Creative Destruction

Reflection: #34

A strange thought occurred to me today.

It dawned on me that the first best step in creating, ironically, is to destroy.

You must “destroy” your "self" and enter flow. For when you are in flow, you lose track of yourself, you let your self go, and you channel creativity that seems to come from outside you. How many times have you heard somebody say of a painting that, "it painted itself?" I’m sure you’ve heard a writer say, "the words just flowed through me onto the page." I, myself, have experienced this state and, when I’m in that state, I no longer think about myself. In fact, when in flow, I’m not quite "thinking" at all in the traditional sense.

Flow is a sister state to what one experiences during meditation. It is its own sort of meditative state, although, in my experience, there are slight differences. A long flow session of creating sometimes can leave me exhausted while meditation generally leaves me feeling refreshed. But nevertheless, in both states, something is destroyed to make room for something else to take place. And that “something” is the false "self" we construct.

There is less self and more pure energy. The death of the ego, gives birth to creative possibility. Perhaps we normally spend so much energy creating our "selves" that unlocking this energy through self-destruction is a part of inspired creation. Could it be that very destruction of the self is required to unleash this energy for better uses - for creation? It is said that energy is never created nor destroyed, so it would make sense that to "create" something, then something else using that energy must be "destroyed." Can you imagine the energy that must be unlocked by those who have experienced a permanent ego dissolution?

And, so, after reflecting upon it a bit further, perhaps the best first step of creation being “to destroy” isn't so ironic after all.

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