Step Six
Questions and Answers:
____________________________________________
Could you talk about the creative process in the individual—what are the steps, what does it entail?
To understand the essence of creation, how a person creates, we must look at the creative process of Spirit, and how Spirit creates. We, in essence, are one with Spirit, and posses the same creative consciousness—but we are, unwittingly, using our vast creative power in a way that limits our true creative potential; we, through the misapplication of our limitless imagination, are imagining ourselves as limited. And, in our oneness with Spirit, we have the freedom to do this. (Actually, what we are doing is imagining a limited version of ourselves and then occupying, and living our lives through, the vector of that limited, mind-made self-image.)
In essence, to fully participate in the creative process we, as human beings, must create as Spirit creates—and Spirit never imagines itself to be anything other than what it is; it never lives through its own created image of itself, but always creates from the position of Itself, knowing itself to be ‘other than’ what it is creating. Spirit creates from its pure sense of self, and not through an image of itself. So, we must do the same. Spirit is always whole and certain about its creation, and never is its creative intention undermined by countervailing thoughts or doubt. It is in full possession and knowingness of its creation power. We must be the same. Spirit’s word, or intention, is one with its creation. When it says, “Let there be light,” there is light. Spirit is always aligned with itself, with its pure qualities. We must be the same.
The creative process in a human being seems to follow a number of steps, and the clearer we become on each of these steps, the more fully and powerfully we can participate in the creative process. First there is knowledge or knowingness: we need to know that we have the creative power of Spirit in us, we need to be convinced of having this power, and we need to know with certainty that we can utilize this power. We have to own our own power. Then there is clarity; we have to know what we want; we have to be clear on how we want to direct our creative power. Next there is the proper use of the creative imagination; when we know we have this power, and know how we want to use it; then we have to use our imagination to create what we want. As part of this, we have to occupy, or enliven, our imagined creation with the power of our own consciousness. We have to enter our imagined reality, and affirm that it is real (by fully believing in its realness). We have to experience it with all the tones of reality (just as we would experience a physical reality), and we must locate ourselves in that imagined reality, thinking from that end-reality (and not about it). (One key to this is that we must enjoy our creation, we must find it pleasurable). Thus, we need to have faith (in what we imagine) and conviction in our creative power; we must believe that what we have imagined, what we have created (through the power of our own consciousness) is real, just as real (and even more so) than something we experience in a physical reality. Also, we must use our will to hold our attention on our created reality (and keep holding the feeling that the creation is real). Then we must have patience; allowing our imaginal, or “spiritual” creation, to be brought into physical manifestation by Spirit.
"The one who, at will, can assume whatever state he pleases has found the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven. The keys are desire, imagination, and a steadily focused attention on the feeling of the wish fulfilled. To such a one any undesirable objective fact is not longer a reality and the ardent with no longer a dream" (Neville, The Power of Awareness, p. 53)
I want to backtrack a little and discuss this notion of occupying one’s creation, locating oneself in one’s creation, affirming it as real, and thinking from one’s creation. (For example, if you imagine winning the lottery, your thoughts would then take on the same shape as if you had won the lottery in real life—certainly, had you won the lottery, you would not be thinking about your poor conditions, or what you would do if you won the lottery; you would be filled with excitement, gratitude, freedom, and you would be thinking about wall the things you would be doing with the money). So, to truly enter into the realm of creation, you must imaginatively enter your creation, and think from it. Now this might seem difficult—but it is something you are doing right now, quite effortlessly. You are in, and occupying, your own imaginative creation of yourself right now. What requires sincere and diligent application is to remove ourselves from the version of self we are now occupying and create (and take residence in) another version.
In truth we, as human beings, have “left the scene”; we have abandoned the true and direct experience of ourselves (which we once had as children) and are now occupying, and living our lives from, an imaginary point of perception outside ourselves. We are imagining a version of self, and then seeing ourselves from this version of self, as if seeing ourselves through the eyes of someone else, out there. We are living in some kind of imaginary realm, always looking at, and thinking about, ourselves from this imagined outside position; and living through this image of self we can never truly be ourselves.
"There’s been a misconception and the “me” [or “I”] has taken itself for something it is not. Me, in the most personal sense of the term, is the ultimate reality—but it takes itself for something it is not [i.e., “me” as this person, “me” as this self-image]. Thus, there is identification and falsification, without one being able to deduce at all that the me isn’t personal or that the person is not the ultimate basis of all things.
