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| Couple at the Border |
As we move out of the global model and into the emerging cosmological
model, it is clear that we are unquestionably
living in a learning Universe. It is a Universe which has no concern for how
long it takes and is not afraid of making mistakes. Experimentation towards
refinement and better solutions is the leading edge. The more we live into this
evolving story the more we are invited to engage the mind in new ways so that
we can make new responses. I have found in facilitating creative process that
ENGAGEMENT is the key for developing new pathways of the mind, and at the same
time disengagement from patterns of mental response that keep us in the same
loop is also essential. Like so many of the most important adventures of our
lifetime engagement has a wide spectrum of meaning from assuming an obligation
for union, as in marriage, as well as, to bring into conflict, as engage in
battle.
The model of the Universe is
outside of our developed common sense and even intuition. We are called to
embrace dichotomy including the seeming contradiction, as any astrophysicist
will tell you. Frequently the creative process is also an engagement in
conflict with promise of unique integration, sometimes in the picture plane and
sometimes in the psyche. Even though we are not making products and do not use
qualitative comments, painting circle participants want some measure of success.
The only benchmark that I can give them is engagement. To begin, if you are
engaged, you are successful. Engagement here is being involved, when the
process holds your attention or you are drawn into the process, even though the
activity or results may not be pleasing or comfortable. Yet if you are engaged,
through the process you will be led to new discoveries and integration. This
kind of creative involvement is practice for broader engagements that are being
required of us in this age.
To begin to use our minds in
new ways, first we need to look at how we are being used by the mind. The mind,
because it’s major function has been for our physical survival, is concerned
with immediate safety and comfort and is fear-based. With the overall planetary
sustainability in question at this time, we need a more expansive and
integrative consciousness with deeper connections inside and outside the model
of our place in the Universe. Most of us are controlled by the mind’s program
of bringing up past trauma, projecting them into the future and usually repeat
it over and over in a constant chatter. Quieting the mind is required for
engagement in creative process and the various other intelligences, like
emotional or ethical intelligence, that are often eschewed in trauma or other
forced specializations.
The mind as it has developed
is constantly scanning in a relentless mental focus obscuring all other
possibilities. There are many models of men and women who have used their minds
beyond their cultural bias, Leonardo da Vinci in particular embodied the
seeming polarity of art and science. The Seven Steps to Genius from Michael
Gelb’s book, How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci, is a way to focus the
mind differently from our everyday thinking. Da Vinci was a master at
whole-brain thinking, arte/scienza, engaging the
combination of left and right brain thinking in a complimentary way. He also
used connessione,
or system thinking, which on a public scale we are just getting around to. The
recent science of ecology and family dynamics psychology has showed how long we
have enjoyed the tidy compartmentalizing of the pieces. Both of these
principles are essential in the creative process.
In the painting circles it
takes practice to view the whole composition without judgment, noticing how the
smallest mark changes the overall dynamic, trusting the broader intelligence to
respond without goals of instant gratification. It is obvious how our cultural
training is imbalanced in the direction of analytical and rational framework in
which the critical voice has free range, which is not supportive to the early
phases of creative process. It takes careful nurturance of the intuitive, whole
systems and experimental thinking to exercise creativity. Although both kinds
of thinking are necessary and prove effective when considered in group
dialogue, most of us are polarized in our perceptions and our skill sets.
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| Dream of Lama |
The emerging cosmological mythology demands art and science come
together which brings us to the da Vincian principle of Sfumato, smoke or mist,
which engages the uncertainty, paradox and ambiguity of life. Just as we have
to embrace so much mystery in the scientific model of the Universe, so we
engage that mystery in the creative process. You cannot be sure what will arise
out of a poem or painting because in the whole brain model you do not control
it. If you engage Sfumato, the truth finds its way and it is often a surprise. To
engage the process in a way that is open ended also reflects the evolutionary
process of the Universe and supports pure science where the directive is
curiotsty, the next da Vincian principle. Curiositá, is a strong impetus in
creative process. What happens if I put oil stick over acrylics or let the
paint half dry and wipe it off? Poets and philosophers have encouraged us to
love the questions. Once again our enculturation determines the questions we
habitually ask. Engaging the mind in a new way would be to initiate a new kind
of inquiry, which artist are constantly working with by opening to the journey
through unchartered land.
I will end with the most
obvious engagement and that is sensazione, the senses, the way of
using the intelligence of the whole person with corporaita, embodiment into an expansive and
integrative consciousness. Awareness of the senses as a meditative approach to
mindfulness calls forth engagement through presence. The last definition of
engagement is to be drawn into and to interlock. The mindfulness meditation
training focuses on the sensations, which again engages the mind in ways to
brings you to the core of your being, but again it is so alien from our
cultural values that there are workshops to introduce and practice it. Science
has shown how unconscious thoughts, feelings, and behaviors can undermine
emotional, physical, and spiritual health. Mindfulness, using the senses to be
present in the moment, has been demonstrated to relieve stress and pain. Even
though we are familiar with all of these principles, to engage them continually
as a function of the mind can have far reaching results on how to perceive and
interact with the world differently.
