VII. Spiritus
Creative spirit
What motivates a creator? The desire to see his creation, because he creates in order to produce something new. Not for praise, not to tell the world about yourself, but simply “so that it will be.” The poet Robert Frost accurately formulated the essence of the creative approach: “All great works in the world are created for their own sake.” If you have children, then you've probably already learned this principle. We love a child because he is who he is, and not because he is an extension of our personality or a walking advertisement for our educational talents. The child has his own life, and parental love is so strong that it takes care of him until he grows up. Creators experience something similar. Their works are their children. They bring the work to maturity so that it can live on its own. The creator realizes: you are not what you create, and when you separate yourself from your works, you understand: the basis of creativity is always love - we love our creation in order to bring it into the world.
While still a student at the conservatory, I joined the local Catholic community. I was not a Catholic myself, but I became friends with the priest who led the discussions. In those years I was proud of my agnostic views and started arguing about the existence higher power. The priest knew the works of Thomas Aquinas well and argued convincingly about God as the first cause. But one day, it seemed to me, he made a mistake in logic. He said:
– The Lord created the world out of love.
“Wait, wait,” I interrupted. - What does this mean?
After a long and vague explanation, he finally gave in:
- It's a matter of faith.
I was not satisfied with this answer. Faith is a shield behind which one hides when there are no arguments. But for some reason this thought: that God created the world out of love, stuck in my head. Many years later, while writing one little thing, I suddenly understood what the priest meant. I struggled with my melody because I loved it and wanted it to be born. If my friend the priest understood the laws of creativity better, it would be easy for him to convey to me the depth of his thoughts. After all, I was already a composer then and managed to learn something about creation. All you had to do was ask me the question: “Why do you write music?” – and I would understand his point of view! But my friend was taught to “take the right action” and respond appropriately to circumstances. So he believed that in such a situation it was necessary to expound religious doctrine. I don't blame him at all. He did everything he could within his own frame of reference. And his words sank into my soul for a long time - until I could not understand them. I am very grateful to him for them. I did not tell this story to make you believe in religious teachings. I just see in it an example of how difficult it is to explain the essence of creativity, being in a subordinating-adversative coordinate system.
Of course, master creators come from different cultures and traditions. Creativity is not the prerogative of one religion, nation, faction, caste (or whatever other signs people hang on themselves). If you, like most of us, grew up in a subordinating-oppositional orientation, you probably didn't get to do anything for the love of a project very often. Few people constantly do what they love. For most, doing what you love is a luxury, not a way of life. In addition, many people confuse love and entertainment. Hobbies, vacations are entertainment. Yes, you love your hobby, but what is it to you? The work of a lifetime or an opportunity to take a break from an unloved job? Alas, the lives of many are filled with unpleasant responsibilities that cannot serve as food for the soul, although they feed the body.
People who have nothing to love often become cynics. It’s not that they are incapable of love, they just don’t have the experience of creation. Perhaps the interest they showed in life was suppressed by someone. Now they are doing everything to avoid being considered “foolish enthusiasts.” They don't trust those who are passionate about life because that approach doesn't fit their experience. It is difficult for them to put their whole soul into something: after all, not a single thing seems so important to them. These people suffer from a lack of “appetite for life.” They live by inertia, as in Robert Frost's poem "Death of a Laborer":
There is nothing to look back on with pride, nothing to look forward to with hope. There is no difference between now, then, never and before.
Advise such a person to find something to love, and he will not be able to follow your advice. Only when you begin to create for the sake of creation itself do you understand what the life of a creator is. There are no tricks, methods, “correct reactions”, selfish motives in it - only love for creation.
From the book How to Meet People at a Party, in Transport and Even on the Street. by Eric WeberCREATIVITY Other good method The trick - perhaps the best one - is that you simply follow your intuition. Don’t try to use some phrases you read from a spy novel or heard on TV, but come up with something of your own. Show
From the book Teach Yourself to Think [Tutorial for Thinking Development] by Bono Edward de3. CREATIVE METHOD Naturally, when we need “fresh” ideas, the standard solution method will not help. In open creativity, for example, when using creativity on clean slate paper or focusing on a neutral area, there is no clear end goal. Us
From the book Psychology literary creativity author Arnaudov MikhailCHAPTER X THE CREATIVE PROCESS
From the book The Advanced Formula for Total Success (fragment) by Anthony RobertCreative Process Let's talk about the creative process. You and I want to create our lives in the best way possible. To do this, we must swim with life instead of swimming against life. To flow with life, we need to create according to the pattern - to be, to do, to have.