As inadmissible as this might seem to most people, this personal me [i.e., my own sense of “I”] is the infinite, the absolute being, the ultimate. Whoever doesn’t conceive things this way cannot hope to knock at the door of himself with the chance of seeing it open."
(Jourdain, Radical Awakening, p.152)
Can you explain the creative process and how we, as humans, can most fully participate in it?
You are already fully participating in it; co-creating with Spirit, creating the world exactly as you conceive it to be, in accordance with your conception of yourself. So, do you like what you are creating for yourself? If not, then create something else. Most of us create in an unconscious way; we are creating in accord with our limiting and outmoded self-concepts and we are not even aware of what we are creating. We do not see the causal link between our consciousness (i.e., our self-concept, what we believe to be true, our thoughts, our emotions, etc.) and what shows up in our world. What we want is to consciously engage in the creative act; we want to direct creation in accord with out desires and ideals.
Bear in mind that the ultimate fulfillment—even of our human desires—does not come through our creative actions, or the fulfillment of our desires, but through our unity with Spirit, through knowing and being our true self. We cannot imagine true fulfillment; we cannot create true love or any divine quality. We cannot imagine them because they are who we are; all imaginings, ultimately, displaces us from who and what we already are. We need not imagine or create love or joy or fullness because those are the inherent qualities of our own nature.
So, we want to joyfully create and more fully express ourselves (using our intelligence and one-with-Spirit power) and we want to more fully BE ourselves. We want to exist in both dimensions: our true and joyful human dimension and our boundless spiritual dimension.
As mentioned, to creatively embody one's desired state, one's wish-fulfilled, it must be accompanied by a joyful, positive feeling--the feeling of having one's desire fulfilled. Even before that, the sheer joy and marvel at one's creation, and one's ability to create, surely quickens one's creation, empowering it with spiritual power. Spirit always marvels at is creation (and always sees it as good); thus, to the extent that a person marvels at his own conscious creation, to that extent does he create in likeness with Spirit.
Why do we want to imagine something for ourselves, even if it is something better than what we have now?—why not be ourselves and just awaken to who we are?
All this positive imagining is a remedial, yet necessary, measure in our development; we need to use our creative power (and our intelligence and will) to overcome, or expand beyond, our present conditioning and the present limits we are imagining for ourselves. We want to create and occupy a more expanded version of ourselves, a truer version of ourselves—a version of ourselves which embodies our divine qualities, such as love, joy, abundance, beauty, etc. We want to live from a new version of self, one which is closer to who we truly are—a version which is joyous, abundant, powerful, etc. But, as you suggest, ultimately, we must abandon this “higher” version of self—well, not abandon it, but integrate it into our true being. This lower, negative version of our self is so discordant with our true nature that it cannot be accepted or integrated; so, first, it must be illumined, and brought into positive alignment with our true self, before it can be made part of the whole. This is why we must rectify, and illumine our human side—through the correct use of our creative power, and intelligence, and will—rather than simply abandoning it. We need our self-image—but we don’t need to be (or live our lives through) our self-image. We want to be ourselves; situated in the root of our own being, which is one with the Absolute. Then, from that place of wholeness, that place of unity, we can enjoy our human self and our self-image—rather than being enjoyed (or enslaved) by them.
Many spiritual teachers agree that a person has to "dream well" before he has a chance of waking up. So, we want to use our intelligence and creative power to "dream well," to create a life (as this person) that is relatively whole and joyful--a life from which we can awaken. If our life is too difficult, too filled with struggle and hardship—and deeply linked to survival—then we are operating on a very low, fear-based level. With this kind of life we're too involved, too invested in that dimension of self. As such, we cannot "loosen our grip" on that level of being; we cannot let go enough to transcend that level of existence. So, we cannot awaken from that reality into a higher dimension of self. So long as we are resisting, surviving, or struggling against conditions, it is difficult to access a higher dimension of self. So, living a good life is integral to living a divine life, a life in unity with Spirit.
We hear a lot of spiritual talk about accepting things as they are. The whole point of allowing or accepting things as they are, is not to accept them, per se, but to be in a position to move beyond them. We want to move beyond them so we can come to know and accept ourselves first; then, from that position of wholeness, we can add the rest unto ourselves as we choose.
