Thinking Outside the ‘Thinking Outside the Box’ Box: Reflections on Zen, Jazz, and the Nature of Creativity M. Stefan Sikora ‘The only real creator is God – everything else is merely plagiarism.’ (Salvadore Dali)

Prologue ‘The child is innocence and forgetfulness, a new beginning, a sport, a self-propelling wheel, a first notion, a sacred Yes.’ (Friedrich Nietzsche) In order for the reader to gain a deeper understanding of the ideas and thoughts expressed here, it seems prudent to quickly review my own view and understanding of the widely used but often misunderstood terms ‘education’ and ‘schooling’ as I use them. My time spent living in the bush with aboriginal people, a people who have survived there for not just hundreds of years but for millennia, taught me that everyone gets an education. This education is provided the universe and is derived from some yet to be determined universal curriculum. In this context everything and everybody occupies the dual role of both student and teacher. With the exception of costing each individual time, said education is free, unique to the individual, and provides an opportunity for lifelong learning, based, in part, on what I have termed the educational imperative – that is, learn or perish. That learning is continual, universal and omnipresent, taking place at both an unconscious and eventually conscious level in all individuals regardless of the level of their cognitive abilities. By contrast, schooling is a humanly designed and constructed process, relatively recent in terms of its ‘universality’, whose purpose appears to be based, in part, upon the intention of providing individuals with the opportunity to enhance their education. Schooling is, by nature, a group based process, constructed around a specific curriculum, in which the roles of students and teachers tend to be rather clearly defined. Teachers are, for the most part, professionals. Students are generally seen as being the recipients of their individual teachers’ expertise. Learning is takes place in specified subject areas and occurs between certain times on certain days. In other words, regarded as such, in comparison to education, schooling appears to be somewhat limited in scope. That is not to say that schooling per se is neither useful nor beneficial. On the contrary, schooling has been shown to be and continues to be an extremely powerful process, though not without its particular pitfalls. One of these pitfalls centers upon the fact that schooling has both a direct and indirect effect and often long lasting influence upon creativity.

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Creativity ‘What is originality? Undetected plagiarism.’ (Dean William Inge) ‘Copy from one, it’s plagiarism; copy from two – it’s research.’ (John Milton) ‘Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way’ (Edward de Bono) When we are speaking about creativity, we first need to ask to what exactly are we referring? Creativity is a human trait or characteristic which the Oxford dictionary definition informs us involves the ‘use of imagination or original ideas to create something’. The descriptions of creativity found in many psychology texts state that creativity ‘generally refers to the capacity of individuals to produce novel or original answers or products.’ (LeFrancois, 2000) or ‘the ability to produce work that is original yet appropriate (my italics).’ (Berk, 2002). The obvious question here is exactly to whom does this description actually refer? This paper takes the position that the characteristic of creativity is a universally occurring trait – one which can be found in literally all individuals to some degree or another. Primarily it is not so much a question of who is creative but more a question of how creative are they – in other words, what amount or level of creativity is being manifest by the individual in question. Allow me to provide a limited rationale for this position. All three of the previous descriptions make specific reference to the term ‘original’, that is, with respect to both quality and source. At the risk of oversimplification, it can be argued that, existentially, all human beings originate from the same ‘place’ or ‘event’, the universal phenomenon of creation which itself is ongoing. As a result, all individuals retain at least some, if not all, of the qualities manifest within and by this process. A drop of water from the ocean will be, as is its source, salty but the concentration of the salt itself can and does vary in amount. In being unique, each individual is, by definition, always producing original or novel behaviours, that is – being creative. Taking into account the apparently seamless factor which characterizes the ongoing passage of time, a contextual process which itself is continually producing or generating unique and novel ‘moments’ one after another, it can be further argued that it’s actually quite impossible for individuals to not be producing original or unique behaviours at every moment and within every action. In other words, to restate the argument in simpler terms, all human beings are naturally creative. They cannot avoid being creative any more than they could avoid breathing.

