Jiddu Krishnamurti on Being Creative

Questioner: I am a writer and I am faced with periods of sterility when nothing seems to come. These periods begin and end without any apparent reason. What is their cause and cure?

Jiddu Krishnamurti : The problem is not how to be creative all the time. Why is there insensitivity? Why are there moments of dullness in which creativity ceases? Creativeness comes into being; it cannot be invited, it cannot be artificially sustained. Why do these moments of dullness come? Obviously, insensitivity must come into being through dull thoughts, dull feelings, and dull actions.

How can there be sensitivity when there is greed, ruthlessness, and envy? Envy, though it gives a certain activity to the mind as the search and the achievement of power, will inevitably make the mind and the heart dull. Without understanding the causes that bring about insensitivity, we cling to those states in which creativeness has been. We long for creativeness, which is another escape from what is. In the understanding of what is without creating an opposite, creativeness comes into being.

So, the problem is first to be aware of the causes of insensitivity, to be passively aware without choice and denial, without justification or identification of those periods that are dull. Then, in that alert, passive awareness, the cause of insensitivity is revealed. In just being aware of this cause without trying to overcome it, dullness begins to fade away. It is this period of silence in which there is no condemnation or justification - in this period of silent observation, the truth of that which is false is perceived. This perception of truth frees the mind from insensitivity.

But, the painter, the writer, the sculptor has to live. He is not merely content with the expression of his joy, he wants a result, he wants a recognition; and also he wants food, clothing, and shelter. If he is merely content with food, clothing, and shelter, then his life will be comparatively easy; but, like the rest of us, he uses these as a means of psychological expansion. So, his heart becomes a process of self-expansion and thereby brings about strife and misery and that insensitivity which prevents creative being.

There is constant renewal of creative being only when the 'me' and the 'mine' are absent. It is the 'me' that gives continuity, which brings about insensitivity. Only in the constant ending of the 'me', there is renewal. Then only is there that state in which no dullness, no insensitivity can exist.

Source - from Jiddu Krishnamurti Book "On Living and Dying"

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