<< Back to Step 6
Questions and Answers:
____________________________________________
Could you talk about the creative process in the individual—what are the steps, what does it entail?
To understand the essence of creation, how a person creates, we must look at the creative process of Spirit, and how Spirit creates. We, in essence, are one with Spirit, and posses the same creative consciousness—but we are, unwittingly, using our vast creative power in a way that limits our true creative potential; we, through the misapplication of our limitless imagination, are imagining ourselves as limited. And, in our oneness with Spirit, we have the freedom to do this. (Actually, what we are doing is imagining a limited version of ourselves and then occupying, and living our lives through, the vector of that limited, mind-made self-image.)
In essence, to fully participate in the creative process we, as human beings, must create as Spirit creates—and Spirit never imagines itself to be anything other than what it is; it never lives through its own created image of itself, but always creates from the position of Itself, knowing itself to be ‘other than’ what it is creating. Spirit creates from its pure sense of self, and not through an image of itself. So, we must do the same. Spirit is always whole and certain about its creation, and never is its creative intention undermined by countervailing thoughts or doubt. It is in full possession and knowingness of its creation power. We must be the same. Spirit’s word, or intention, is one with its creation. When it says, “Let there be light,” there is light. Spirit is always aligned with itself, with its pure qualities. We must be the same.
The creative process in a human being seems to follow a number of steps, and the clearer we become on each of these steps, the more fully and powerfully we can participate in the creative process. First there is knowledge or knowingness: we need to know that we have the creative power of Spirit in us, we need to be convinced of having this power, and we need to know with certainty that we can utilize this power. We have to own our own power. Then there is clarity; we have to know what we want; we have to be clear on how we want to direct our creative power. Next there is the proper use of the creative imagination; when we know we have this power, and know how we want to use it; then we have to use our imagination to create what we want. As part of this, we have to occupy, or enliven, our imagined creation with the power of our own consciousness. We have to enter our imagined reality, and affirm that it is real (by fully believing in its realness). We have to experience it with all the tones of reality (just as we would experience a physical reality), and we must locate ourselves in that imagined reality, thinking from that end-reality (and not about it). (One key to this is that we must enjoy our creation, we must find it pleasurable). Thus, we need to have faith (in what we imagine) and conviction in our creative power; we must believe that what we have imagined, what we have created (through the power of our own consciousness) is real, just as real (and even more so) than something we experience in a physical reality. Also, we must use our will to hold our attention on our created reality (and keep holding the feeling that the creation is real). Then we must have patience; allowing our imaginal, or “spiritual” creation, to be brought into physical manifestation by Spirit.
"The one who, at will, can assume whatever state he pleases has found the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven. The keys are desire, imagination, and a steadily focused attention on the feeling of the wish fulfilled. To such a one any undesirable objective fact is not longer a reality and the ardent with no longer a dream" (Neville, The Power of Awareness, p. 53)
I want to backtrack a little and discuss this notion of occupying one’s creation, locating oneself in one’s creation, affirming it as real, and thinking from one’s creation. (For example, if you imagine winning the lottery, your thoughts would then take on the same shape as if you had won the lottery in real life—certainly, had you won the lottery, you would not be thinking about your poor conditions, or what you would do if you won the lottery; you would be filled with excitement, gratitude, freedom, and you would be thinking about wall the things you would be doing with the money). So, to truly enter into the realm of creation, you must imaginatively enter your creation, and think from it. Now this might seem difficult—but it is something you are doing right now, quite effortlessly. You are in, and occupying, your own imaginative creation of yourself right now. What requires sincere and diligent application is to remove ourselves from the version of self we are now occupying and create (and take residence in) another version.
In truth we, as human beings, have “left the scene”; we have abandoned the true and direct experience of ourselves (which we once had as children) and are now occupying, and living our lives from, an imaginary point of perception outside ourselves. We are imagining a version of self, and then seeing ourselves from this version of self, as if seeing ourselves through the eyes of someone else, out there. We are living in some kind of imaginary realm, always looking at, and thinking about, ourselves from this imagined outside position; and living through this image of self we can never truly be ourselves.
"There’s been a misconception and the “me” [or “I”] has taken itself for something it is not. Me, in the most personal sense of the term, is the ultimate reality—but it takes itself for something it is not [i.e., “me” as this person, “me” as this self-image]. Thus, there is identification and falsification, without one being able to deduce at all that the me isn’t personal or that the person is not the ultimate basis of all things.
