The need to become empty

A Releasing Your Unlimited Creativity discussion topic

Copyright 2008 by K. Ferlic,   All Rights Reserved

The issue we face in entering any truly creative endeavor is the need to become empty. We have to empty ourselves. To empty ourselves is to step out of mind relative to what we think and believe about our creative endeavor. Quite simply, the mind which created the problem or desire we face is not the mind that will give us the solution we seek. If it could, we would already have what we desire.

We are an infinite creative being. To access the creativity we need for any situation we faced, we need to have a perspective relative to our creative endeavor that embraces the infinity of our being and infinity of our creativity. This mean removing the limits and barriers our mind imposed to create what are currently experience to gain the freedom and energy to create what we desire. The greater our creative endeavor is different from our past and/or the existing creation, the more our mind will need to step out of what we think and believe.

In this regard, the greatest creative endeavor we can undertake is to step into the infinity of our being and/or access and release our unlimited creativity for to do so is to access the Source of Creation. This is why accessing the Source of Creation and/or the infinity of our being is called the Ultimate Accident. That is, we stumble into something which causes us to be confronted with an understanding that shatters how we think the world works or who and what we truly are.

Somehow, in some way, we must remove ourselves or step outside the beliefs, memories, experiences of life and the like relative to our creative endeavor. We will never forget the experiences we have had. But we must step past the hold they have over our creative spirit to realize the energy bound in the past to be able to create something new.

Why there is the need to become empty is told in the story of a professor who goes to a monk to learn about the monk’s spiritual tradition. The monk asks the professor if he wants some tea. The professor says he would. The monk begins to poor tea into the tea cup and the professor talks about what he wants. In time the tea cup overflows out of the cup and spills out onto the table and onto the professor’s pants. The professor jumps and exclaims, "You fool, the cup is already full, you can’t put anything else in it." The monk stops pouring and humbly replies, "So to you professor, you are too full for me to teach you about my spiritual tradition."

The need to become empty as reflected in stepping out of mind is to obtain an beginner's mind and a state of creative play relative to the creative endeavor. Beginner’s mind is reflective of a mind which has not experienced something previously. It is a childlike mind spontaneous and innocent in what it does. That is, it has no preconceived judgments or expectations on what is experienced. Creative play is to be able to return to a childlike state of play of spontaneously and innocently exploring options. It is to be free to explore all options first in our creative imagination  and then to bring back what we find into the real world. Rituals, ceremony, metatheater, creating a particular experience, pilot programs, creative activities like art, music, dance, writing, crafts and the like can all be used to allow spontaneous and innocent exploration as to how what was found in our creative imagination can be brought back into reality.

How effectively we empty ourselves becomes very important in what we subsequently create. The new limits and boundaries which give rise to our new creation are determined both by the intention we consciously or nonconsciously hold in entering the state of creative play and anything we think and believe which we hold and carry over from the past. Additionally, any judgments of mind we make about our experience in and during the chaos of creation and/or how or what our creation should look like gets encoded or embedded in the creation.

If we bring our fears into the chaos and become afraid in some way, that fear gets embedded within the new creation. If we bring anger into the process we will get anger embedded in the outcome. If we are running away from pain we limit our options as to what is possible. Ideally when in the creative process we should totally empty ourselves of ALL that does not serve us and/or that which they are holding onto from the past that should be recycled.

Ideally, we need to hold beliefs and a perspective which allows us to step toward the infinity of our being and/or hold our creativity sacred. In doing this, we give ourselves both the maximum flexibility possible to deal with what we face and explore options and to provide the greatest space of growth for our creation.

Fill and drain, drain and fill

Emptying oneself relative to a creative endeavor is about replacing beliefs and thinking patterns that do not serve us, our creativity, and/or the manifestation and growth of our desired creation. This replacement can be done one of two ways - fill and drain or drain and fill.

Analogously, replacing beliefs within our being can be viewed as if we desire to replace a tank full of one color water, say blue, with water of another color, say red, but we are unable to fully drain the tank. That is, for a given reason we must maintain a minimum level of water in the tank. Relative to our mind and what we think and believe, if we removed all our beliefs we could become either totally crazy or totally like a new born infant totally incapable of doing anything for we have no perspective as to how to function in the world. In such a case, we would have to be totally reeducated as to how to function in the world. Relative to the requirement to maintain a minimum level of water in the tank represents the fact we can only remove beliefs up to a given point so as to be able to remain functional in the world while replace our beliefs.

Where we draw the line so to speak as to what this minimum level of beliefs represents really depends on what we are trying to create and how free we are to step out of our existing world. For many, we still must go to work, take care of our family and the like. Others who do not have family responsibilities but only need to earn a income are free to engage greater changes for their obligations are less. Exactly what the minimum set of beliefs which must be maintained will look like differs for each individual. The issue here is to realize we will need to evolve our transition and it will take time.

However, what does need to be noted here is that if there is something the intention for our life is pushing us to experience and/or create, we may find life itself intervenes to help empty us. An accident or illness, required shift in jobs, an unexpected change in our family structure and the like all can push us to find a new set of beliefs to better face the changes life is bringing to us.

In any case, returning to our analogy of replacing water in the tank, with the requirement to keep a minimum level of water in the tank, to replace all the color water with clear water, we can either repeatedly fill the tank then drain the tank or repeatedly drain the tank and then fill the tank.

