Latifah Taormina met Angeles Arrien in the 90s at a conference on the Spirit of Creativity organized by William Miller of Global Creativity Corporation. Everyone was deeply touched by her wisdom, humor, humanness, and utter simplicity. Here are notes from her presentation. See ABOUT ANGELES ARRIEN at end of this page. Contact and order information for her Fourfold Way cross-cultural programs are listed at the end of this article.

My Passion is what we share as a human family: the cross-cultural values, ethics, and universal themes among people everywhere. It’s important, at this conference, for us to look at creativity and the creative spirt as a window that connects us to something primordial. I always liked what the German philosopher Heidigger said: "A person is not a thing or a process, but an opening through which the Absolute can manifest."

The 12th C. Persian poet, Rumi, described creativity aptly when he said:

The theme of this conference, the creative spirit, is what has drawn us here.
And as we go forward in time, we’re increasingly going to be looking into that.
So let's take a look at that field.

Another Rumi poem, the second to last poem he ever wrote, goes like this:

Today, like every other day
I wake up empty and frightened.
Don't go to the door of the study
And begin to read a book.
Instead, take down the dulcimer.
Let the beauty of what you love
Be what you do.
There are a thousand ways to kneel and kiss the ground.

When I wake up empty and frightened, I wake up unconnected to who I am. When I'm like that, don't go into the study, don't read a book. When I'm like that I need to remember my heart song (take down the dulcimer) and remember my life-dream, the promise I made before I came here. There are 1000 ways to kneel and kiss the ground. Joseph Campbell had another way of saying that: "Follow your bliss."

So now I want to look at the ingredients of creativity, success, and problem-solving. And I want to pose some questions that come from my cross-cultural studies of indigenous peoples. What do they have in common and what do they bring to us from their teachings of how to survive?

And what I found is that all indigenous peoples -- whether African, Native American, North Atlantic, Oceanic, etc. all teach within their cultures four basic principles. And they say life will be very simple if we follow the fourfold way.

The four principles:

(1) SHOW UP. (This is the way of the Warrior or Leader.)

Choose to be present. Lots of us show up with our bodies, but once we get here and park our bodies, the vacancy signs go on. So actually we're not here emotionally, psychologically, spiritually, energetically. We need to look at where in my life am I showing up — and where am I not showing up.

(2) PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT HAS HEART AND MEANING. (This is the way of the Healer or Caretaker)

Indigenous people talk about the four-chambered heart image: the full heart as one chamber; the open heart as another chamber; the clear heart as a third chamber; the strong heart as a fourth chamber.

So we need to ask:
Where in my life am I half-hearted and not full-hearted?
Where in my life am I closed-hearted and not open-hearted?
Where in my life am I confused and not clear-hearted?
Where am I weak-hearted and not strong-hearted?

Indigenous people recognize that there's a big difference between weak-heartedness and vulnerability. Vulnerability is part of being strong hearted and is part of being one's authentic self. Weak heartedness, on the other hand, is attached to the false-self systems. Where is it that I'm weak hearted and lack the courage to be who I am, to say what's so? The false self, among indigenous peoples, is connected to pretense and is fed by performance and/ or rehearsing.

I have to first show up and then pay attention to what has heart and meaning so that I can go on to the 3rd principle:

3. TELL THE TRUTH WITHOUT BLAME OR JUDGMENT. (This is the Way of the Visionary or Creative Problem Solver)

Truth: I'm jealous; I'm afraid of losing you.
(Truth. No blame. No judgment.)
Truth: I'm so angry I want to hurt you.
(Truth. No blame. No judgment.)
Truth: I have a conga line of judgments now. I am so critical I don't trust what's going to come out.
(Truth. No blame. No judgment.)
Truth: I love you so much and I've never felt that so I'm frightened and push you away.
(Truth. No blame. No judgment.)

It's after I show up and pay attention to what has heart and meaning and tell the truth that I can go to the 4th principle which is

4. BE OPEN TO OUTCOME AND NOT ATTACHED TO OUTCOME. (This is the way of the Teacher or Counselor)

Be open to opportunity and not attached to my way or my plan. In Western cultures we have a lot of confusion around the word, detachment. We often confuse it with not caring, as if detachment means that we don't care. But in primitive cultures, the cross-cultural meaning of detachment is the capacity to deeply care from an objective place.