As inadmissible as this might seem to most people, this personal me [i.e., my own sense of “I”] is the infinite, the absolute being, the ultimate. Whoever doesn’t conceive things this way cannot hope to knock at the door of himself with the chance of seeing it open."
(Jourdain, Radical Awakening, p.152)
Can you explain the creative process and how we, as humans, can most fully participate in it?
You are already fully participating in it; co-creating with Spirit, creating the world exactly as you conceive it to be, in accordance with your conception of yourself. So, do you like what you are creating for yourself? If not, then create something else. Most of us create in an unconscious way; we are creating in accord with our limiting and outmoded self-concepts and we are not even aware of what we are creating. We do not see the causal link between our consciousness (i.e., our self-concept, what we believe to be true, our thoughts, our emotions, etc.) and what shows up in our world. What we want is to consciously engage in the creative act; we want to direct creation in accord with out desires and ideals.
Bear in mind that the ultimate fulfillment—even of our human desires—does not come through our creative actions, or the fulfillment of our desires, but through our unity with Spirit, through knowing and being our true self. We cannot imagine true fulfillment; we cannot create true love or any divine quality. We cannot imagine them because they are who we are; all imaginings, ultimately, displaces us from who and what we already are. We need not imagine or create love or joy or fullness because those are the inherent qualities of our own nature.
So, we want to joyfully create and more fully express ourselves (using our intelligence and one-with-Spirit power) and we want to more fully BE ourselves. We want to exist in both dimensions: our true and joyful human dimension and our boundless spiritual dimension.
As mentioned, to creatively embody one's desired state, one's wish-fulfilled, it must be accompanied by a joyful, positive feeling--the feeling of having one's desire fulfilled. Even before that, the sheer joy and marvel at one's creation, and one's ability to create, surely quickens one's creation, empowering it with spiritual power. Spirit always marvels at is creation (and always sees it as good); thus, to the extent that a person marvels at his own conscious creation, to that extent does he create in likeness with Spirit.
Why do we want to imagine something for ourselves, even if it is something better than what we have now?—why not be ourselves and just awaken to who we are?
All this positive imagining is a remedial, yet necessary, measure in our development; we need to use our creative power (and our intelligence and will) to overcome, or expand beyond, our present conditioning and the present limits we are imagining for ourselves. We want to create and occupy a more expanded version of ourselves, a truer version of ourselves—a version of ourselves which embodies our divine qualities, such as love, joy, abundance, beauty, etc. We want to live from a new version of self, one which is closer to who we truly are—a version which is joyous, abundant, powerful, etc. But, as you suggest, ultimately, we must abandon this “higher” version of self—well, not abandon it, but integrate it into our true being. This lower, negative version of our self is so discordant with our true nature that it cannot be accepted or integrated; so, first, it must be illumined, and brought into positive alignment with our true self, before it can be made part of the whole. This is why we must rectify, and illumine our human side—through the correct use of our creative power, and intelligence, and will—rather than simply abandoning it. We need our self-image—but we don’t need to be (or live our lives through) our self-image. We want to be ourselves; situated in the root of our own being, which is one with the Absolute. Then, from that place of wholeness, that place of unity, we can enjoy our human self and our self-image—rather than being enjoyed (or enslaved) by them.
Many spiritual teachers agree that a person has to "dream well" before he has a chance of waking up. So, we want to use our intelligence and creative power to "dream well," to create a life (as this person) that is relatively whole and joyful--a life from which we can awaken. If our life is too difficult, too filled with struggle and hardship—and deeply linked to survival—then we are operating on a very low, fear-based level. With this kind of life we're too involved, too invested in that dimension of self. As such, we cannot "loosen our grip" on that level of being; we cannot let go enough to transcend that level of existence. So, we cannot awaken from that reality into a higher dimension of self. So long as we are resisting, surviving, or struggling against conditions, it is difficult to access a higher dimension of self. So, living a good life is integral to living a divine life, a life in unity with Spirit.
We hear a lot of spiritual talk about accepting things as they are. The whole point of allowing or accepting things as they are, is not to accept them, per se, but to be in a position to move beyond them. We want to move beyond them so we can come to know and accept ourselves first; then, from that position of wholeness, we can add the rest unto ourselves as we choose.
<< Back to Step 6