For the Week of August 18 - 24: Transforming Practices: Creating
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a creative spirit within me.
- Psalm 51:10
I measure the merit of art by its consciousness. A work of objective art ought to be a book, the only difference being that the artist transmits his ideas not directly through words or signs, but through certain feelings…
- G. I. Gurdjieff
This week we turn our focus to the importance of engaging and expressing our creativity as the seventh exploration in our summer series, "transforming practices” as related to the body, and our annual theme of arising as embodied life.
There are many ways the Work addresses embodied human creativity. We will explore three core Work ideas. In addition to the intellectual content of these ideas, it is also useful to remember how often Mr. Gurdjieff used creative and practical projects in his teaching, such as the various building projects at the Prieuré or the objective art of the Gurdjieff Movements (or Sacred Dances) and their accompanying original piano music, and of course, the extravagant culturally diverse meals Gurdjieff delighted in preparing.
Such creative endeavors were part of the group ethos of the Gurdjieff Work, and continued with other Work group leaders, such as Maurice Nicoll and Beryl Pogson, who used weekend Workdays to assign various creative projects to their group members – such as woodworking, gardening, or baking. All this creative activity was useful as Work, in part because it gave opportunity for people to observe themselves in a new context or a new activity that often brought up frictions and occasions for growth, since the assignment frequently involved doing something one was not, at first, familiar with or within one's comfort zone, or even to one's liking.
There are excellent firsthand published accounts of these group experiences, and if you are interested, a suggested resource is one written by the primary composer of Mr. Gurdjieff's piano music: Thomas and Olga de Hartmann, Our Life with Mr. Gurdjieff.
Creativity and the Law of Creation
The first Work idea to begin our exploration of creativity is the Law of Three, also known as the Law of Creation. There are many applications of this idea, though one common experience for many creative types is the experience of second force in relation to our creative energy and efforts.
Second force occurs in countless ways, but when it comes to creativity, the experience of the disease of mañana: putting off today's work for tomorrow dominates. Distraction. Laziness. Lacking interest or inspiration – such experiences are all manifestations of second force to our creative endeavor(s) or wishes.
Such resistance also helps us see the first force energy that is required for our creative endeavors. Creativity requires something from us. A fine energy. An inner quietness. A focused yet easy attention. Oftentimes, one can't create or be creative because one has no or little reserve energy for creating.
This takes us to our second Work idea, the important role of our centers in our creativity.
Creativity and the Centers
Perhaps one has spent all their energy at work or with family responsibilities – and one is too tired to create. It is good to notice this, and recharge one's energy by using a different center, versus trying to force creativity from an "empty" center or from a more superficial, mechanical part of one's center.
The Work idea of centers helps us observe how our creativity occurs. Dr. Nicoll's useful pie-chart diagram of the centers locates artistic valuation and creation in the intellectual part of the emotional, which he also says is the seat of magnetic center. (To see the pie charts, click HERE and scroll to p. 77).
One can verify this by way of self-observation for yourself, especially as you contrast the qualities of different centers. That's not to say other centers are not involved or used in concert with the intellectual part of the emotional center. Clearly, creative dance would engage all centers in a way that sitting at a desk writing a poem may not.
One aspect to ponder related to centers and the energy required for our creative endeavors is the way such energy can become blocked from freely flowing – either intellectually, emotionally, or physically. This may be as a result of a particular energy blockage that could be released by moving into a different center, such as going for a walk or listening to music or playing with the kids. So too, negative, depleting emotions or negative parts of centers might also be blocking your creative energy.
Similarly, one's energy may not be blocked, but one might be temporarily disconnected or offline from a particular center required for creativity. For example, self-observe how your centers might be disconnected while passively watching TV in contrast to how your centers might be harmoniously connected while in the creative flow of playing the piano or learning a new dance movement.
Discussion on our centers and creativity would be incomplete without briefly mentioning the role of our Higher Centers. Connection with these higher centers may not always be available, but when it is, we know and feel the difference. Creating while connected or infused with the energy from these higher centers is certainly a type of inspiration, that for some might even become a kind or revelation from conscious influences, whether divine, angelic, prophetic, psychic, artistic, intuitive, or emotional.
This takes us to our third Work idea, the important role of essence in our creativity.
Creativity and Essence
Lastly, the Work idea of essence. Beauty may be one of the chief qualities of the objective goodness of our creativity. When we create something that is beautiful or that touches our emotions on the aesthetic level in a life-giving way, it can infuse us with a sense of holy longing. It helps wake us up. It helps us remember. In ancient Greece, goodness, truth, and beauty were viewed as godlike qualities that humans could emulate. That which conveyed these qualities was to be cherished, cultivated, and sought after.
The takeaway for us is that it is because of our essence that we can feel, respond and convey beauty. Essence comes from above, that is to say, not just from life. Your essence is beauty itself in human embodiment.
Because of essence, even that which might appear physically "ugly," maimed or wilted on this planet, can nevertheless transmit the beautiful. Essence is eternal, undiminished, untarnished. Essence allows everything and everyone to be "beautiful." Essence is the light of the divine Absolute shining through us, no matter what. Essence is the buried treasure, the hidden pearl of great price. The golden Buddha covered in clay.
Dr. Nicoll provides a lovely summary of the role of essence and its connection with beauty:
"I have often told you that there is a great beauty in this Work. Do you know that beauty powerfully affects essence? … For what is in the thought and the will and terminated in action enters and remains in your life. But what you only think and do not will pass away because it has no termination in action. … In the light of the high descent of essence from the level of the galaxy is it surprising that what is beautiful influences it unforgettably? Therefore, let us keep the Work beautiful in heart and mind so that it reaches essence in us" (Commentaries, "Growth of Essence," August 8, 1953, Vol. 5, p. 1736).
Perhaps we can all wish to be inspired, to create from our highest centers, to let our essence fashion and fuel our creativity and in so doing contribute to the beautification of the world and our relationships herein.
In addition to all the wisdom of the Work as it relates to creativity and especially essence, we can affirm, in the light of our deep encounter with meditative practices, such as Centering Prayer, that in addition to everything else that has been said, creativity can also be a kind of prayer. A deep expression of worship.
In fact, that God as Creator created beings in the image and likeness of God implicitly means that one of the most God-like things humans can do is to participate in the experience of being co-creators. Such co-creativity is pleasing to God, and in this sense, creativity becomes an act of worship, beautifying the cosmos a little bit more, and bringing delight to the heart of our Most Holy and Beloved Creator God of the Heavens and Earth.
Such worshipful, vertically connected creativity helps awaken others to their essence and remember where they come from and who they are. It also inspires the bored and downtrodden – calling many to discover what is possible here on earth and what awaits us in heavenly realms beyond. And so, what a unique joy it is to offer our lives as worship by living creatively for the glory of God!
Homework
This week, ask for inspiration for your creative expression. Aim to express your creativity. What form of creative expression is calling to you? What keeps you from expressing it? Aim to express it this week, a little bit each day.
What did you discover this week about creativity and creative energy and the creative process in your life?
August Practice: Swimming
August is a good time to submerge yourself in the creative miracle that is water. Whether you dip, float, dive, plunge, jump, wade, or splash, do play with the gift of water and remind yourself of its life giving, thirst quenching, renewing powers. Water has unique way of energetically calming all our centers, releasing tensions and constrictions, opening channels of creativity. See what you discover about yourself.
Attend The Journey School Thursday Class Tonight: All are encouraged and welcome to attend tonight's class for a review of these teachings and, importantly, to produce a container of beings seeking to be more conscious and whose efforts assist one another: 7:00 pm Central Time via Zoom only.
