What is true creativity? And how is it different from that which is
celebrated in popular culture? What is generally called creativity
is mostly man-made: painting, music, literature, both romantic and
factual, all the architecture, the marvellous technology, and all
those who are involved in all this, the painters, the writers, the
poets, the philosophical writers, probably consider themselves as
creative. A nd we all seem to agree with them. That’s the popular
idea of what is a creative person.
Do you agree to that? I think we all see that, that all man-made
things most beautiful, the great cathedrals, temples and Islamic
mosques, some of them are extraordinarily beautiful. I don’t know if
you have seen them, and if you have, they are really marvellous…
And the people who built these were anonymous, we don’t know who
built them. They were only concerned with building, writing, the
bible, and all that. Nobody knows who wrote them. But now, with us,
anonymity is almost gone. And perhaps in anonymity, there is a
different kind of creativity.
It is not based on success, money, and twenty eight million books
sold in ten years, and so on and so on. The speaker himself at one
time tried anonymity because the speaker doesn’t like all this
fussand nonsense. He tried to talk behind a curtain! And it
becamerather absurd. So anonymity has great importance. In that
there isa different quality, different - this personal motive
doesn’t exist, the personal attitudes and personal opinions, it is a
feeling of freedom from which you are acting. But most creativity,
as we call it, is man-made. That is, this creation takes from the
known.
Right? You know the great musicians, Beethoven, Bach and so on, it
is from the known they act. And the writers, philosophers and so on,
also have read, accumulated, developed their own style and so on,
always moving, acting or writing from that which has been
accumulated, known. And this we call, generally, creativity. Now is
that really creative? Please, let’s talk about it. Or is there a
different kind of creativity which is bornout of the freedom from
the known? You understand my question?
Because when we paint, write, create a marvellous structure out of
stone, it is the accumulative knowledge, whether in the scientific
field or in the world of art, human art, there is always this sense
of carrying from the past to the present. Or imagination, romantic,
factual, moral and so on. Is there creativity that is something
totally different from this activity that we call generally
creativity? You are following? We are asking, and I think it is
rather an important question to go into, if you are willing, whether
there is an action, there is a living, there is a movement, which is
not from the known. That is, is there a creation from a mind that is
not burdened from all the turmoils of life, from all the social
pressures, economic and so on, is there a creation out of a mind
that has freed itself from the known?
And it can then use memory. You understand? Knowledge. But we start
with knowledge and that we call creative. But we are suggesting that
there is a creativity which is not born out of the known. When that
creative impulse, or move ment takes place, it can then use the
known. But not the other way round. I don’t know if you are
following what I am saying. If you don’t mind some time, try, or
find out whether the mind can ever be free from the known - the
known being all the accumulative experience, remembrance, the
knowledge that one has acquired, the impressions and so on, if the
mind can be free from all that. And in that very state of mind
creation as we know it may not be necessary.
You understand? A man who has a talent for writing feels he must
express himself, he develops his own style, the way he writes,
Keats, and so on and the others, they have this impulse to fulfil,
create. Perhaps their own lives are not all that beautiful - like
Michelangelo, Raphael and all those people. Sorry to quote these
names, I am not learned but I have visited many museums when I was
young, I was pushed into it and all that, and the remnants of all
that remains.
And I have talked to a great many artists, writers, friends and so
on. It seems to me that all our creation in the scientific world,
knowledge, human art, it always from a point, from a talent, from a
gift, and that gift is exploited to its fullest extent. Like a
musician who has a gift, a protege, he becomes tremendously
important. And we common people admire all that and wish we had some
of that. As we haven’t got it we run after them, we almost worship
them - the conductors, you know the game that goes on.
And when you begin to question what is creativity, as the questioner
is asking, is it something totally different, which I think we all
can have. Not the specialists, not the professionals, not the
talented, gifted, I think we can all have this extraordinary mind
that is really free from all the burden which man has imposed upon
himself, created for himself.
And then out of that sane, rational, healthy life, something totally
different comes. And that may not necessarily be expressed as in
painting, architecture; why should it? You follow? If you have gone
into this fairly deeply, and I hope you will, you will find out that
there is a state of mind which actually has no experience whatsoever.
Because experience implies a mind that is still groping, asking,
seeking, and therefore struggling in darkness, and wanting to go
beyond it. But a mind that is very clear, not confused, has no
conflict, has no problem. You understand? Has no problem.
You try it. Such a mind has no need to express, talk - I am talking,
sorry! The speaker is talking not because he wants to impress you, or
anything of that kind, which is too silly, or persuade you to
certain attitudes, opinions and judgements, it is a kind of friendly
communication with two people who are concerned with all this
enormous complex life, who haven’t found a complete total answer to
all this. And there is a complete and total answer if we apply our
minds, our hearts to this. So there is a creativity which is not
man-made. Don’t please say, that is god-made, that has no meaning
either, because if our own minds are extraordinarily clear, without
a shadow of conflict then that mind is really in a state of
creation, which needs no expression, no fulfilment, all that
publicity and nonsense.