Dharmavidya on Creativity

Qu: Can u tell me about creativity at The Buddhist House?
Dh: Well, TBH is a creation in itself. I don't mean the fabric of the building - tho that did involve a lot of repairing and painting and the usage of the rooms is a flexible ever changing evolution. I mean more the community itself. We talk of creativity, but we could use words like "happening" - it's an event over time unfolding. I do not know what it will be next.
Qu: So u're saying that the whole concept of life at TBH has creativity built in?
Dh: Built or grown or impregnated - it's a mystery evolving. It's about process. Process does not mean a lack of structure, but the structure is itself a creative expression and always open to change and development. "Trust Amida" means also "trust the process". Be willing to be surprised.
Qu: So does that mean that people who come to live at TBH have to be a special sort of person?
Dh: I don't know how special it is. I am much amazed at how blind many people are to creativity and how little it is valued. If u do not value it then this is not a good place for u. On the other hand, i don't think one has to be specially talented to participate. We do not see the creativity as a quality or possession of ourselves. It is tariki - Other-power. We're not special people - we are just ordinary. It is the situation that's special. If u want to be in that kind of special place, this is the place to be, but it is true that many people just want an easy predictable life. Creativity is no necssarily that comfortable - it might be sometimes ecstatic, sometimes distressing, sometime relaxing and smooth - but it is all of life, not just the safe bits.
Qu: So what u are saying, i think, is that the idea of creativity and a creative power or force is part and parcel of your metaphysics?
Dh: Metaphysics is nowadays a big word, but, yes, that's right. We are here to be used creatively by the Great Spirit which is Amida Tathagata. Making a Sweet Land is his work and we sign up as willing foot soldiers and worker bees.
Qu: But it is true that many specific ceativity events occur at TBH, isn't it?
Dh: Oh, yes. We set time out for it. We have poetry and pandramatics. People write and make things. There are gardens and kitchens. All creative places. We have an extensive educational programme covering Buddhist psychology and Buddhist Chaplaincy and so on, but there is a sense in which this whole programme is just a socially acceptable cover story or unbrella under which creative things can go on. Sometimes a person will say to us "I can't get to the weekend course next month, but I'll come the next time that u run it". Well, in a sense, that person has not really grasped what is going on here. There is never a rerun of the same course or the same thing. Every so-called course or workshop is a one-off event. It unfolds though the particular group, theme and circumstance of that meeting. It is never just "pass-me-down" stuff. The exercises we do together are generated on the hoof out of the process. If we prepare it is not by planning but by warming up. Even if there is some kind of rehearsal for an event - as there is for a ceremony, say, - what one is looking for is the unit of spontaneity that occurs.
Qu: Can u say more about "units of spontaneity"?
Dh: Pre-arranged structure is simply a spring-board or jumping off point. This is straight Jacob Moreno stuff. He called it the "cultural conserve". When one does something for the first time: that is spontaneity - that is Other-Power at work - the divine breaking through into our world. It is clean, fresh and alive. When u do something for the umpteenth time it is routine, dead, Mara. That does not mean that one should not do such things - Mara has his role too - but the whole point is to be open to, alert toward and eager for those times when Amida speaks and your soul sits up.
Qu: Why do u say "units"?
Dh: Because such moments are recognisable if u have the eye. U can say, "at that moment it happened". Or, "just then when he smiled was the moment something before unrecognised emerged". That sort of thing. Those are moments of inspiration. They are new. The whole point of Other-Power is that this world is not already sewn up - new things happen.
Qu: U mean that it is not what David Bohm called an "implicate order".
Dh: That's right. An implicate order unrolls but that's not all. The unrolling of what is already there is just Mara's domain. It's like laying the carpet, but what matters is the drama that takes place upon that carpet. So u can set up a venue, a gathering, and u can draw a circle on the ground, but what will happen in that circle? That's what counts. U can say, "Tuesday we will have a poetry session" but where do the poems really come from? What encounters take place there? What do people go away with that did not exist in the cosmos before their meeting?
Qu: I think u are saying that u do not see either creativity or the spiritual life as a "return to the source".
Dh: Yes, I am saying that. It do not think that it is particularly helpful to think in terms of some kind of already implicit oneness that we are all returning to by our spiritual efforts or as a kind of backwards pulling spiritual gravity field. Rather we are being coaxed forward into something completely new - opening up. We may set up drama or poetry or community spaces or visual events or learning events or whatever, but that is just a detonator - it is not the real bang. Whether a real bang happenes is out of our control. Buddhism is all about setting up the conditions. Spontaneity is conditionally originated but that does not mean that the outcome is in any way pre-determined. It isn't - and that is the whole point.
Qu: So spirituality and creativity co-incide?
Dh: Yes.
Qu: But it is well known that some highly creative people lead lives that are not very spiritual.
Dh: U might draw that conclusion if u equate spirituality with the idea of being conventionally moral and u locate the locus nascendi of creativity in the individual. But it is not really the case that there are creative people. There are talented people. A person might have a lovely voice or great skill with a paint brush, but neither of these things make them creative necessarily. A talented person may well be thrust by society into a position where creativity is demanded of them or bthey may be reckless enough to go there themselves, and they may sometimes come up with the goods, but the goods do not come from them - they come from the muse, and the muse will not be controlled! The person who is obligated to be regularly creative is thus in an indivious position and may have a tortured life. If they do not appreciate where the creative power comes from then it may all be very difficult for them. This is why a certain kind of spiritual life is very important for creativity. At the same time there are other kinds of spirituality that stiffle creativity.
Qu: U mean that living life in a straight jacket of rules of propriety may suffocate.
Dh: Exactly. Some forms of love make space for magic to happen and other forms of love are a flight into pseudo-safety that just closes everything down. That's why TBH is a special place, which is what u asked about in the beginning.
Qu: So is there an element of cultural criticism in this?
Dh: Oh certainly. The world out there has become tight and narrow and uncreative and afraid. That's why oases are needed. Here creativity is not an add on. It is core to our sense of the purpose of the universe and our role in it. Amida is always busily at work, so celebrate.
Qu: Thank u.
Dh: Thank u. Namo Amida Bu.