"Now" What?

Sitting at home and just finished watching a movie. I got sick today, but it didn't take me down until I had sanded a vJ body. I filmed it (videoed it?) so I can post it on YouTube. It's a little over an hour long so I need to speed it up and make it short so it's not unwatchable. Didn't quite have the time or energy to sort that out after the funk hit me. Anyway, that was my big plan for today.

Now I'm trying to figure out what to write here that has some creative relevance. I think maybe something about mindfulness and creativity, as I've had some ideas about these things bouncing around my brain for a while. Ideas about how those things really are linked. By mindfulness I mean the practice of being in the moment fully. My understanding (and experience) is that this means letting go of all attachments to outcome. It's about cultivating a self-less-ness so that creative energy is allowed to flow into being uninhibited.

There's an anecdote that Jonah Lehrer talks about in his book on creativity that I find very interesting. He was talking about insight problems and how they are difficult to solve if we 'try' to solve them. Typically the person working on the problem would be stymied until, upon reviewing a seemingly unrelated anecdote, the brain is somehow inspired to make a connection behind the scenes - using insight to solve the problem.

Jonah tells a story about how they tested a monk that typically spends ten hours a day meditating. He was stuck on a series of insight problems and couldn't 'figure' them out any quicker than anyone else. And then he decided to clear his mind and meditate. Suddenly he was able to solve the problems one after the other in rapid succession.

This just floored me. It profoundly relates to what I've been working on in my own journey. Basically, it verifies my sense that creativity can be willfully brought to bear by following a practice of mindfulness. Or meditating. Or by practicing whatever spiritual method necessary to bring one to a state of newness so powerful that the thought self is no longer in the way. Zen Buddhists call this beginners mind.

I have felt this in my work, and in several other areas, going back to when I started making basses in my garage. I would reach a place during the process of assembling the woods into a bass where time seemed to disappear. There was nothing but the wood and the process of working it to the right shape and level of finish. It was sporadic at the start, but its become much more common as I've learned and studied more about being present. I even felt it today when I sanded that ash vJ body.

I've felt it when playing guitar and occasionally bass. I've felt it driving and cycling. I've even felt it when working out relational issues between folks(including me!) in my shop. I've also felt it when 'doing' passive things. Most profoundly while listening to music. It's that space where the sense of self goes away. And pure existence is left. "Real" is what's left - razor sharpened all encompassing fullness of experience of all that 'this' moment is.

I feel pretty clumsy and perhaps a bit frustrated here trying to relate this "thing" that I'm calling mindfulness and how I've experienced it. I think writing this now in my slightly unfocused state will help me solidify some of this as I go forward, but I don't feel I've been very clear about it.

Ah well. For now I will let this little thought stream go out and live on the interwebs. I'm sure I'll be back on this idea here soon, hopefully with examples - probably basses and music.

Time to get some rest. More mindfulness to be practiced and more sanding to be done soon...


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