Benefits of understanding what the Guidelines are about

This chapter explains the guidelines to help you understand the process in more depth, when you will get a lot more out of contemplating the images and doing it yourself, with quite unexpected things happening if you are open-minded. They can be adapted in a way that is relevant for individuals and groups of different ages, experience, needs and interests.​ Buddhist meditation and contemplation practices underpin all the processes in my own practice, but many readers will have their own meditation practice, which may or may not be Buddhist. I will briefly recap my approach as an example​

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Practising the guidelines

 

Guideline 1: Meditate

Why meditate?

• Mindfulness meditation gives us a supportive framework helping us be aware of all the story lines and emotions arising and passing in our experience, as they happen. Once we begin to be more aware, we can apply this awareness to everyday life experiences and to before, during and after doing creative activity. To start with we practise getting the awareness skill while sitting, maybe for 5 minutes, 10 minutes. Its a bit like going to the gym to work out and build up our muscles or fitness. We are building our awareness muscle. Over time, this can filter through into everyday life, so that we are more aware of what we are sensing, thinking, feeling.

• To start with it can seem like our thoughts and emotions are overwhelming, as so much seems to be flooding through our mind. This is a good sign as it means we are becoming more aware of what is going on in our mind, rather than just following our story lines and emotions blindly as they bounce around like a crazy monkey.

• If we are beginners we can explore using the body and breath as supports for awareness, and also just rest in open awareness watching the passing movie of our experiences. We learn to do this in our sitting meditation practice to start with, then we can explore this awareness in everyday life and when we are doing art activities. Awareness is always the baseline we can return to, whatever we are doing, whatever is happening. In this way we get to know ourselves and open ourselves to others, whoever we are collaborating with
• In my many years of teaching art and coaching creativity, I believe the main obstacles getting in the way of being naturally creative are social conditioning, fear and tension around notions of art, talent, genius, expectations, self worth etc. Mindfulness meditation helps us to become aware of these mindsets as they arise, and to begin loosening our grasping onto them as true, instead of just being conditioned beliefs. 
• We begin mindfulness meditation with the motivation and intention to benefit both ourselves and others by generating compassion for both ourself and all beings. This counteracts the tendency to be ego driven, and actually helps dissolve our self made prison of tightly held limited ways of thinking. Creativity is a neutral energy that can harm as well as benefit, so it is important to generate at least the intention to benefit ourselves and others even if we are not able to actually do much. So in our collaboration while being open to our thoughts and feelings, we are also open to listening to the thoughts and feelings of the people we are collaborating with.

• To give us a supportive framework that can help our well-being,  whatever we are doing, wherever we are, 24/7

• To help us learn to be more resilient, creative, compassionate and content

Awareness of art baggage

Awareness of expectations about meditation

Awareness of how one is coping with everyday life

 

In the Tibetan Buddhist Mahamudra tradition, awareness, rather than concentration, is emphasised as a way to get to know the mind at increasingly subtle levels. This includes learning to be aware of our five senses, somatic experiences, thoughts, memories, emotions, sense of self, feelings, and bare awareness itself in the present moment, in the here and now. I am also learning to recognise how I cling to limiting, socially conditioned thought patterns such as opinions, biases, preconceptions, negative self-talk and other beliefs, believing them to be immutable solid facts rather than just energy flow manifesting as thought patterns and causing myself a lot of misery in the process. Some self talk, conditioned story lines can include beliefs we really buy into as true:

 

A diary? Oh, not just a diary.

What then? Meditate? Oh I can’t meditate, I can’t control my thoughts. What, I don’t have to stop thinking?

Oh. But I can’t draw a straight line? I don’t have to?

My art is no good, I can’t write, what will others think?

