I have had this thought for quite some time. If man was created in the image of God, and as we know one of the known qualities of God is that He created "everything" then should we not strive to also be creative and be able to gain a similar measure of creative ability?
There is no mention about creativity in the ten commandments and there does not seem to be an emphasis placed upon creativity in either the Bible or the way that the church presents religion to us. As a matter of fact, it appears that Church and religion on the whole aims to stifle creativity instead of promoting it. People are suppose to strictly follow the "word of God", and are not encouraged to question anything that they are taught because to question the "word of God" is usually seen as blasphemous.
The majority of people seem to live their lives as they are told, usually listening to their parents, teachers at school, spouses, bosses at work and don't appear to aim to create something by themselves. It is only after one lives for a certain amount of time that a lot of people start to realize that they need some sort of "hobby", so this must be way that our innate creative desires appear.
So, can a person consider oneself to be moving closer to God if they are not displaying or even trying to display any of their creative energies? Of course creativity can be anything, from preparing a family recipe to painting a famous picture.
So, my question is why does creativity never get mentioned, yet we all seem to have an innate strive for it?
An interesting question SeaWay,
As a matter of fact, it appears that Church and religion on the whole aims to stifle creativity instead of promoting it. People are suppose to strictly follow the "word of God", and are not encouraged to question anything that they are taught because to question the "word of God" is usually seen as blasphemous.
But, if God created people, were they not given the ability to question or the ability to create? If we were given these abilities then surely they are there to be used, not supressed. 😉
So, can a person consider oneself to be moving closer to God if they are not displaying or even trying to display any of their creative energies? Of course creativity can be anything, from preparing a family recipe to painting a famous picture.
So, my question is why does creativity never get mentioned, yet we all seem to have an innate strive for it?
Is it not mentioned? I think we have to remember that the words of the bible are in an old language and even those are a translation from earlier texts of another language.
How about "Seek and ye shall find" which I believe is mentioned in several places in the bible?
"Seeking" can easily be interpreted as questioning and being creative in order to "find" the goal. Can't get much more of a directive to question and be creative than that. :rolleyes:
All Love and Reiki Hugs
Hello Giles....
I like it....
"Seek and ye shall find"
Seaway, I like your thread. Thank you for giving me something to think about....
It is a bit like this.... so far....
Each one of us is the creativity.....
The creativity is within each of us...
So, now my question.... to the universe....how am I creative?
Show me how to be/allow my creativity....
And is creativity new pathways of being?
Hi Seaway,
I agree with you that present-day Christian theology and some churches encourage people to be passive, and obey that theology. To do "as the Pope says" etc. But in most parts of the world, including the UK, that's a tiny percentage of people, and even they are very creative in their own way. So I really don't see the world, and people, in this way at all.
Jesus was enormously creative, in both his words and acts. He was even raised learning carpentry. From a deeper and non-fundamentalist viewpoint, the Bible does not encourage people to be passive followers. Kabbalists understand, for example, that the "seven days of Creation" in Genesis are not about seven "days" in which God created the world, so much as they are about how all creation takes place, and that we are a part of God and also creators. So allegorically the seven "days" in fact describe, if you know the code or way of understanding the description, the seven stages through which the consciousness of man/woman creates or makes anything happen - from mundane things like cooking or going for a walk, right up to working seeming magic as Jesus did.
IMHO we were not created passively by an active God, but we are that part of God which decided by free will to, as a creative act, Individualise as an Individual part of God, whilst still being part of the One.
I really don't at all see people as being passive. People are greatly creative in their own way. Even the thought of being lazy or of doing nothing reverberates out as a "vibe" over the ethers and effects many people near and far IMO. We are all constantly creating and shaping events at every moment with our deeds, words, and thoughts. We can't even ever switch this constant creative power off!
I can't think of anyone I know who lives all life doing just as they are told. Do you, really? So TBH what seems at first to be an interesting point you raise, when I thought about it, appeared to be misconstruing how things and people really are. Thank goodness! :p
It's just modern theology, and not just Christian, which IMHO attempts to disempower people by making them think they are not creative beings.
