With a sense for the space needed to open to creative process, we turn our attention to the magical space between thoughts that allows the inspired spark to enter our awareness.
When stilling of the mind happens, the spaciousness of potential is realized. One becomes deeply connected with a sort of river of intelligence that flows through the cracks between thoughts. This river is always flowing, always offering its sinuous gifts and unrelenting momentum. By choosing to sit by the river and witness it's flow, we can release into the river.
Let's begin our journey with a question.
How is a mountain creative?
Imagine a boulder that is lifted from the mountain side in the fury of storm. It rolls powerfully down hill toward the awaiting plateau. Once a part of the mountain, it is now moving and crafting it's own journey. Arriving at the plateau, it rests, witnessing the changing seasons and skies. Eventually, it shrinks with wind and rain as it is chiseled to sand and stone. It is no longer a large boulder, but rather a rock, irregular and edgy.
A child picks up the rock and discovers the shades of earth that are fused into the nature of the rock. Creamy white quartz, dark blocky hematite with streaks of iron rich veins permeating the whole structure. For a few moments the child is held in transfixed attention, pure wonder, marveling at the story of the rock, surmising that is was once deep in the earth, molten and hot. She traces the journey from mantle to hand in her mind, exploring the tall mountain, the unwieldy boulder, the palm size rock with jagged fierce edges and a story to tell.
A distant call for dinner pulls the child from her awareness of the interconnected nature of the object in her hand and she tosses it irreverently to the ground. Having been dislodged, the next rain event lifts the rock and deposits it in the nearby river. It tumbles and flows and dances with the water, the sand, the shore. It softens some, smooths some, it surrenders itself to the journey.
How is a mountain creative? It is open, it is available, it is still, it is receptive, it is present. It stands strong and patient, ready to receive the offerings of the universe. It remains steady through blasting wind and relentless rain. It has no agenda, but receives the stochastic vagaries of day to day skies and it allows this to chisel and shape it's facade into endless little miraculous art forms. Within, the mountain is still, full of potential, yielding gently to experience, remaining ever steady and discovering itself anew over and over again until it finds itself as a grain of sand on a distant shore rhythmically lapping in the waves of a vast limitless ocean.
Calm the mind and we become aware of the inner stillness that is already connected to the flow of the river of intelligence. Creativity and inspiration inhabit the space between the thoughts. The body will change and adjust over time, however the stillness within remains unchanged. It is your mountain, your inner sanctuary, your home.
This is the center of your BEING.
Copyright 2018