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Meditation is learning to be aware of what is happening in the mind. Mind in Buddhist understanding includes consciousness of sensations, gross and subtle body energy, thoughts, memory, emotions, intuitions. This awareness can help us recognise and step back from being driven by unhelpful, self-limiting beliefs and habitual mindsets about doing art, such as:

 

• Not being aware of what is going on in my body and mind

• Laziness, or lack of perseverance, avoiding regular formal meditation sessions and ongoing informal meditation in everyday life

• Distraction, getting lost in meaningless worldly activities

• Overextending my involvement in worldly concerns and getting lost in them, rather than practising in the midst of things

• Dissociation and numbing out as a defence against being present and experiencing whatever is, even if it is difficult or painful

• Getting lost in expectations, ideas about what meditation experience should be, getting lost in story lines

• Uneven renunciation due to not seeing things as they really are

• Thinking no-one will care about what I am or do

• Needing to ‘prove’ myself

• Wanting to do ‘good’ art that will be approved of and respected

• Labelling myself and other artists as ‘good’ and ‘bad’

• Being jealous of other artists’ success

• Running out of energy for doing art and sharing art, and then getting discouraged and giving up rather than finding a way though it

• Being unfocused about motivation and intention

• Being aware of getting lost in confusing thoughts and emotions

• Feeling little, infantilised or victimised feelings

• How I give my energy away to authority rather than being my own authority

• Not being determined and persevering enough to push work through so it is finished and is shareable with others

• Colluding with cultural and social conditioning such as wanting to fit in with other people’s ideas about how things are rather than following my own vision and inspiration

• Wanting to be in control instead of welcoming not knowing and feeling vulnerable and open as creative crucibles

• Burnout from being driven

• Feeling boxed in and stuck by my own self-limiting beliefs and habitual story lines

 

Guideline 2: Then do something visual and written about story lines/feelings in response to this Covid-19 lockdown or some other meaningful issue for 5 minutes maximum, each day. No rules except the time limit of 5 minutes making something each day.

 

Zangmo
I surrounded myself with an array of art and writing materials before starting this project. Then, like diving into a pool, I just had to let go and jump in. Nothing to prove, just telling it like it is. 5 minutes is important. It is not enough time to start thinking, judging. There is barely enough time to be with the materials and the possible discomfort of feelings, emotions, not knowing what one is doing or saying. The continuity of doing entries daily gets one into a rhythm and process which is very different for one-off. This process has a cumulative effect, which it is best not to reflect on until at least ten days have passed.

 

Geri
When I started doing the diary, my images and words were dispersed.  Day by day, I learned how to draw in a space; how to organize words and images; to find what was “coming up.”  What color would I start with?  What medium?  Colored pen? Marker? Paint? What kind of paper would I choose? What was “on my mind,” or maybe rising in my body?  Should my writing be print or script?  Should the words be in black or in color?  Which color? Should they be capital or lower case?  Should they be at the bottom? At the top?  Weaving around?  Could I make images out of words?  I learned from Zangmo:  Oh, I see, she’s using watercolor.  She’s writing letters in different colors.  The words are moving around. They float. Hmm.  I might try that.  I receive her work with gratitude.  

 

Guideline 3: And no masterpieces allowed, no intellectualisations, no judgements, just feelings from the gut, just be yourself.

Masterpieces and straining to do one’s idea of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ art are banned, which again bypasses story lines, competitiveness, self-judgement. Working fast doesn't give the conceptual mind time to kick in with storylines, clinging, doubt or faffing around. The focus is just to do something as quickly, honestly and openly as one can. Any media can be used, and there are no rules at all about outcomes as long as one sticks to 5 minutes for making.

 

Guideline 4: It's great to do this with someone else, wherever they live: just share your day's diary entries with each other, maybe posting as a blog, no comments, no judgements, just let it be

Sharing with another, trusted person who would witness without commenting, judging, trying to prove anything felt important and supportive within the isolated context of lockdown. It was important this other person was a fellow Dharma practitioner and creative person, as there would be a basis for mutual understanding.

40 days and 40 nights seems biblical, a contained time and space for focusing on our shared journey of lockdown experiences as a contemplative practice, not just a girly diary. Setting up these causes and conditions seemed to create a framework, a field both supportive and transformative.

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