Book 2: Creative Intelligence (Part 1)
Creative Intelligence is the essence of Being.
The reason to become the sorcerer that’s already within you is simply to be who you already are. If you don’t, if you can’t, if you won’t expand beyond the ego-driven dysfunction, you’ll die with the dance still in you.
The sorcerer understands our all too human ego; in that wisdom, and in tandem with creativity, a balance between head and heart, yin and yang, earth and sky, masculine and feminine, cosmos and psyche creates a whole being. (Cosmos, from the ancient Creek word kosmos, “whole.”)
Before the sorcerer delves into the realm of manifesting magic, of manifesting his intentions, he first must come to understand what and who he is. Which begs the age-old question, “What is the true nature of being human?” Is it to be consumers? (For 98.8% of our existence, it was hunter-gatherer.) Is it to be addicts? (Addiction comes from our relinquishing power over to our ego’s greed for ever more short-term fixes instead of the much more satisfying joy of creativity.) Is it to be bored, boring, lazy? (People who are creating things, alive and interacting with their world, are not bored, boring or lazy.)
When are we happiest? For me, it’s when I am in the moment. When I suspend judgement and predisposition and simply enjoy. It is when I am truly creative, in the ‘flow’, and intuitively know precisely what’s needed next. These are transcendental experiences, but all too infrequent.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, in his 1990 breakthrough book ‘Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience,’ detailed the psychology behind living through opportunity, circumstance and purpose. That is to say, he outlined the conditions in which ‘flow’ occurred. However, it is here that this primer digresses, for it isn’t a matter of technique nor condition but rather simply Being (that is, ‘flow’ is our natural state). The question, then, is how to bring more ‘flow’ into our lives.
“The only really valuable thing is intuition.”
Albert Einstein
Archaeologists have traced the origins of Homo sapiens back to Africa at least one hundred thirty thousand years ago. However, archaeologists don’t really start humanity until about seventy-seven thousand years ago, when in caves high above the Indian Ocean man first began making artifacts. It is our very nature to create, to make artifacts.
“If you let hydrogen gas alone for 13 billion years it will become giraffes, rose bushes and humans.”
Brian Swimme (Physicist)
‘Who am I’ can’t be answered by thoughts, by the ego. Who I am is much more than the material world. There’s a whole other part of who we are. That part can only be known through direct experience. It isn’t thinking, it’s awareness. It is to be found when you are aware that you are aware. Its essence, our essence, is when we are experiencing ‘flow.’ Its when we are in harmony with Intent. Its when we let our intuition lead that we can be one with the moment, and thus one with ourselves.
“You don’t need a weatherman to tell you which way the wind is blowing.”
Bob Dylan
What would happen if we lost our attachment to who we think we are, and what we think? Wouldn’t we ‘see’ who we really are? Not only that what we previously thought was transient, ever-changing, but that our true essence which is doing the observing is both unchanging and pure intelligence. Who we are, in other words, is creative intelligence. It isn’t constrained by any self-concept. It doesn’t need to struggle to achieve anything at all. It is pure energy, as is everything else.
Meditation Exercise: Breathing. Find a quiet spot, one which you can return to day in and day out. You could sit in a chair, lie on the floor, wherever it is that for 15 uninterrupted minutes you can focus your mind. For the first week, simply practice being quiet. Try to empty your mind. Instead of listening to your inner voice, listen to your breathing. Feel your chest expand when you inhale. Hold it for a moment, then release it slowly. Repeat. Don’t get discouraged if thoughts keep entering. Just as the thought that this thought just occurred, as well. Simply, become aware that thoughts come and go, and that you can be aware of thoughts coming and going. Note ‘who’ is aware; that’s Presence. Who you really are is the one observing the thoughts, not the thoughts themselves. Who you really are is the awareness, and thus you can never know who you really are through your thoughts because that isn’t who you are. (If you’d like a little reading on how to meditate, here’s an ad free suggestion on a technique called Hamsa.)