ZEN BUDDHISM AND CREATIVITY

ZEN BUDDHISM AND CREATIVITY Recently I was required to go thro’ an article on Zen Buddhism by Robert Frager and James Fadiman. While going thro’ I rea...
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ZEN BUDDHISM AND CREATIVITY Recently I was required to go thro’ an article on Zen Buddhism by Robert Frager and James Fadiman. While going thro’ I realised that there are several things in Zen Buddhism that relate to creativity. The current article is an attempt to find a link between these two. The first part of the article deals briefly about the basic principles of Zen Buddhism and the second part their relevance to creativity. Zen Buddhism is primarily concerned with leading others to a direct, personal understanding of Truth. The Buddha’s teachings emphasize experience over theology or abstract philosophy. Zen is a school of Buddhism, a particular branch that emphasizes meditation and spiritual practice. The Three characteristics of existence are impermanence, selflessness and dissatisfaction. Impermanence applies not only to material, but also to thoughts and ideas. The concept of impermanence implies that there can be no such thing as a final authority or permanent truth. While other religions have taught that the Self, or Soul, is unchanging and imperishable, the Buddhist notion of impermanence, however, is applied to our innermost self as well. The concept of selflessness holds that there is no immortal soul or external Self existing in each individual. The individual is seen as an aggregate of attributes – intellect, emotions, body – all of which are impermanent and constantly changing. Dissatisfaction, or suffering, is the third characteristic of existence. It embraces birth, death, decay, sorrow, pain, grief, despair, and existence. Suffering comes not from the world around us, but from ourselves. The Four Noble Truths are outlined as essential characteristics of human existence to overcome the suffering and limitation seen as an inevitable part of human life. The first Truth is the existence of dissatisfaction. Given the psychological state of the average individual, dissatisfaction, or suffering is inescapable. The second Truth is that dissatisfaction is the result of craving or desire. Craving creates an unstable frame of mind in which the present is never satisfactory. The stronger the craving, the more intense is our dissatisfaction knowing that fulfillment will not last. The third Truth is that the elimination of craving brings the extinction

of suffering. Eliminating craving does not mean extinguishing all desires. When you believe that your happiness depends on fulfilling a desire, or you become controlled by your desires, then they become unhealthy cravings. Desires are normal and necessary because we must eat and sleep

Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get - Dave Gardner to stay alive. Desires also help keep us awake. If all wants are immediately cared for, it is easy to slip in to a passive, unthinking state of complacency. The fourth Truth is that there is a way to eliminate craving and dissatisfaction; this is the Noble Eightfold path, or the Middle Way. Most people seek the highest possible degree of sense gratification. Others, who realise the limitations of this approach, tend to the other extreme of self-mortification. The Buddhist ideal is moderation. The Noble Eightfold Path fall under three essential categories namely ethical conduct consisting of right speech, right action and right livelihood, mental discipline consisting of right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration, and wisdom consisting of right thought and right understanding . Right speech means abstention from telling lies, right action means moral, honourable, and peaceful conduct and right livelihood means to abstain from making one’s living thro’ any profession that brings harm to others. Right effort refers to the active will, used (1) to prevent unwholesome states of mind from arising, (2) to get rid of such states once they have arisen, (3) to facilitate and produce good and wholesome states of mind, and (4) to develop and bring to perfection those good, wholesome states already present. Right mindfulness is to be aware, mindful, and attentive to (1) the activities of the body, (2) sensations or feelings, (3) the activities of the mind, (4) specific ideas, thoughts and conceptions. Right concentration leads to four levels of meditation. In the first stage we discard passionate desires and unwholesome thoughts such as ill will, worry, restlessness. In the second stage, all intellectual activities are dropped. In the third stage, the feelings of joy, an active sensation, also disappear. In the fourth stage, all sensations disappear, including happiness. Only pure equanimity and awareness remain. Right thought includes selfless detachment, love, and nonviolence. Right understanding is the understanding of things as they are, namely the four Noble Truths. According to Zen Buddhism, the term Enlightenment tends to be misleading because it seems to refer to some state that one can attain permanently; this would, of course, violate the Buddhist concept of impermanence. Enlightenment is “intuitive understanding” or “to see into one’s own nature.” Both terms refer to the individual’s first hand experience of the truth of the Buddhist teachings. This experience is not static; it is a progressive and ever changing, dynamic, state of being, very much like Maslow’s concept of self-actualisation. The first level of enlightenment is the “great flash of deep understanding.” One truly knows one’s unity with what is greater than oneself, with the “immaculacy of nothingness.” The second level is a long stage of imperceptible growth rather than a single dramatic event like the first. The deep third level, which is rarely reported in the Zen literature, includes real visions and other mystical experiences. This realisation truly becomes the core of one’s life, and there is a sense of swelling for a time within this core of being. Enlightenment is not some good feeling, or some particular state of mind. The state of mind that exists when you sit in the right posture is, in itself, enlightenment. Three major sources of suffering, the “Three Fires” of Buddhism, is greed, hate and delusion. Greed types are characterised by vanity, discontent, craftiness, and by love of rich, sweet food and fine clothes. Hate types tend to hold grudges, belittle others, and suffer from arrogance, envy, and stinginess. Delusion types are characterised by laziness, obstinacy, confusion, worry, and excitability. By working on oneself, all three obstacles can be transcended. Greed can be turned in to compassion, hate in to love, and delusion in to wisdom.

