Inspiration

In returning to the podcast, I talk about my reflections and use of inpiration in my work and the world, as well as future plans for the podcast.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:34

Welcome to Creative Labyrinths. This is season two. I felt like I needed to take a break after seven episodes. More so just to give myself time to digest the experience of doing it. And also partly from feedback from people where they were having a difficult time catching up. with all of the episodes so those two things allowed me to make the decision to have a break and just personally I'm someone that usually works quite diligently and with much concentration and then will take a break anyway so that's probably the way that this podcast will go over the years which is a series of episodes and then a break The feedback that I had from the last season was really tremendous and I guess surprising but also fulfilling at the same time. And the most, I guess, potent feedback that I had from people and the one that I was interested in the most was... the level of inspiration people were getting from these episodes. More so just the sense, I guess, of creating and just having concentrated conversations about creativity and about people's creative practice and the exchange that they have with their art seemed to... ignite something in people and fill them with a compulsion to create which I completely understand it does the same for me as well so the break also allowed me some time to think about some future plans for the podcast as well which is to also start adding a little bit more of a practical element to Creative Labyrinths. So my thoughts are that I will probably release a series of guided meditations related around imagination, working with the mind and possibly experimenting with tapping into different forces creative forces inside of us and using that in a practical way in our creativity if people are interested in that kind of thing so that's a plan for the future plus some other things which I'll keep under my hat for a while but truly I dig deep more and more into the purpose I suppose of the podcast because I really don't like to start any or continue any creative venture if there's not a purpose to it that's just my personal way of working so for Creative Labyrinths I guess my own personal philosophy and I know that others do share this as well is that I believe creativity is fundamental human want I believe human beings fundamentally have this desire to express which quite obviously can occur in many many many different ways and I want to promote that in people regardless if you are somebody that has creativity is a central practice in your life or even if you're just someone who has an interest or perhaps a curiosity around that or even somebody that is wrestling with implementing creativity into their life in a more concentrated type of way which I know that there are people listening where that is an absolute agenda and I encourage that in whatever way that I can and will try to support that in any way that I can as well and so there is this funny kind of mystery to me which is this impulse that happens inside of us this mysterious kind of energy that seems to erupt in us which I consider to be inspiration. And it truly is a bit of an elusive dynamic. And there is so much information out there and opinions and books written about that. And so I would really like to talk about inspiration from my own experience and my own reflection Because I consider myself to be tremendously fortunate in the sense that I find myself in a constant state of inspiration. And yeah, I consider that to be a gift, nearly. Yes, I don't want to cast illusions over the way that I work and I'm definitely somebody that gets stuck in situations where I feel lifeless I feel that what I'm creating is kind of stagnant and lacking something vivifying and new that definitely does happen to me but The impulse to want to create, which I guess is kind of the simmerings or the initial spark of inspiration, it really isn't something that is missing from me. If anything, my physical body and my mind and definitely my emotions just don't have enough energy to keep up with the amount that I want to create. There isn't enough... time in the day and the night time and my body just cannot keep up with it so I have to give in to rest but really the impulse to create is there all the time and to the point where I guess sometimes I feel like a slave to it or it's a compulsion or something but that's my own cross to bear I suppose so Inspiration is something that I've been meditating on for the last couple of weeks to try to understand this mystery, I guess, a little bit more in how it works in my life and also reflecting on people that I know, their comments and their own experiences of inspiration. And like I was alluding to at the start, inspiration is an experience. And it's an impulse. It's something that I find gives life. It can happen in like an aha kind of moment. And it can also happen in a way that it seeps into your being and slowly starts to be absorbed into you and surround you and fill you with some concentrated type of force. And this inspiration is an experience of life. And it can happen anywhere. It can happen from going to see an art show or a band or reading some poetry or a book or sitting in the garden having a cup of tea or getting into an argument with a friend or whatever it is. Inspiration can happen in any moment, and it is this, I suppose, a response to something that has been received in life. However, I consider the precursor to inspiration to be wonder, to have an open mind that when entering into the experiences of life and there are specific streams