Creativity

 

 

Creativity has nothing to do with any particular work. Creativity has something to do with the quality of your consciousness. Whatsoever you do can become creative. Whatsoever you do can become creative if you know what creativity means.

 

Creativity means enjoying any work as meditation; doing any work with deep love. If you love me and you clean this auditorium, it is creative. If you don‘t love me then of course it is a chore, it is a duty to be done somehow, it is a burden. Then you would like some other time to be creative. What will you do in that other time? Can you find a better thing to do? Are you thinking that if you paint, you will feel creative?

 

But painting is just as ordinary as cleaning the floor. You will be throwing colors on a canvas. Here you go on washing the floor, cleaning the floor. What is the difference? Talking to somebody, a friend, and you feel time is being wasted. You would like to write a great book; then you will be creative. But a friend has come: a little gossiping is perfectly beautiful. Be creative.

 

All the great scriptures are nothing but gossips of people who were creative. What do I go on doing here? Gossiping. They will become gospels some day, but originally they are gossips. But I enjoy doing them. I can go on and on for eternity. You may get tired some day, I am not going to get tired. It is sheer delight. It is possible that one day you may get so tired that you disappear and there is nobody -- and I will be talking. If you really love something, it is creative. [....]

 

A man of understanding is continuously creative. Not that he is trying to be creative. The way he sits is a creative act. Watch him sitting. You will find in his movement a certain quality of dance, a certain dignity. Just the other day we were reading the story of the zen master who stood in the hole with great dignity -- dead. Even his death was a creative act. He did it perfectly well; you cannot improve upon it. Even dead he was standing with dignity, with grace?

 

When you understand, whatsoever you do -- cooking, cleaning.... Life consists of small things; just your ego goes on saying these are small things. You would like some great thing to do -- a great poetry. You would like to become Shakespeare or Kalidas or Milton. It is your ego that is creating the trouble. Drop the ego and everything is creative. [....]

 

Life consists of small things. They become great if you love. Then everything is tremendously great. If you don't love, then your ego goes on saying, 'This is not worthy of you. Cleaning? Krishna Radha, this is not worthy of you. Do something great -- become Joan of Arc.' All nonsense. All Joan of Arcs are nonsense.

 

Cleaning is great. Don't go on an ego-trip. Whenever the ego comes and persuades you towards some great things, immediately become aware and drop the ego, and then by and by you will find the trivia is sacred. Nothing is profane; everything is sacred and holy.

 

And unless everything becomes holy to you, your life cannot be religious.

 

A holy man is not what you call a saint. A saint may be just on an ego-trip. And also he will look a saint to you because you think he has done great deeds.

 

A holy man is an ordinary man who loves ordinary life. Chopping wood, carrying water from the well, cooking -- whatsoever he touches becomes holy. Not that he is doing great things, but whatsoever he does, he does it greatly.,

 

The greatness is not in the thing done. The greatness is in the consciousness that you bring while you do it.

 

Try. Touch a pebble with great love; it becomes a kohinoor, a great diamond. Smile, and suddenly you are a king or a queen. Laugh, delight....

 

Each moment of your life has to be transformed by your meditative love.

 

When I say be creative, I don't mean that you should all go and become great painters and great poets. I simply mean let your life be a painting, let your life be a poetry.

 

Always remember it, otherwise the ego is going to land you in some trouble. Go to the criminals and ask why they have become criminals: because they could not find any great thing to do. They could not become a president of a country -- of course, all persons cannot become presidents of a country -- so they killed a president; that is easier. They became as famous as the president. They were in all the newspapers with their pictures on the front page. [....]

 

-Osho, “Nirvana: The Last Nightmare, #10, Q5“

 

 

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Nature has brought you up to a certain point from where the growth has to be taken into your own hands. Nature has brought you to be a human being; more than that is not the capacity of nature. Up to the human being there is evolution. Beyond humanity there is revolution. Evolution means that which has been happening in spite of you; you were just riding on the wave. But there comes a moment—and humanity is that moment, that boundary line—if you don‘t start moving on your own you are stuck. The wave of nature has brought you to the very maximum, optimum limit. More than that is not possible. Now you have to travel, and you have to make effort; you have to be creative. And when I say creative, I don‘t mean just painting, poetry, sculpture—no. These are very ordinary creativities.

 

You create a painting or you create a poem or a song but you don‘t create yourself. The poet remains as unfulfilled as the non-poet and the painter remains as empty as the non-painter. The painter may have painted a beautiful picture but he has remained as ugly as anybody else. So if you love some poet‘s poetry don‘t go to see the poet; otherwise you will be frustrated. The poetry may be beautiful, but when you go to the poet you will find an ordinary human being— even sometimes more ordinary than the ordinary ones. If you love a painting, love it and forget the painter. Never go to see the painter—otherwise you will be frustrated. You may find a crazy man or a maniac... because they have been creating something, certainly, but they have completely forgotten that the basic and the most primary creativity has to be concerned with one‘s own being.

 

You have to be creative about your own being. You have to give birth to your self.

 

-Osho, “God Is Not For Sale, #6“