From the book Intelligence: instructions for use author Sheremetyev KonstantinCreative impulse Poetry is the same as radium mining. Production per gram, labor per year. Vladimir Mayakovsky Until a person has achieved mastery in his field, it is very difficult for him to be a creative person. He perceives his work too vaguely and vaguely. But even when a person
From the book How to Know Yourself Better [collection] author Guzman Delia SteinbergCreative search It is best when your work directly requires creative solutions from you and does not allow you to slip into the usual path. Man on creative work constantly faces blocking contradictions: “Do this, I don’t know what.” And there are two ways.
From the book A book about tasty and healthy relationships [How to prepare friendship, love and mutual understanding] by Matteo MichaelCreative growth Blessed is he who was young from a young age, Blessed is he who matured in time... A. S. Pushkin But there is one more point that the authors of the letters miss. In nature, nothing happens all at once. Growth always occurs gradually. And that's great. This makes it possible to have fun
From the book The Path of Least Resistance by Fritz Robert From the book Time in a Bottle by Falco HowardCreative approach Nobody likes to be caught between two fires. It’s a very depressing feeling when we are forced to do something that we absolutely don’t want to do. The biggest disadvantage in such a situation is the feeling of helplessness. It seems to us that all we can do is endure in silence. And for
From the book FORMATION OF PERSONALITY. A VIEW ON PSYCHOTHERAPY by Rogers Carl R.Structure and the Creative Process We are taught from childhood to think that circumstances that are not conducive to our plans are a problem. And now, being sure of this, we are trying to solve this problem. And to solve a problem means to make something -
From the book The Intelligence of Success author Sternberg Robert"Creative" approach Those who talk about a "creative" approach to solving a problem mean finding an unusual way out of the problem. difficult situation. This means that creativity here is only a manner, but not the essence itself. This method has nothing to do with the creativity that flourishes in science
From the author's bookCreative Spirit What motivates a creator? The desire to see his creation, because he creates in order to produce something new. Not for praise, not to tell the world about yourself, but simply “so that it will be.” Poet Robert Frost got it right
From the author's bookChapter 11 Creative cycle Three stages of creation The process of realizing a creative plan takes place in three stages: origin, assimilation and completion. This is exactly what the full cycle of the creative process looks like, with the stages always following each other in a given order.
From the author's bookCreative Process STEP 1. SETTING AN INTENTION To set an intention correctly, you need to listen to the innermost desires of your heart. Start with the goal that resonates most strongly with you. Try to imagine what you want as vividly as possible.
From the author's bookThe creative process There are different approaches to defining creativity. To make the following discussion clearer, let's look at the elements that I believe are part of the creative process and then try to define it. First
From the author's bookCreative Intelligence One student—let's call her Barbara—possessed a somewhat different kind of intelligence. Her grades were good, but far from excellent. And the teachers believed that she had simply excellent data, although during testing the girl showed quite
Research topic: “Manifestation of the Soul in the energy of Creativity”
Research by 2nd year participant of the Man-Creator Academy Elena Kolesova
Main stages of the study
1.Location of the creative source - where it is located in the human body. Composition of creativity energy
2. The importance of creativity for the Soul
3. What does consciously blocking the creative impulse lead to?
4. What blocks the energy of creativity
5.What contributes to the development of creativity
6. Manifestation of creativity in the harmonious connection of all aspects of a person
7. Reflection of creative energy in subtle bodies person
9.How do ideas and inspiration come to creative people?
10. Summary of the study
11. Algorithm for activating the source of creativity
Thesis hearing and discussion of the topic
Creation- this is the desire to bring something beautiful into the world, made at the behest of the Soul.