and practices especially there is one specific practice in Tibetan Buddhism called Chöd and this practice centers somebody in walking into life and receiving the events of life as open as possible which is a tremendously huge task because as soon as we begin to think of that as a possibility quite naturally fear and protection comes up as a response but I don't want to go down that avenue too much here but what I am trying to emphasize is this ingredient of wonder and open-mindedness that I think definitely is the preface to an experience of inspiration. And this inspiration, this moment where the outside enters into us as something new, And I find that the experience of inspiration is akin to a newness, to a breath of fresh air, like a mint for the mind, like a mint for the emotions, something that brings something crisp and fresh and definitely adds in a new perception or a new perspective to the degree that it transcends thought. which is why it's so difficult to discuss and to expound upon this experience of inspiration because truly it does transcend intellectual thought. So I understand partially the ridiculousness and the juxtaposition of, or I guess the paradox of, talking about inspiration, but I do think that it's useful to talk about because it is such a critical factor in one's creativity. So this newness that we experience coming from a sense of wonder and a sense of open-mindedness is possible to have there as a way of functioning and a way of being as a normal state. However, I had a moment of realization when I was meditating on the duality of inspiration and why sometimes when I have been in what I would conceptually consider very inspiring environments or moments when I thought, well, I guess this could be an inspiring moment, That didn't happen. Definitely, we cannot construct inspiration in that way. There are definitely tools and techniques that people have used for many, many years to help oneself be in a receptive state, which is so critical, to be in a receptive state. to allow the possibility of inspiration to take place without expectation, which is the challenge. And so there are many techniques for that. And meditation definitely is one because meditation allows us to enter into our own being. And I don't want to get into the techniques and the philosophy of meditation here. I'm planning on doing that for another four-minute episode. But that particular technique is very interesting and many other techniques over the years, sleep deprivation, the use of mind-altering substances, creating artificial constructs in the creative process that create a type of binding of the artist where they are looking and having to search for inventive new problem-solving ways. And in that process, I guess, wrestle inspiration can come forth when we aren't just stuck in the mundane. Because it is the mundane that makes things difficult. However, when I was meditating on the duality of inspiration and walking through life with this open-mindedness and wonder, I discovered, especially within the dynamic of art, which I'll try to keep it in that here, the blockage the hurdle or the psychic knot inside of us that stops this open receptive state happening is comparison and it's very easy to see for myself I can remember vividly especially being a teenager and lamentably less as I get older, but I remember as a teenager and as a child, very, very specific moments when I had listened to a piece of music or saw a movie or a play or a piece of art. And in that moment, it was life-changing for me. It completely rocked the way that I saw the world It completely changed the way that I saw myself and the way that I related with things. It was groundbreaking and roof-shattering, and I can remember them so vividly because in that moment I was experiencing something so new, so outside the paradigms of my known. that there was zero comparison going on between what it was that I was listening to or seeing or whatever and what I did. It was so new. And it's when I penetrate deeply into those experiences, I cherish them and realize how important they were for my development. And then quite naturally, as we get older, we start to hold more steadfastly to what we know And that becomes almost our comfort zone, our false sense of security. And the layers go deeper with nostalgia and all of these kinds of things. And we kind of keep ourselves within that. However, as a child, the comparison was so much less. As a teenager, my comparison was so much less that I was so open-mindedness to devouring the new, devouring anything that I could. And then I realized in this meditation that comparison becomes the translator of the experiences of life and the experiences of artistic reception. And we go and see a bunch of artworks and leave. And I know that inside... of some people's minds, and definitely it's happened with me before, inside of my mind, if I go in with a type of, I guess, critical outlook, which oftentimes can have a foundation of insecurity, I go in with a comparison. How does my work rank up next to this and then get stuck in this insecure, egotistical... of receiving some person's expression, which is their complete right. And I see that as being a poison to allowing ourselves moments of inspiration or allowing ourselves to be in a state where inspiration may happen. And when these moments of inspiration lessen and lessen and lessen, I've found in my own process that I become more gnarled and close-minded and almost calcified thought when it comes to my own artistic practice and the way that I view my own art. And then... In this receptive state, when inspiration can be triggered or is an impulse inside of us, for me, that is half the journey of inspiration. That's the