but on lining up the sights; the target itself remains a blur beyond\r\nthe sights. Likewise, even as you are conscious of your creative goal, it makes\r\nsense to place your attention on lining up the sights—taking the steps that can\r\ncause your desired results to spontaneously manifest.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Think of how you feel as you are helping loved ones\r\nmove forward in their lives. People who get excited about helping others don’t\r\nbase their actions on hope or fear and are not concerned about feeling\r\nunworthy. They just feel joy and openness in doing a simple task without\r\nexpectations. If you can have a similar experience of openness in your\r\nprofessional life, you are more likely to land a job promotion. It’s good if\r\nyou can have fun doing what you’re doing, with no expectations of becoming\r\nwealthy, yet still make money. That is what is called a creative profession.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Three\r\nsteps to creativity
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Whether you are looking to transform a life of\r\nsadness and depression into one of happiness and joy, or you are wishing to\r\ntake your artistry to a higher level, instead of keeping your attention on the\r\ngoal, focus on taking these three steps:
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
1. CLEAR YOUR INNER OBSTACLES
\r\n\r\nThe first step toward unleashing the open flow of\r\ncreativity is to attain a state of openness. That requires clearing away your\r\nnegative self-image.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
People who are stuck always seem to have excuses for\r\nnot moving forward. not having enough money or lacking support from loved ones,\r\nfriends, or colleagues are very common examples. You may think, “I’m not good\r\nenough,†or “no one else has done it before,†or “This is not the right time\r\nand place.†But whether you have ten reasons or one hundred, external factors\r\nare not the real obstacle. The real block is within. It’s not that someone else\r\nis in your way—you yourself are the block. You are attached to the aspect of\r\nyourself that is blocking the way.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
There are many methods for clearing awareness and\r\nimproving self-image. Talk therapy is one. Practicing yoga is another.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Here is a simple clearing practice you can try right\r\nnow in order to begin the process of unleashing your creative energy:
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
• Notice your internal dialog. Are you always\r\ntelling yourself things like: “This can’t work,†“no one will like it,†“I’m\r\nnot good enough,†“I don’t have the energy,†or “It’s not worth the trouble.â€\r\nIdentify your primary obstacle. Simply\r\nbeing aware that it is within you can help begin the process of unblocking.
\r\n\r\n• Sit comfortably, close your eyes, and take a\r\nmoment to feel the stillness of your body. Listen and hear the silence within\r\nand around you, and abide in the spaciousness of your mind. Rest in this place\r\nof openness for a few minutes or longer.
\r\n\r\n• Now, from that place of stillness, silence, and\r\nspaciousness, bring your main obstacle back into awareness. observe it nakedly,\r\nwithout concepts, judging, or evaluating. This is what I call “selecting†the\r\nissue.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
• Take in a deep breath of pure awareness, bringing\r\nit directly into the image or energetic feeling of the inner obstacle you have\r\nselected. As you exhale, breathe out the blockage and experience it dissolving\r\ninto space. Be aware of that space and effortlessly rest there for a few\r\nminutes.
\r\n\r\nRepeat this breathing cycle over and over until you\r\nstart to feel clearer inside. The more you become aware of what is blocking\r\nyour creative flow and practice clearing it, the more you discover and\r\ncultivate a more positive sense of self that is based on the absence of\r\nobstacle. This much larger sense of self has nothing to do with identity and\r\neverything to do with openness. You are the infinite space that has opened up.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
You may fear that without your old, familiar sense\r\nof pain identity, you are nothing. But as you clear your sense of negative\r\nself-image, you can begin to discover that in its absence, you are everything.\r\nA sense of self that is founded in openness is unchanging, indestructible, and\r\nconfident.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Whatever practice you use, the point is to discover\r\na place of spaciousness within. Give time not only to clearing obstacles but\r\nalso to becoming familiar with what opens up as a result. Every moment you\r\nspend in a state of openness is cumulative and supports your ability to be in\r\nthe flow. Let go, rest in the openness, and become familiar with it. Cultivate\r\nconfidence in the realization that your true inner being cannot be changed by\r\nany force.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
2. OPEN TO YOUR POTENTIAL
\r\n\r\nIf you can successfully clear the clouds of negative\r\nself-image and become more familiar with the vast sky, then by resting deeply\r\nenough in that space, you will begin to feel an even greater opening and sense\r\nof peace. The sparkling qualities manifesting in that space are the light of\r\nawareness and potentiality.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
So the second step toward unleashing a free flow of\r\ncreativity is to cultivate and connect fully with that awareness and sense of\r\nunlimited potential. Once you do so, you can come to realize that not only are\r\nyou more than you had always thought you were, but your entire world is full of\r\npositive alternatives. nothing is missing in your life; you are complete.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Finding solutions to problems may only require a new\r\nperspective, but sometimes it requires exploring whole new horizons. For\r\nexample, in recent months I’ve met many people who have been telling me they\r\ncan’t find work. But I truly feel that the reason they can’t find a job is only\r\nbecause they are the same person looking in the same types of places where they\r\nfound no jobs before. The point here is to consciously and energetically let go\r\nof feeling not only internally blocked but also externally blocked.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