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It should be noted that creativity has a necessary liberating quality, which serves both the individual and the existing social order within which the individual develops. This liberating aspect is as essential to human existence as water is to the survival of fish. In the words of Edward de Bono, ‘We need creativity in order to break free from the temporary structures that have been set up by a particular sequence of experiences.’ Those ‘particular sequences of experiences’ are, by their very nature, individual in character. The Search For The ‘True Self’ ‘It was not until I began experimenting with spontaneous painting… that I was first able to gain access to the undistorted reality of my childhood.’ (Alice Miller) ‘Being an artist is first discovering the self and then stating the self in self-chosen terms.’ (John Fowles) The Buddhist practise of Zen provides us with a different supporting perspective which serves to bolster what is being alluded to in the previous segment. Zen concerns itself with the process of coming to know one’s ‘true self’, utilizing what has been described as a type of ‘enlightened’ transmission to assist in the process - one which does not rely on words or letters. Zen provides a method for cutting through to the heart of the matter – to becoming capable of both recognizing, residing in, and living from the ‘true self’. This ‘true self’ is generally referred to as ‘original mind’. Zen practitioners regard ‘original mind’ as the source of not only individual being but in fact all being. To aid individuals in this process of realization or ‘enlightenment’, practitioners of Zen meditation are often given koans to focus their introspections or meditations upon, the idea being to use time-tested methods to not only reduce distraction but to assist in focusing the mind. Popular koans usually contain some form of question along the lines of ‘what is my original mind’ or ‘what is my original face’. The questions of origins and originality are crucial in the pursuit of Zen meditation, an activity directed toward uncovering the source and nature of beingness, creation, and origin, which lies within. Answering a koan requires the student to let go of conceptual thinking and of the logical way individuals have been taught to order the ‘known’ world, Appropriate insight and response to a koan is said to arise naturally and spontaneously in the mind in a manner which is similar to that of the creative process in artistic endeavours. This ‘letting go’ will be discussed at a later point in this paper as will the idea of ‘appropriateness’. Suffice it to say that the aforementioned dual processes of education and schooling generally play a critical role in the development of or suppression of what is a naturally occurring characteristic – creativity and the type of thinking and actions that accompany it. Another critical question to be considered is what is creativity relative to, specifically to what or whom? An obvious response might be, it’s relative to oneself and one’s individuality. However, 4

individual creativity is often ‘measured’ by comparing the individual’s behavior to that of other individuals, or groups of individuals, or to established ‘standards’ of creativity – the latter being somewhat of an oxymoron. Within the social milieu creativity often appears to be regarded as a quality which only some individuals have and manifest while others do not – an observation which may be only relatively true if one agrees with the position which this paper espouses. Two Forms of Creativity ‘Immature artists imitate. Mature artists steal’ (Lionel Trilling) Creativity is not merely the innocent spontaneity of our youth and childhood; it must also be married to the passion of the adult human being, which is a passion to live beyond one’s death. (Dr. Rollo May) For the purposes of this paper I would like the reader to entertain the idea that there are at least two rather distinct forms of creativity, both of which are manifest at specific times and in very different ways. I refer to these as ‘primal’ creativity and ‘mature’ creativity. I would describe the former as the characteristic raw, unrefined aspect of originality which attends every individual and is manifest from at least the moment of conception onward until such time as the social order’s influence becomes clearly felt. Being somewhat unrefined, this natural form of creativity is generally unfocused in nature, individual in character and, more importantly, attends to no particular frame of reference or standard other than perhaps the infinite unknown.. I would go further and suggest that ‘primal’ creativity is relatively undisciplined and liberated, that is, free to pursue its own interests regardless of consequence, capable of producing all manner of original ideas or ‘products’, many and possibly most of which are potentially unrecognizable. In its raw form, it is, quite simply, untainted by social discourse or pressure or ‘standards’. The second form of creativity, that is, its more ‘mature’ counterpart, is an evolving extension of its ‘primal’ parent upon whose foundation it is built and extended. It can be said to be both refined and ultimately recognizable. ‘Mature’ creativity is generally purposeful, focused, and disciplined in nature – as well as being somewhat responsive to the social milieu within which it survives. As such it is also quite useful, entertaining, provocative, and on occasion inspiring. What I am referring to as ‘mature’ creativity is, in my humble experience, a relatively rare occurrence as opposed to the generally universal ‘primal’ form. I hope to be able to provide the reader with a few distinct perspectives which might account for these occurrences. Just as with jazz, which requires a basic understanding of music coupled with the application of a variety of fundamental elements, namely a musical education, before one can successfully engage in improvisation, the ‘primal’ form of creativity provides a basis and foundation for what might later, with practice and education develop into fully functional ‘mature’ creativity. One 5

