doc benway Posted February 1, 2008 My meditation sifu is always talking about how Dao cultivation increases one's creativity. I find it hard to tell because it's difficult to compare myself now to myself then and even more difficult to know if I would be any different from a creative perspective if I weren't practicing cultivation. Nevertheless, I will say this. I've been a guitarist since childhood, on and off, and in recent years I do feel more of a connection to my music and more expressive and confident in the communication part as well as in my improvisation. I would also say that my ability to read people, situations, and relationships has really change quite dramatically over the past 5-10 years, whether or not it is directly related to my cultivation practice. Very good question and I look forward to seeing others' experiences. Steve Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
joeblast Posted February 1, 2008 Steve, my experiences are pretty similar. Been playing guitar/bass/drums for ~20 years. Biggest improvement I have seen has been the general effects of cultivation's restorative effect on generative force. Then again, there's nothing like writing new music with a bag of greens I used to draw a lot, but havent all that much in recent years. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
i_am_sam Posted February 1, 2008 I am a photographer by trade, a musician by calling. I feel that when composing (or trying to) music the inspiration sometimes comes through me rather than from me. The (reportage) photography I do is a lot about anticipation of what's about to happen and the emotion this will generate in the people I'm photographing. It feels very much like living in the moment, or more precisely the immediate future and I switch into this mode as soon as a camera is in my hand, which is probably why I take fewer and fewer personal pictures as it always feels like work. Anyway, I definitely don't feel as connected (maybe the nature of reportage photography as voyeuristic). I shall approach my next job with fresh eyes. Sam www.acumenimages.com Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mgd Posted February 3, 2008 and... I feel that my cultivation practice has helped erase some other childhood fears too, like being afraid of the dark.....being alone in creepy old basements....sleeping outside without a tent. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
freeform Posted February 3, 2008 Creative expression has a lot to do with the emotional energies. So any decent 5 element qigong form tends to develop one's natural ability to express. And this creativity isn't limited to the traditional arts - it covers any human activity that takes something more than just logic to accomplish - everything from cooking to negotiating to teaching, dancing, acting even police work. Anything that requires a sense of intuition and a range of expression... I used to do a lot of art - sometimes would get great ideas, but then over-labour them, they'd never come out right, and sometimes things would just grow organically, through synchronous steps of mistakes and accidents and something wonderfull would be the result. Being in touch with the body and the organs and the 5 archetypal flavours/flows brings this out in and intuitive way... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Eric23 Posted February 3, 2008 I'm a photographer/cartographer by trade. Art is my avocation. Been at both for many years, well before starting this journey. At this point it's really hard to say if Daoism has improved or altered my art. I have been working on a new medium recently and getting good results. Now, is it the Zhang Zuang or just realizing that you have to make a couple of hundred pieces before you really get a grasp of any medium? At the work end, I recently had to train a new guy for our satillite office. It's very difficult to describe something that just came naturally to someone. I'm up in an airplane with a map in my hands looking out the window and it's perfectly obvious where our photogrammetric project is. I can visualize the flight lines, see where the discrepancies between my flight plans and reality lie. Once we're on line with the camera running, you look through the viewfinder system and confirm that the plane is over the intended flight line. I've been doing it for 15 years or more and had to explain to this new guy how I did it, when in reality I don't know how, I just do it. The new guy's nickname for me is Obi Wan Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
VeeCee Posted February 3, 2008 The new guy's nickname for me is Obi Wan Which makes you Qui-Gon? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Eric23 Posted February 3, 2008 Which makes you Qui-Gon? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