receptive side of inspiration. Because the next step or the second half of the process of inspiration after receiving is then to emit. For me, I find inspiration is an impulse then to express something. I'm filled with some new life and it is in the process of creating that I am becoming one with this mystery, this newness that I've found. And in this creation, it is a dialogue between this newness and how do I absorb this newness into me this new experience of life because truly the experiences of life are infinite and the way to receive the experiences of life are infinite and this openness, this wonderment allows us to enter into many many more dimensions of the human experience and then when that has enlivened us the process of creating allows us to enter into that stream and so then through the process of creating from this impulse we then emit some newness within us some new experience of life that we give back in a type of inspirational feedback. And then it is in this projective, I suppose, aspect of inspiration that our work and what it is that we are creating can move forward. I don't like to say move forward because then it kind of presents some linearity to what it is that we're doing. But I suppose we could say this newness allows our creations to deepen. To deepen and to become more of a representation of our journey with ourselves. And I understand that there are people out there that do not approach their creativity in this way. But this is what I'm talking about because for me this is... what creativity is for me and if this isn't what it is for you then I am truly curious about what that means to you and this is why I like to interview people to see where that overlaps and where we disassociate from it but for me truly then this feedback of inspiration allows me to to bring new life into what it is that I'm creating. And I know as a kid and still now you see the very stereotypical scenes in movies where critics and stuff are talking about art and they're like, oh, this is just so uninspired. And it's just such a throwaway comment, it seems, but such a harsh criticism of what it is that's being made. But actually I can tell inside of my own work when I'm creating whether something has come purely from some inspired impulse. And I realized something so important to me that the process of creating from the point of inspiration really requires an abandoning. an abandoning of conventions and an abandoning of the known. Because the subtle trap that I fall into in my own creations is that when I'm not feeling inspired, I lean on what I know. I lean on imitation, whether it's imitation of what I have done in the past or imitation of my influences. And it is in this imitation that for my own critique, my work becomes stale. And it doesn't seem true. It doesn't seem as honest as it can possibly be. And it was such a critical point for me to understand because many times, for instance, if I'm writing music and I listen back to what it is that I've written and it doesn't urge me to want to scream or it doesn't urge me to want to... to move my body strongly, or it doesn't urge me to be so enthusiastic about what it is that I'm gonna sit there for hours, then usually it's something that I'll throw away. Because it's just filling the gaps between moments of inspiration and the next. And it's such a classical thing with composers especially, which is the thing that you start your piece with almost never makes it in the final cut. And there is a moment of sacrificing, continuous, continuous sacrificing through the compositional process of having something that you're like, yeah, I'm really vibing with this. And then as you progress in the composition, you discover that it actually doesn't serve the song anymore, but it was the seed that germinated the process. And there is a connection and the type of, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, a clinging onto that thing and not wanting to let it go because you feel like that's the thing that's carrying you forward when really that's the thing that's holding you back. And I found that that process of letting go is so tremendously liberating and allows the art that's being created to breathe then and not being tied down and tethered down to something that is not serving it anymore. And that was so critical for me to understand. This continuous derobing, this continuous letting go and shedding through the creative process allows more purely that inspired moment to shine through as much as possible. And all of the feelings and processes that come along with that can be quite laborious. And it's constant. It's not just something that we do once and then we're fine in our process. I remember David Lynch saying something interesting. He said his advice to people that kept getting stuck in a rut, which is the same as saying people that kept getting stuck with not feeling inspired. He said the important thing for him was to set up like a routine and that routine... allows us to be free inside of that routine. And then it's just a moment of creating, creating, creating. And it's almost a waiting. But in that routine, it allows us to be there and to be present. But so many times I see creatives not even take that step because they think that... they need to be inspired all of the time or initially in order for any practice to unfold and it's just not like that there was a moment in my own my own creative path when I realized that my creative practice was a slave to my inspiration and I was severely unhappy inside of it because I was just creating on a whim and that's not what I wanted. I know for myself what I wanted was to step it up a notch. And in order to do that, it required a type of grind to be there