It can be poetry, music, painting, and various crafts...
The main thing is the desire to create and give this creativity to people.
Let us dwell on the problem of spirit as freedom, which presupposes human creativity, a subjective creative impulse. This problem is connected with the problem of confrontation between the subjective impulse and the product of creativity, soulless objectification, which is no longer freedom, but slavery.
Traditionally, creativity is understood as the creation of something new, and this gift is not inherent in everyone. IN Christian philosophy distinguished two types of creativity: divine and imperfect, human. N. Berdyaev, for the first time in the history of Christian anthropology, considers man as a person possessing the ability of divine creation. So, in his philosophy we see not two types of creativity, separated from each other, but a combination of divine and human creativity, through which the unity of man and God is achieved.
It is through creativity that a person approaches freedom. The creative act always comes from the spirit, and not from things, not from nature. “The spirit in a creative impulse rises above the world and conquers it.” But the product of creativity is already an objectification of the spirit; here it acquires cultural form. It is in this objectification that the philosopher sees the captivity of the free spirit. This captivity takes place in the state, in the church, in art... So, on the one hand, the spirit is embodied in the individual himself, but, on the other hand, it manifests itself in creativity. And the last and great luck of the active creative person, and failure, since in objectification there is the death of the spirit. Objectification is just frozen “symbols, signs...”. Thus, bourgeois culture is lack of freedom, the cessation of the spirit of creativity. She uses the creativity of the spirit, but subordinates it to her own goals. The values of the spirit are used to consolidate the normative and legalistic order of life of the bourgeois. In bourgeois society, as N. Berdyaev believes, creative free man absent. There is no personality here, and therefore no spirit that defines it, and if there is no spirit, then there is no freedom and creativity. It is society that dominates here.
We see the limit of objectification of the spirit, the negative result of human creativity in the emergence of the power of technology over the individual, of things over man. This is exactly what N. Berdyaev writes about in the article “Man and Machine”. It is here that he shows how the objectification of the human creative spirit leads it to slavery and enslavement by the very result of creation. The author says that creation itself “revolts against the creator... the rationalization of industry gives rise to unemployment... the machine... dictates its own laws... wants man to accept its image and likeness.” But as we said, man is the likeness of God, and technology only wants to master our spirit and make it rationalized. The philosopher notes that, of course, man’s great merit is in creating a new technical reality; this is his power, his Godlikeness, but also “an indicator of his weakness, his tendency to slavery.” Technology enslaves a person, first of all, because it does not want to see in him a specific individuality, spirit, personality. That is why, according to the writer, a person needs enormous spiritual efforts in order not to submit to his own product of creativity, in order to preserve the image and likeness of God.
Speaking about the problem of creativity, we cannot forget about the problem of “theurgy” (God-making) put forward by Russian thinkers, including N. Berdyaev. What is it? As we have already said, N. Berdyaev believed that “creativity is fire, and culture is the cooling of fire. The creative act is a take-off,... the product of creativity is a downward pull.” In these statements we see that a person is possessed by a creative impulse and spirit, he responds to the call of God, creates something new, and this expresses the principle of freedom. Freedom is an element of creativity along with a gift, a calling and an element of the already created world. In creativity, therefore, original freedom and an individual gift are combined. In a creative impulse, the individual personality unites with God, with the Absolute. But what is the tragedy of human creativity? A person is unable to create a truly new Being; instead, he creates books, paintings..., theories that only explain how to create this new life. Human creativity creates only things, only the objective world, unable to become like God by creating lives, living beings. N. Berdyaev’s creativity is of a theurgic and eschatological nature. Man is called to continue the creativity of God, and this is impossible without the atoning sacrifice of God, who will enlighten the irrational human freedom, taking upon himself the consequences of her evil and suffering. Without this atoning sacrifice, a person only creates new objectifications, thereby bringing the end of the world closer, falling under the power of these objectifications. N. Berdyaev’s creativity is sacrificial: for the sake of it, a person abandons personality and individuality. He becomes equal to other creators. And then “only God can preserve the individuality of human creativity, putting into man a unique spark of God.”