V
Years ago when I was in Art College one of my lecturers was a follower of Rajneesh (later Osho). We used to have long conversations about Life the Universe and Everything, and I remember once asking him why he thought it was worth being involved in something as worldly as producing artwork.
His answer was that we are part of the material world by being born into it, so it is through the material world, and with the faculties allowed us, that we express who we really are.
In the parable of the talents Jesus said...
He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliverest unto me two talents: behold, I have gained two other talents beside them.
His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.
Matthew 25;14-30
Though in the parable a 'talent' is a unit of currency we all know that camels get through eyes of needles more easily than rich men enter the Kingdom of Heaven. I read 'talents' as I believe it was intended; as meaning our natural abilities, or creative capacity.
The other day I was reading something Yogananda said on the subject of creativity...
The unlimited Creative Principle within you is the source of all art and wisdom. When you want to create something important, sit quietly and meditate upon it. You will be guided by the creative Spirit, but you should also exercise determination in accomplishing your objective.
Awaken initiative, which is the creative faculty within you - a spark from the divine Creator. You must do something which will show that God's creative principle is active within you.
I have had this thought for quite some time. If man was created in the image of God, and as we know one of the known qualities of God is that He created "everything" then should we not strive to also be creative and be able to gain a similar measure of creative ability? ....
So, my question is why does creativity never get mentioned, yet we all seem to have an innate strive for it?
Wonderful ideas SeaWay and what great responses from everyone! 🙂
Sadly, orthodox Christianity seems to overlook the spiritual account of creation in the first book of the Bible. The Adam and Eve allegory (written by a different author at a different time and which describes a different creation and different creator) is then taken as the basis for all reasoning and you get fallen man and all the baggage associated with that.
However, I so agree with you, that creativity is part of who we ARE as the expression of God's being!
To me, it's when one acknowledges the source of all creativity, of all intelligence and ability that is when it flows out. I often think of Jesus’ words of such humility and truth, “I can of mine own self do nothing:…”(John 5:30
I love the fact too that many of the people who have done great creative works, openly admit, like Mozart, that the inspiration came to them from God. Even John Lennon I think it was (or was it Paul?) said that their compositions just were there, like Paul Simon here in the article on
[url]Creative bliss[/url]
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“One second it didn’t exist,” explained musician Paul Simon during a recent television interview. “And in the next six seconds it was there.”
Simon was referring to the poetic phrase—“like a bridge over troubled water/I will lay me down”—which came to him suddenly and was to become the refrain of the title song of Simon and Garfunkel’s final album together.
“I was just shocked and I thought [the phrase] was so much better than I usually write,” he continued. “You don’t know why this happens, but, when it does, you get this feeling that is very close to bliss.”
Simon added that such experiences are like plugging into some greater force—although he didn’t claim to know what that force is.
And here’s another, by a beautiful friend who progressed through music to Christian Science healing and teaching (though she still finds joy in composing!)
[url]The artist within[/url]
I love these words of Mary Baker Eddy’s:
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God expresses in man the infinite idea forever developing itself, broadening and rising higher and higher from a boundless basis. (Science and Health 258)
There can be but one creator, who has created all. Whatever seems to be a new creation, is but the discovery of some distant idea of Truth; else it is a new multiplication or self-division of mortal thought, as when some finite sense peers from its cloister with amazement and attempts to pattern the infinite. (Science and Health 263)
Love and peace,
Judy
I love the fact too that many of the people who have done great creative works, openly admit, like Mozart, that the inspiration came to them from God. Even John Lennon I think it was (or was it Paul?)
It was in Paul's letter to the Liverpudlians. 🙂
Hello. Thanks for this thread, Sea Way. I'm much impressed with what everyone has said so far. Aren't people lovely?!
I need some help here. How can one open oneself up to this Creativity?