must as always learn to walk before one is capable of learning to dance. But what if the ‘primal’ element is damaged – especially early on?

Socialization and Social Learning ‘One day it will have to be officially admitted that what we have christened reality is an even greater illusion than the world of dreams.’ (Salvadore Dali) There’s the suggestion that play is part of a child’s preparation for the real world. It makes sense (that) there’s a natural progression from make-believe to reality, and consequently, we are shamed out of reverting to that ‘childishness’ of make-believe. But somewhere along the way, that ability to believe at all got sucked right out of us. One of the roles of art is to seduce adults back into believing…’ (Jillian Keiley) From the moment of conception onward, every individual is subjected to the pressures of two distinct forces, two major sources of influence, one internal – one external, both of which continually demand a response to their seemingly separate yet actually symbiotic agendas. These forces constitute the sometimes beneficial and sometimes conflicting elements comprising each individual’s natural creativity and the inexorable and unavoidable ongoing socialization process to which no individual is immune. Nor in fact should they be. As stated, the relationship between creativity and socialization can be, but is not always, symbiotic - though the relationship is such that the best possible situation is one where that relationship is always symbiotic. In the overall scheme of things, individual creativity generally serves the socialization process, a process which can and does provide many distinct advantages. Without the creativity factor, the social order would be doomed to stagnation and devolution as nothing new could or would enter the system. Without the socialization process and the attendant complimentary process of social learning, individuals would be forced to fend for themselves, restricted to learning only from their own individual and immediate experiences, isolated from the benefits provided by being able to share in the experiences, discoveries, and wisdom of available from their fellow human beings. We must keep in mind that the nature of creativity is such that, as with other tools and processes, creativity doesn’t reside exclusively in what we refer to as the ‘good’. Individual and collective creative ability can and often does serve that which is referred to as ‘bad’ or ‘evil’. A clear example of this can be seen in the inventive character of serial killers or those who seek to create more effective and efficient weaponry for the purpose of warfare, dominance, or simple destruction. However, this fact alone should not be a cause for alarm but rather should act as 6

conscious motivation for deliberately nurturing the type of creativity capable of offsetting those negatively inclined individuals. For a more direct ‘insoght’ regarding the overall importance of this nurturing activity, I invite the reader to contemplate the aboriginal story ‘Two Wolves’ outlined in the appendix of this paper.

Parenting, Schooling, and the ‘Grand Adventure’ ‘It is indeed a great deal when parents can accept their children’s feelings even when they cannot understand them.’ (Alice Miller) The practice of an art… is as essential to the whole man as a knowledge of science. This is not because of what art is but of what art does to the artist. (John Fowles) In these times it is a rare individual indeed who is not subject to all three of the processes mentioned in the above subtitle. With rare exception, all of us are or have been parented, that is, for a time at least, reliant on some form of early childhood caregiver. This is true even for orphans. Schooling is not yet universal and may never be. There are many who either miss the benefits provided by this process or do not have to endure the abuses it is sometimes capable of inflicting – especially with respect to creativity. Education, in the sense of the opportunity for instruction and learning, a process provided by the universal existential condition, is there for everyone – to be utilized by the individual to its fullest extent or to be ignored at the individual’s peril. The common thread I wish to pull together in this segment concerns the effects of all three of these elements on the creative process and the possible dangers contained within each. By way of summation, all individuals are creative by their very nature. This initial creativity is unrefined and undirected yet extremely powerful. This ‘primal’ creativity has been provided for the individual by the universal context in which we find ourselves. The individual will continue to be provided for by that universe with respect to educative instruction as long as the individual survives – said education being universally available. As far as I know, all aboriginal peoples are aware of this - having survived, learned and, in many cases, flourished for countless millennia. This fact is partially responsible for the veneration generally reserved for and shown to ‘elders’ in those same aboriginal communities. Within this educative process, the role of the family and of parents is crucial. Many a child in the global community has had his or her ‘primal’ creative capacity distorted, damaged, or destroyed in the early stages of their life journey. This negative impact on individual creativity results from either ignorance, neglect, and, in hopefully fewer situations, intentional action on the part of their 7

