Why would someone with an MFA go to seminary? I thought I just needed some tools to do the non-profit work I was engaged in while also cultivating my art practice and life.  What I have been given is a gift of a new way of thinking about creativity and its potential for joy and transformation in the world. 

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link to full paper

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     The first moment for me that was about how to have a theology out of creative practice actually was given to me via Dr. Martin Luther King my first semester. So much of what I have read of his work carries an undercurrent of beckoning people’s creativity forward.  He refers to how people are connected with the divine and each other as a creative force. He writes, “ Whether we call it an unconscious process, an impersonal Brahman, or a Personal Being of matchless power and infinite love, there is a creative force in the universe that works to bring the disconnected aspects of reality into a harmonious whole. . . All life is interrelated. All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.” 5  Dr. King’s words sparked a connection for me that I had not been able to adequately express before. .  If what binds us together is a force of creativity, and then the common denominator for all of us as people is creativity.  Creativity then becomes theology because it is a way to recognize the divine spark within each other and ourselves and can it tells us something about that creative force/the holy/the divine/God at the very same time.  In essence our creative lives are a direct link to our spiritual ones.

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     On an individual level, this is good news because it means that connecting with my creativity opens the door to connecting with the creative force of the universe and does, in fact, provide a way out of my own internalized oppressive fear. It brings me back to my own inner stillness, dignity and wisdom – which my tradition refers to as basic goodness. 6  In the practice of meditation and then the practice of “meditation in action” 7, engaging in the creative process, I am freed of so many of the obstacles to my own authenticity.  I can see my own basic goodness, which then makes it possible for me to see that in other people.  Art swings the door wide for wakefulness and seeing the world as it really is. 8

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     This is good news on a bigger scale because that means creativity foils all of that idolatry of systems and institutional worship that I talked about earlier.  I firmly believe this.  People set all of the systems of oppression in place in motion.  Logic suggests that if people created it, then people can also dismantle it.   So there is hope.  If we can be vulnerable enough to hope then we have a place to start to vision something different, and that means creativity can come back to us and with its divine purpose intact.

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    Hope is where real creativity comes in. In the midst of struggle, creativity is where hope finds vision. Hope is something to bump up against in the Buddhist tradition. It is thought of as the flip side of fear because it can be what keeps you out of the present moment.  But I believe that hope – that is not just misplaced optimism – can be fuel for what is needed in the present moment and in being a spark to the creative transformation that is needed.  Creativity, as it meets compassion, produces healing and love. This is where the arts are a healing force.  Creativity as it is connected to love gives us the capacity for participation in beauty.  It is the ability to turn the wound into a foundation for solidarity and into an olive branch for the “other side.” All of us hold creative power.  It is the link that bonds all of us to each other and to the universe.  Creativity is what makes us human.  It isn’t just a painter or a musician who holds creativity. Creativity is our mirror of the universe. It is our tether to the divine.

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     The path that is uniquely ours in life is lit by love and compassion as motive. Come to life with love and compassion and the steps to take become real.  The creativity to make things happen in our lives and in the lives of others becomes real.  Art is made in song, in paint, in photograph, and in every kind word, in every loving action. Listening to the creative energy of the universe and using that energy for kindness and compassion can heal a lifetime of wounds. 

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  Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche writes:  “ Art teaches us to express the inexpressible – love, impermanence, and beauty.  Art dives us into our own profundity – bringing the precision of meditation into physical form – discovering the profundity of life.” 16

 

The big lessons of this work in my seminary experience can be summed up this way:
 

Because Empire’s goal to perpetuate itself is about crushing true creativity, art is necessary.

 

If coming out as a queer and trans person in the world, is a way to help break down the cycle of white supremacy, then the visibility that comes with art making as someone who identifies this way is also a way of doing this work.

 

The cycle of art making and sharing is to manifest spirituality, creativity, hope, beauty, and love into the world for both viewer and maker.

 

Art and creativity are about bringing people back to their basic goodness.

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To make art is radical. To share what is made is resistance.

 

To share both the spiritual and creative aspects with people who are caring for others in non-profits, activist spaces, and spiritual spaces is to support self-care, the work of the people, and transformation in the world.  (This is the work that I aspire to moving forward.)
 

True Perception: The path of Dharma Art says, “Thinking goes as far as the mind understands.  Then what?  Art.”

 

Change for the good of all goes only as far as our ability to create compassion.  Then what?  Art.

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See complete paper for sources

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