meditation and creativity

Thank you to Daily Creator L.P. who reminds us to slow down and listen as artists. She wrote:

Many paths lead from the foot of the mountain
But at the peak we all gaze at the single bright moon.
Just awaken to the truth; how and where do not matter.
--- Ikkyu

Senior Priest Jean Seiryu Wilkins spoke about the confluence of meditation and creativity. Drawing from the teachings of Roshi John Daido Loori (abbot of Zen Mountain Monastery in Mt. Tremper, NY and author of "The Zen of Creativity"), Jean showed how the qualities of deep concentration, alertness and openness that we strive to cultivate in our meditative practice can also be the foundation of artistic creation.

In this vein, the photographer does not impose the camera upon the landscape, but instead waits for the photograph to arise from the landscape. The writer does not "write" the novel so much as act as a witness and medium, allowing the novel to write itself through the writer.