caregivers. Consequently, unless those individuals are fortunate enough to experience a positive and significant life-changing event which helps to restore or heal that ‘primal’ wound, they are incapable of fully appreciating or engaging the grand adventure which enfolds us all. Some, a rare few, may escape permanent damage, ironically most likely as a result of having to turn their focus inward to their ‘primal’ creativity for sustenance, instruction, and survival. Others are more fortunate and find the creative elements of their individual character nurtured and supported either by those to whom they have been given for the purpose of care or through the potential therapeutic benefits which can, but are not always, provided for individuals within the schooling experience. When conducted ‘correctly’, schooling can often provide a second chance for those children referred to in the previous paragraph. But this of course is dependent upon the quality and the character of the individual teachers they encounter along the way. For the individual student, schooling can often be very much of a lottery. It is my contention that some form of schooling is and will continue to be the most significant element contributing to the maturing process of ‘primal’ creativity. The self-motivated and selfeducated individual can and will benefit the most from the schooling experience. Both directly and indirectly, school most often can and does provide many of the essential tools for genuinely appreciating the grand adventure of existence. For this to be an accurate assessment, teachers must themselves be authentic, committed individuals whose conscious aim is consistently directed at becoming the sort of teacher Alice Miller alludes to in her quote regarding children’s feelings and our lack of understanding with respect to those feelings. Ideally the ‘good’ teacher is one who has retained much if not all of his or her primal creative capacity and is consciously seeking ways to assist in its maturation process – the sort of teacher who not only sees the value in the retention and development of creativity, but who also is intent on providing his or her charges with the advantages engendered by such a priceless experience. In my estimation, this type of teacher is exactly the sort of individual to whom the term in loco parentis truly applies.

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Appendix Over the years I have heard this particular story told on a various occasions by many different individuals of varying backgrounds but usually within a North American aboriginal context. For those of you not already familiar with the story, I present it as a gift for you to share with others. Two Wolves A village elder of considerable age is instructing some of his younger charges with respect to the existential condition and what he has learned concerning how to go about conducting one’s life. He tells the children that within each one of them lives two wolves, each one of quite a different character. ‘One wolf,’ he says, ‘is evil – full of anger, envy, selfishness, sorrow, greed, self-pity, arrogance, guilt, resentment, lies, superiority, and ego – all the things that darken one’s journey. The other wolf is good and brings light to the world – manifesting such virtues as joy, love, peace, hope, generosity, truth, humility, empathy, kindness, compassion, friendship, and faith.’ Looking off into the distance the old man adds, ‘Both of these wolves are locked in a terrible, unending battle while you are here on earth, both struggling for power and dominance over the other, both using all of their time and energy to try and overcome his brother wolf so that he might rule the whole of your spirit.’ Seeing the fearful and distraught looks on the faces of his pupils the old shaman hastens to add, ‘But you are not alone in this struggle my young warriors. Remember that everyone occupying this world has his or her own pair of wolves inside locked together in a similar battle – one none of us can escape until we pass from this dream to the one on the other side.’ The children sit silently pondering the story while the elder sits peacefully contemplating the distant sun-drenched hills which seem to have suddenly become blanketed by a mask of clouds, shadows, and encroaching darkness. Finally, one brave young pupil looks up at the elder and, seeking reassurance as children do, hesitantly asks, ‘Grandfather… which wolf will win?’ The old man smiles gently and softly replies, ‘The one you feed my child – the one you feed.’

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