Fill and drain: To fill and drain, we fill the tank containing blue water totally full with red water.. The water mixture will be some shade of bluish purple. Then we drain down to the minimum level and repeat the process. Eventually all of the blue colored water would be replaced by the red water. As we replace the blue water with red water the mixture will be a bluish purple slowly move to a reddish purple until the tank is contains all red water. The process can be done but it takes time.

Fill and drain is the more typical and traditional way. That is we take in as many new beliefs as possible and then empty ourselves of what beliefs are not serving us. We then add more new beliefs continually repeating the process until we entirely transform our life and who and what we are relative to our new creation. Fill and drain is the slower way of the two options. It is about not giving up the old until the new can be seen effective. Here we allow our understanding to evolve and grow from our old way of thinking and believing to a new way more supportive of our creative endeavors very slowly over time

The problem with this approach is often the new beliefs necessary for the new creation interfere in some way with the existing beliefs creating what we currently experience. This can give rise to discomfort if not outright pain within our being for we become split between two worlds. There is the world which gave rise to our old beliefs and the new world which we arise from our new beliefs. Sometimes the pain can be so intense individuals are diverted from the tasks at hand to numb the pain and risk developing an addiction. Or, the individual simply gives up the attempt to adopt the new beliefs and stay in their old world.

Drain and fill: To drain and fill, we drain the tank of the blue water as low as possible and then fill the tank with red water. Again we have a mixture but it is now a more reddish purple than bluish purple and we do not have to go through the repeated cycles of draining and filling. Drain and fill is a much faster process. It is a little more difficult because we always push the limit of the minimum level but we do the required transformation much faster.

Drain and fill is the faster process and is the less utilized way. Drain and fill is to give up our beliefs and replace them with a new understanding. A "not doing" practice is often effective technique to separate out beliefs that should be retained and which beliefs can be abandoned.

In the drain and fill process, we face two issues. One is we need to be willing to give up all in our life related to our desired creation. Additionally we must be willing to release all our related attachments. It is to die before we die. This does not mean everything of the past must leave our life. Rather, our life and all that we experienced is recycled into a new from. In this process we must be prepared to give all up. Even thought we will recycle parts of the past, we do not known what will be recycle. We must be willing to give up everything.

In this regard we become much like the Scarab, an ancient sacred Egyptian symbol. The scarab is a dung beetle and recycles the waste products of the old life into a new life. We in essence do the same. We recycle the past into a new, more useable form that better serves us and our truth.

The second and more important issue we face in the drain and fill process is what do we replace our beliefs with such that we don’t replace one set of limiting and bounding beliefs with another set just as, if not more, limiting and binding? The answer is to adopt a set of beliefs that are integrated with each other across all aspects of life that allow for the optimum freedom of movement in all directions of our life and which hold our creativity sacred. Such a set of beliefs allows us to move with optimum flexibility for ourselves and our creation. What we choose is our choice. The only recommendation is to find beliefs which allow us to feel the fullness of being, an expansion into the infinity of our being, an inner freedom and/or the blossoming and flowering of our creative spirit.

The contrast of fill and drain and drain and fill: The contrast and what can be expected to replacing beliefs by the fill and drain method as opposed to the drain and fill method would be like a young man or woman learning to fly a jet off an aircraft carrier. Although most will never aspire to such an experience, let alone have the physical endurance and ability to achieve such a task, the process described here relative to drain and fill and fill an drain applies to anything. This example is choose only because flying a jet off an aircraft carrier is so different than anything one would do in life. Yet many humans have been able to learn and accomplish such a feat.

To become a pilot capable of flying a jet of an aircraft carrier requires much training and skill. Assuming the individual has all the minimum necessary mental and physical skills and abilities, there are a series of steps or stages.

The achieve the ability to fly off an aircraft carrier, takes several years of intensive effort. Normally the individual leaves whatever life they are living, enter the military, and no longer worry about earning a living. They are cared for by the military. They become totally devoted to learning how to fly. Such a process is the ultimate drain and fill. The individual gives up their entire life and empty themselves and remove all their attachments to become single minded and focus only on learning to fly. Yet, even with such a focus, the process takes several years.

The corresponding fill and drain process would be more like once a week attending a four hour program where all the steps required are accomplished in four hour increments. Each week the individual shifts their life a little more toward their goal. However, even if one were able to do most of what is required in the four hours once a week, one would eventually need to leave their normal way of living to get in the airplane and fly. Then they would need to go to where they can learn to fly on and off an aircraft carrier. But such changes would only occur in time if the individual continued the weekly session. How long the process would take starting only four hours a week is anyone’s guess.

However, whatever process is used, there comes a point in time we must leave our old world if we are going to experience the new. To be a carrier pilot, one will need to go with the carrier. So to with any creative endeavor. We can create what we desire but to experience that creation we will need to leave our old way of life and go with the new.

The issue in creativity: For most creative endeavors that we face day to day the difference between emptying ourselves by a fill and drain method as compared to a drain and fill method is not very great. However, when it comes to recreating our life, desiring to access the infinity of our being and/or access and release our unlimited creativity the difference becomes very great. One can choose either process and they can start one way and move to the other if they so choose. However, as with learning to fly off an aircraft carrier, we will need to leave our current world to go into the new if we truly want to experience what we have created.

Our biggest problem is trying to hold onto the old and move into the new. Trying to do so will only cause tension if not pain within our being. There will come a point in time that we will need to chose to either stay in our old world or go with the new. But the choice is ours and always have been ours.

Related topics
Stepping out of mind

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