The Energy of Temporary Enlightenment

Essay: Flow releases the energy needed for creativity

Oct 23, 2024

The idea of ‘enlightenment’ is intertwined with the idea of seeking truth earnestly, real truth, without any preconceived ideas. It is a sort of process of letting go of what one thought he knew, so that he may learn what actually is.

Any belief or preconceived idea, if held too tightly, may hinder one’s ability to open to the truth. If you don’t believe me, try convincing someone on the opposite side of the political spectrum, or of a different religion, the ‘truth’ of your side. Most people do not set aside beliefs easily, even temporarily to consider another viewpoint.

But where do these preconceived ideas and beliefs come from? They come from our parents, initially. Then from school and from any religious upbringing we've had. They come from friends. They come from the media. In other words, they come from society.

They come from other people.

And where did those other people get their preconceived ideas? They also were fed their beliefs by other people. We live in a sort of self-perpetuating cycle in which each generation programs the next one.

But seeking earnestly for truth means stripping away everything and starting over from what you, and you alone, can confirm to be true. This is the idea that led Descartes to famously say "I think, therefore I am." Of course Buddha's revelation went even further than Descartes’, he even questioned the "I am" in the doctrine of “no permanent self.”

I've also come to the conclusion that since, everything changes constantly, there really is no permanent self. I’m not sure if I understand it in the same way as The Buddha did, but clearly, for example, you are not the same being you were as an infant – either physically or mentally. You are not even the same being you were yesterday. But that's a topic for another reflection.

So Buddha's reduction of Descartes might be something like "I think." Or, more correctly, "thinking happens." At this point, you’re probably wondering where I’m going with this. And here is the point: If you earnestly seek truth, what you'll discover, even before true “enlightenment,” is that everything you consider to be "you" – your likes, your beliefs, your profession, your responsibilities, your personality – those things are not truly you. For example, you might consider yourself a Christian, but if you were born in another country, you'd probably consider yourself something else. If you decided to convert to some other faith, you'd still be you, so to speak. So, being Christian isn't "you." Being an extrovert isn't "you." Being an athlete isn't "you." If you strip it all away, the "you" is awareness. Mystics, and psychoanalysts call all of this "made up stuff" you think is you (but isn’t) the ego. So, in short, the ego isn't you.

What makes enlightened people different is that they know, deeply, that they are not their ego. They intuit it at the deepest level. The rest of us only understand the idea at the intellectual level, but we don’t truly know it. The enlightened see their ego and their personality as a sort of ‘play acting’ that is necessary for humans to interact and communicate with one another – but it's all a sort of dream. That is the shift in perspective that they have. And so now we're finally circling the drain of my point.

Maintaining the fictional "you", the ego, your false self, takes a lot of energy. If only we could repurpose that energy for other uses, imagine what we could accomplish! Fortunately for us, there are simpler paths available for us mere mortals that I'll call "temporary enlightenment."

And one of the more common ways to achieve temporary enlightenment is entering a flow state through creativity.

As you create — make art, make music, write, etc – when you allow your egoic structure to dissolve, that energy, that is normally used to maintain your ego, is released to become a powerful driver of the creative act. In a way, dissolving the ego is an art form itself. Michaelangelo said, “The sculpture is already complete within the marble block, before I start my work. It is already there, I just have to chisel away the superfluous material." Likewise, to find your true self, simply chisel away that everything that is superfluous, and when you have done so, you'll find your ego is nothing but dust on the floor. When you sacrifice your ego on the alter of creativity, you are rewarded with the blissful “temporary enlightenment” state of flow — and Art is what results.

"Artists are people who are not at all interested in the facts — only in the truth.
You get the facts from outside. The truth you get from inside."
— Ursula Le Guin