and to show up for that like it was a job nearly. Or for me, it was to show up for it like it was a relationship and I needed to put the time in And then once the time was in, it allowed more and more opportunities really for inspiration to strike. And it was in that routine that allowed me to enter into that space more and more and to become more familiar with it. And now it's a burning fire inside of me, I find. But it's really interesting for me to notice those tiny pitfalls of... falling into the known falling into the patterns when inspiration isn't there and that's when for me that's when my critique comes in of what it is that i'm doing and to be willing to sacrifice and let go many of the things that you've done because once those things are let go it allows more space and more room for something unknown to occur and it is in that unknown that That is the magic of creativity in the unknown. That's where the magic happens for me. And this podcast is an extremely good example of that, of having an idea and running with the idea. And for the weeks leading up to it, I don't take the scholarly approach which... Seems to be a nice safety blanket to do of reading and researching and writing tons of notes and then sitting down here with them and rehearsing it and then doing it like a performance. That is such a safe thing for me to do and would probably alleviate a lot of difficult feelings, but I choose to not do that and instead... As my own practice and I guess that this is an emittance of that practice of using my own life and the experiences that I have in my own life and going deeper into those experiences to bring forth with clenched fists the wisdom that can be gained in those experiences for me. And that is the receptivity of the inspiration that I have. And then the projective inspiration is when I sit down here and hit record and set it as a challenge to hit record once, which is what I did. And to just speak about it without that type of scholarly preparation. And, you know, yeah, it is... my heart beats a little bit quicker when I hit that record button and I sit down because I want it to be good. I want it to be clear. I do want people to receive something from this. And it is in abandoning, I suppose, that preparatory, that scholarly intellectual preparatory thing that that opens me up to the unknown of what it is that I'm doing here. And truly in that space of the unknown, it is when I find the most amount of wisdom, because not only as I'm speaking it, am I relaying things that have happened to me, but as I'm speaking it, I'm learning from myself. And that's so tremendously profound. So in this beautiful, beautiful dance, and to-ing and fro-ing that inspiration has through receiving life from an openness, receiving life from the seat of wonder, receiving life without the translator of comparison, without the translator of arrogance, without so many other egoical elements in there is... a supreme challenge a supreme challenge but for me one that I consider the ultimate and when we let go these things and walk into life saying yes to experiences many times I'm not advocating chaos In this moment, I'm not advocating that anyway, so please don't take that away from here. But receiving life in this way and then learning how to, through experience, imbue our creativity with this inspiration allows this beautiful thing to happen. As I was falling asleep the other night, reflecting on inspiration amongst people I saw with my imagination that the receiving of inspiration from art and then the projection of inspiration from your own creation creates this beautiful line, this network that radiates and connects everybody through the artistic world. It's amazing. I go and see... an exhibition and get filled with that inspiring feeling and come home and want to create and then through my creations that I put out there perhaps somebody else becomes inspired and then fills their work with some newness that they've experienced and then emits that and then somebody else receives and then they emit that and then in this way there is this unbroken chain that happens and so perhaps within the depths of my own philosophy and what some may consider to be a romanticizing of ideals, then in this way I see artists almost as a type of servant to this inspirational impulse because it is in this inspirational impulse that life can change. And please notice that I said servants and not like benefactors or kings or queens or whatever of inspiration. But it's an experience that moves in us and moves through us and can move through us when we know how to remove the self, which is another mystery all unto itself. So I hope that there has been something in there that... has been food for thought whether you agree or profoundly disagree with anything that it is that I've said. I still am very grateful that there is a type of connection that I can have with you all. It brings a very special element to my life which I wasn't aware of and I'm really grateful for that and I'm still surprised to this day that people take time out of their... lives and listen to the things that it is that we're doing here so gratitude to you strength to you in your practice and in your journeys of life this is the first episode inspiration on the full moon of season two of creative labyrinths my name is cameron thank you for listening

SPEAKER_01: 37:08

Actions cannot be given for achieving personal excellence, because we are all different. The gifts and potentialities of one person are those of another. Indeed, each person is unique. His or her gifts and abilities are probably not exactly matched by anyone else on Earth. And from this, it follows that one person's excellence is his or hers alone.