Pride can be another major obstacle to growth. It can lead to a lack of respect for one’s teacher and create distortions of the teachings. A good teacher will attempt to lead students to see and acknowledge their own pride and egotism.

Flexibility allows you to change when you want to. Resilience allows you to survive change, and thrive, when it's thrust upon you - Susan Dunn An important goal of Buddhist training is to learn to be in control of one’s emotions rather than be controlled by them. There is nothing wrong with most emotions and by becoming more fully aware of emotional reactions to various situations, these emotions tend to lose their hold. “The percept ‘do not be angry’ means that when anger arises doesn’t become anger. Remain still inside and watch the anger arise and depart. See its cause. Anger is always a symptom of something deeper. It is the outward sign that something needs changing.” The ideal Buddhist emotional state is compassion. The key principles of Buddhism that directly relate to creativity are impermanence of thoughts and ideas, dissatisfaction as a characteristic of existence, desires are normal and necessary to keep us awake, Dialectic phenomenon, enlightenment and intuitive understanding. Impermanence of thoughts and ideas is one of the foundations of creativity. Nothing is final in this world and whatever has been made can be made better. Whether it is a man-made article, human relation technique, business operation or process technology, it can be made better for higher quality, lower cost, more customer value, increased efficiency, and what not. Dissatisfaction with the existing things and becoming aware of this dissatisfaction is one of the requirements for creativity and growth. We are all used to what is called ‘complacency.’ George Bernard Shaw told, “Some men see things as they are and say ‘why?’ I dream of things that never were and say ‘why not?’” And I am adding a preface to this quotation: “Most men see things as they were and are complacent.” We are happy with the things around us. We are used to them. Each time the French want to say the number 97 in the course of everyday shopping, they say: “quatre - vingt – dix – sept” (four times twenty plus ten plus seven.) For us this seems to be an immensely cumbersome way of saying 97, but the French have become used to it. It seems perfectly normal to them – or they have become complacent. This complacency is not a conscious choice. It just happens. Things just settle down. As long as matters are proceeding smoothly, there is satisfaction and we don’t have to think about changing. One exciting and intriguing aspect of Buddhism is a sense of a vital dialectic, the simultaneous appreciation of the real and the ideal and the recognition of the tension between the two. Albert Hofstadter uses dialectical thinking to suggest how creation takes place. The essence of dialectical thinking is “to find in each case what are the oppositions, conflicts, contrasts, contradictions, the otherness, estrangements, alienations, that are possible in the context…” Intuition is a more or less correct conclusion reached on the basis of neither conscious logic nor noticeable evidence. Creative intuition is a stimulating pointer, an initial awareness, and a scopefixing device for creative work. Meditation, as central discipline of Zen, is a way of strengthening intuition. It calms down the mind and mutes the clatter of concerns, and thereby lets weak, intuitive signals rise to consciousness. Dreams can be a source of intuitions. Research on dreams suggests that if people form the habit of jotting down details of a dream they can remember, they can remember more and more of their dreams, and may stumble upon what a dream is trying to tell them. As Khalil Gibran has put it, “trust the dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.” Carl Jung developed the notion of the collective unconscious - every human’s inheritance of man’s evolutionary development and deeply buried memories of repeated, potent experiences over he eons. The principal components of the collective unconscious are archetypes. Our deepest most universal creative efforts may be the playing out of these archetypes. He also developed the notion of individuation. As we grow older, we get increasingly differentiated in terms of our attitudes, beliefs, personality traits, knowledge, etc. Jung believed that humans have

a need for internal coherence and completeness. Achieving it, even as we grow more and more differentiated, is individuation. It is this individuation that can make us unique, healthy • individuals, and is a foundation of our existential creativity.

There is no limit to what can be accomplished if it doesn't matter who gets the credit Ralph Waldo Emerson