It is very hard to look in a new place for solutions\r\nwhen you are the same old person. When there are obstacles in the way of\r\nreaching a professional, personal, or spiritual goal, a shift has to take place\r\nwithin you.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
3. NURTURE A SENSE OF WARMTH
\r\n\r\nOnce you have realized a sense of openness,\r\nconfidence, and unlimited potential, then qualities of joy—what I call\r\nwarmth—can naturally arise. It is only from this warmth that creativity,\r\nfinally, will freely manifest. The third condition for connecting with your\r\ncreative nature, therefore, is to notice and nurture a feeling of warmth.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Just as the sky is the primary source of the sun and\r\nthe oxygen-rich wind, which in turn give birth to all the flowers and trees,\r\nopenness is the primary source of confidence and warmth, which in turn give\r\nbirth to creative and enlightened manifestation.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Warmth is the place from which love, kindness,\r\ncompassion, expansiveness, and creativity arise. It’s like sitting in a patch\r\nof sunlight in cold weather. As the light warms you, you begin to smile. The\r\nwarmth you experience is a sense of feeling complete or, more specifically, no\r\nlonger feeling incomplete. You are conscious that any feelings of inadequacy\r\nhave dissolved and that you are more connected to your true self, so naturally\r\nyou feel complete.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Once anger is cleared, its antidote—love—can more\r\nspontaneously arise. Once sadness and feelings of inadequacy are cleared, joy\r\nand completeness are revealed. I’m not just saying this; for centuries, yogis\r\nand other practitioners have witnessed these results from meditation practice,\r\nand my own students have seen such effects within a few days of practice.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
When you create more space and awareness, positive\r\nqualities naturally arise. The more familiar you become with a sense of warmth,\r\nthe more often these joyful feelings will be evident. If this warmth is\r\nsomething you have seldom felt before, it’s only because you have never before\r\nprovided the space for it to manifest.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
If you feel the stirring of joy, just be aware of\r\nit. Particularly feel it in your heart, and allow it to expand throughout your\r\nbody—through your blood, your skin. Feel all the billions of cells in your body\r\ncommunicating with each other through this joy. Let your voice speak from that\r\nplace, and you will feel warmth reflecting back on you from the people you\r\nspeak with.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
This is something you’ve wanted and needed all your\r\nlife, and now you are feeling it. Warmth is not goal oriented; it is about\r\nconnecting with your very being. Creativity flows from here.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
The\r\nlife of an artist
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
People often make the mistake of trying to act\r\ncreatively before cultivating a sense of warmth. As a result, like the nervous\r\nperson trying to fake confidence with her boss, they have only limited success.\r\nIt is only once the clouds have dissolved, revealing the clear, vast sky, that\r\nthe warmth of the sun’s rays can nourish your creativity.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
At any given time, consider what stage you are in,\r\nand do what you can to move the process along. Try to focus more on what works,\r\nrather than what is not working for you. Don’t force creativity before its\r\ntime.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Once all the right conditions are in place,\r\nunrestricted creative flow often comes spontaneously. If not, there is no\r\nproblem with inviting it, reminding it, bringing in a little energy as a\r\nbooster. If you set up the right conditions, focusing in all the right places,\r\nthe intended result will come.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Whenever I create a piece of calligraphy, for\r\nexample, I avoid engaging with the intended outcome—hoping the finished image\r\nwill be beautiful or fearing I will miss a brushstroke. I connect, instead,\r\nwith stillness, silence, and spaciousness. Then, from within this open\r\nawareness, I feel a sense of warmth. I see the paper and hold the ink-filled\r\nbrush in my hand. Only then, from that place of warmth, do I allow the brush to\r\nmeet the paper. The stroke of the brush is the manifest act of creativity. With\r\neach stroke, the openness, awareness, and warmth are already in place and fully\r\nripened.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Spontaneous action is joyful action, and that is true\r\ncreativity. Whether it is a great artist immersed in the act of painting, a\r\nmother embracing her child, or a bodhisattva expressing compassion to sentient\r\nbeings, full immersion in the creative flow brings a sense of freedom,\r\nplayfulness, and joy.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
If you create from this place, hours can pass\r\nwithout your noticing. You go beyond time and space. You have many enlightened\r\nqualities during that timeless moment, and those qualities are far more\r\nvaluable than any product you create. People who are exposed to your product\r\nmay feel something of what you felt in the act of creation, just as one can\r\nfeel the depth of rembrandt’s experience captured in a self-portrait fully 350\r\nyears after he applied the paint strokes. But for the creator, the creation\r\nitself is not as important as being in the moment of creating. That is the life\r\nof an artist.
\r\n\r\nGeshe Wangyal Tenzin\r\nRinpoche – Lion’s Roar