I used to experience it freely & abundantly when young: in ideas, new 'aha' moments of understanding (possibly my biggest thrill in life - but then, I am an Aquarian!) and sometimes when my writing just flowed.
But of late years I've been stagnating. My wellspring is blocked. Life is repetative & lonely, & I feel I'm barely treading water. 🙁
I still walk & read a lot - both are as necessary as air & food to me!
Walking alone especially puts me in a different state of consciousness, where fresh & utterly wonderful thoughts & feelings drench me in blessings ... but I just cannot put them into any form of manifestation. I can't seem to actually write anything at all or do anything with my life in practice. (The theory is fine!)
Has anyone any practical & personal experiences to share that may help, please? (Platitudes & quotations I have - & read - aplenty!)
Help! I've been stuck far too long!
Blessings - Starshower.
My wellspring is blocked.
I don't believe that Starshower! Not if your great posts here on HP are anything to go by.
Walking alone especially puts me in a different state of consciousness, where fresh & utterly wonderful thoughts & feelings drench me in blessings ... but I just cannot put them into any form of manifestation. I can't seem to actually write anything at all or do anything with my life in practice.
Have you tried writing more about that feeling? You express yourself very eloquently in your posts.
I think we have a habit of externalising creativity, i.e. it's something that is external to everyday life. We see people as being creative, or not creative. Creativity is often characterised by specific personality traits; if a person is seen as eccentric it's attributed to their creativity. Or if a person lives an alternative lifestyle, it's because they're thought to be creative. So from an early age we're taught through culture to think creativity is something external or fringe.
But really creativity is central to our being, it's part of being human. We're not taught everything we can do, we do many things because the creativity within us has enabled us to do something. It is the normal thing when presented with a problem to look for a solution and more often than not we solve it because of creativity. We wouldn't be able to live without being creative because our whole day is taken up by doing creative things.
Even if you've replied to this thread or any other today, you've done something creative, and everybody has done so much more. Everytime you make a decision you are being creative. But society has a habit of taking away our confidence by putting those who excel in creativity as having a monopoly. You don't have to be world class athlete to take part in sport, you don't have to be a Royal Academy artist to paint a picture and you don't have to be Gordon Ramsey to cook a meal. But in our daily lives all these acts are just as creative.
Myarka.
I do believe we are all creative human beings, but alas sometimes creativity is a luxury when you have hungry mouths to feed and all of your creative energy is being expended on looking after your loved ones. Some of the creative geniuses seem to make huge sacrifices on personal levels as if driven by something greater than them. A force or energy.
I for one can spend my time making ends meet and doing things that are not inspired by our creator and the wonderful creations manifested in our physical world. We can also co-create and admire other people's inspired visions.
His answer was that we are part of the material world by being born into it, so it is through the material world, and with the faculties allowed us, that we express who we really are.
Yes Barafundle I do see what your tutor was getting at - by saying the faculties allowed us, it can be interpreted as our karmic inheritance for we are born into circumstances that we need for our development. Also karmically some of us may have been creative human beings in previous lifetimes which is carried through from lifetime to lifetime - this of course depends on whether you believe in reincarnation.
Creations start in other aspects of our spirit you can say from the Godhead and they travel from the source, and whether or not they get stuck on the way depends on our own consciousness at the time.
Love Binah
xx
I have had this thought for quite some time. If man was created in the image of God, and as we know one of the known qualities of God is that He created "everything" then should we not strive to also be creative and be able to gain a similar measure of creative ability?
In Ecclesiastes 7:29 Solomon writes, “God made us plain and simple, but we have made ourselves very complicated"
I think we worry too much. Being creative, is not a sin.
Ecclesiates also has verses on work, riches, and knowledge, and how after achieving all those goals, the writer still felt that it was like chasing the wind.
Creativity to me is putting one "thing" with another "thing" to make a third "thing". Alchemy in it's most simple form.
I think it's the notion that being creative means being "arty", dancing, singing, painting etc.
We all live and breath, that act in itself is being creative IMO. 😀