Letters Vanitha Kumari, Hyderabad: In your lead article “Unconscious mind for solving problems” (CS 36), you are referring to Frances Vaughan as a male. The famous psychologist is a female. Yes madam, I stand corrected. Of course, women are natural psychologists too. S Kumar, Gurgaon: I am not able to concentrate on any work, if I don’t smoke a cigarette, even I can say that I can’t do anything without a cigarette. Well Kumar, take a sheet of paper and make a list of all the things, that you can’t do like, I can’t concentrate without a cigarette, I can’t save money, I can’t read a book, I can’t remember names of people, I can’t find time for…., I can’t save money, I can’t improve my memory, I can’t do things perfectly, I can’t have patience, I can’t like my boss / job, I can’t do many things at the same time, I can’t stick to one thing, I can’t get up early, I can’t take holidays, I can’t get rid of my headaches, I can’t become rich, I can’t enjoy life, I can’t say ‘no’, I can’t go to movies, I can’t take part in games etc. Once completed, take a red pen and cut the words “can’t” in all those sentences, and write ”don’t” in all those places. Read all those statements again and tell, what are your feelings? Kumar, it is not that “I can’t do”, it is only that “I don’t do.” Earlier, I was believing that the control was outside me, now I realise that the control has come in my hand. Praddyot K Sikdar, Kolkata: I am glad to see the blue printed text on a faint blue background. This was my suggestion when you provided physical copies of CREATIVITY SPHERE. I had suggested that blue, violet, indigo being colours of creativity be used in the publication of the magazine. H K Gupta, Raipur: Your reply that problems are only with people is quite true (CS 36). I am also curious to know who are the other three in the list. (I can try to guess that the second name may be his wife.) I complement you for your courage. Ashwin Sharma, Chennai: I am happy to see the puzzles again in CS. Earlier it used to come as competition. First I dream my painting, then I paint my dream - Vincent van Gogh

Solution to the tourists’ puzzle (CS April 2005 / 36): (A reminder of the puzzle is at the end). Most people try to solve this puzzle by guessing a question and then testing the different cases to see if it brings about the desired information. This is a typical left brain activity and of course, long and tedious. Let us take a different route (Reversal technique) to the solution, using the right brain. So formulating the question will be the last thing we'll do. We'll start with the end result and work backwards to identify necessary conditions for the question. We'll then infer the question from these conditions. One step before knowing which village we are in was to get a "Yes" or "No" answer. But if we knew which village we were visiting just by getting a "Yes" or "No" answer it would mean that we would have to construct the question in such a way that one response ("Yes", for example) would be associated with the truth tellers' village (given only in that village), and the other response ("No", in this case) would be associated with the liars' village (again, given only in that village). Now, let's suppose that we're in the truth tellers' village. If we happen to meet a native from the village (a truth teller) and ask our magic question, the answer must be "Yes". But if we happen to meet a liar in the truth tellers' village, the answer must also be "Yes". If both a liar and a truth teller provided the same response for the same question, it would mean that the question must relate to the PERSON being asked. This is the only way the same question will be interpreted differently by different kinds of people. Let's now suppose that we meet a truth teller in the liars' village. We would ask the same magic question, but now we must get the answer, "No". This can happen only if the question is related to the VILLAGE. It is the only way the same question will be interpreted differently by the same person in different villages. So we know the question relates to the village and to the person. Therefore, it is probably about the RELATIONSHIP between the person and the village. Now, equipped with all the information about the question, it's time to try a question. What about, "Is this your village?" Let's see - If we ask a truth teller in the truth tellers' village, we'd get a "Yes" answer. If we ask a liar in the truth tellers' village, we'd also get a "Yes" answer. (Because he'd lie). If we ask a truth teller in the liars' village, we'd get a "No" answer. If we ask a liar in the liars' village we'd also get a "No" answer (because he'd lie). CONGRATULATIONS ! Santosh James, D. Bhuvaneshwari, S Mukherjee and Robin Shinde have attempted to find solutions

And now here's your puzzle for this issue - a really challenging one. You continue your visit on the strange island with the truth tellers and liars, and you read in the tourist guide that there are actually three villages on that island. Diplomats live in the third village. These people provide totally random "Yes" or "No" responses. I want to make myself clear: there is absolutely no correlation between the question and the diplomat's answer (something we're used to from the real world...) Now this is what happens: You are walking happily in the woods around the villages, and you happen to meet three people walking towards you. You can use only three questions that will provide a "Yes" or "No" answer to identify the people - to find out who's the diplomat, the truth teller and the liar.

To be sure, you need to ask three questions and get only three answers. This means that each question must be directed at only one of the people. Of course it's up to you to choose whom you'd like to ask. You can ask the same person two questions... even three questions, if you like. But, again, you should get a response only from the person you asked. So what would be the three questions? -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Here's a reminder of last issue's TOURIST’S PUZZLE You're a tourist in an island in which there are two villages: the truth tellers' village and the liars' village. In the truth tellers' village there are people who always tell the truth. In the liars' village there are people who always lie. Commerce flourishes between the villages and it's not uncommon to find a liar in the truth teller village, and vice versa (guess which village is better off :-). When you arrive on the island, you see the two villages but you don't know which the truth tellers’ village is and which is the liars' village? You decide to go to one of the villages, turn to the first person you see and ask. But...what question would you ask? And you should also know that the people in these villages only answer 'yes' or 'no'. So what short and simple (no more than 4 words) question would help you know which village you are in?

Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else - Margaret Mead

CREATIVITY SPHERE Newsletter published (for Private Circulation) by

Dr N ANNAMALAI

Flat B 3/1, Lake Window Cooperative Society 66A, Gobindapur Road, Kolkata 700045 Tel 033 24172958 / Mobile 9830379691 Email: [email protected]

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