The Creative Process as Seen through the Dharma (that is: without so much suffering)

Geraldine deLuca - author and artist

This site is about writing and painting. I have taught writing and literature for many years and have thought a great deal about process. In March 0f 2018, I published a book called Teaching Toward Freedom: Supporting Voices and Silence in the College Classroom (New York: Routledge, 2018) which is, among other subjects, about process and the condition of our spirit as we do our work.  What kindnesses do we allow ourselves? What pressures do we carry with us?  What happens when we are doing well? What happens when we are stuck?

But even as I think about process, I am beginning to realize, I need also to think about how we perceive our work.  Academic and corporate culture instills in us an overwhelming concern with how good something is: our drawings, our writing, our looks, etc.  Will we win any prizes?  Will people admire us?  Or will we be judged as bunglers, second-rate?  What grade or ranking will we get in this culture where everything is assessed?   This is the air we breathe.  How do we get out from under it?

I’ve also practiced meditation for a long time now. I have a regular practice–at least half an hour a day.  I also attend sits regularly and occasionally go on retreats.   I search for and read texts that ease my way.  I have meetings with other artists and writers who study Buddhism.   I am especially grateful to Doreen Schweizer, Senior Teacher at my “sangha,” Valley Insight Meditation Society, for the clarity of her teaching and her abiding kindness. 

So: how can we do our work without assessment, but with curiosity, steadiness, a willingness to take risks, generosity toward ourselves and others?

I explore how we relax as we shape our work, how we stay kind to ourselves and grateful to those who have shown us the way.  That involves noticing when we are envious and allowing that envy, which is often admiration overlaid with self-doubt, to soften. How do we turn those feelings of our own unworthiness into gratitude and awe that someone else has, through her work, shown us a new way to see, to craft, to understand our world.

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