So if I show up and pay attention to what has heart and meaning and tell the truth without blame or judgment, then I can be open to outcome.

Being open means that I have done all the preparation. So consider that the creative spirit is relentless about wanting to manifest, relentless about bringing my heartsong into form, relentless about following its vision, relentless about bringing my heartsong into form. In order to bring my life dream or my heart song into being, then, I need to show up, I need to pay attention, I need to tell the truth, and I need to be open to outcome and not attached to outcome.

Here are questions that indigenous peoples use daily as they recognize each day as an opportunity to create as each day is a gift.

Q: Is my self-worth as strong as my self-critic?
If I can say yes to that question, then I am ready to bring my medicine into this day. That all of us have original medicine is basic to the belief sets of indigenous peoples. If I don't bring who I am into this day, then I preclude healing coming into my self, into my family, into my work. If I say yes, I'm embracing and saying yes to what indigenous people call good, true and beautiful in my nature. And I am also saying yes to the beast in me, to all that challenges my nature. If I say yes, then I am embracing the "both-and" and not the "either/or." If I say yes I am embracing my heart's wish to be engaged for the day. The creative spirit is engaged. If I cannot say yes, I'll automatically move into habituation. I'll do what I've done before.

Q.: (This question has four parts.) If you are disturbed or depressed or dispirited, people will say to you:
Where in your life did you stop singing?
Where in your life did you stop dancing?
Where in your life did you stop being enchanted by stories — especially your own story?
Where in your life did you stop being comfortable with the sweet territory of silence?

Because among indigenous peoples, singing, dancing, etc. are the four aspects of the universal healing sounds and ointments. Indigenous people say "Sing for your life." Your favorite songs are your power songs. What were your favorite songs when you were 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42, 48, 56, 62, 69, 75? These are the paths to singing, dancing. story-telling, silence. Where I cannot recall my songs or where I stopped singing is where I began to experience soul-loss (loss of spirit). So sing for your life.

Walk in your own beauty. Walk in your own gifts and talents and resources. It's a waste of time to compare. It's a waste of time to compete.

Look at what we're doing this week end and the circle we're sitting in. You've set up a sacred group, what indigenous people call the medicine wheel. In Africa it's called the gratitude hoop. Gratitude because it comes from learning about the Five Arms of Love: Acknowledgement, Gratitude, Love, Appreciation, Validation. When people came into a circle in Asia, it was called a bamboo wreath; firm yet yielding. Where are we firm and where are we yielding? Where is the balance point between the firm and the yielding? The bamboo wreath explained the inner and outer nature of people and sought the balance point.

In the West we have challenged the creative spirit especially with our misunderstanding of the word, 'problem.' The root of the word is to probe. So a problem is "that which is to be explored." Eastern societies recognize that a problems is something to be explored. Whereas in the West we look at problem as something to be moved through, to get around, over, and get to.

What do we see personally and professionally that's a problem in our life right now? Are we holding that problem as something we can begin to explore? Where can we bring our healing sounds to it?

A problem is a story.
A problem has a song.
A problem has its own movement with us or dance.
A problem is held in a container of silence.

The creative spirit has movement and follows a song, a story, a movement, and relentlessly moves in silence within us.

So what are the blocks to the creative spirit? What gets in the way?

I began to wonder about addictions and question whether there were universal ones. And what do they reveal about blocks to the creative spirit? And I discovered that there are Four Universal Addictive Patterns that reveal much about the blocks to the creative spirit, for they get in the way of creative spirit.

These are the Four Universal Addictive Patterns

1. Addiction to intensity.

If things aren't really intense I won't feel alive. So I'll stir up the pot a bit more. I'll drink more, take drugs, overdo. I'll dramatize things. Exaggerating and indulging are also addictions to intensity. Among Native Americans, if I sit in the circle and tell my story more than three times, the others will cover themselves with their blankets. Three times is enough. More is an addiction to intensity. The positive side of an addiction to intensity is a strong heart, a stronger love nature. The opposite or negative side is passion.

2. Addiction to perfection.

Perfection admits no mistakes. If I'm addicted to perfection I'm also addicted to a perfect appearance. A perfectionist says I begin to walk among the living dead. The positive side of an addiction to perfection is a passion for excellence. But true excellence embraces mistakes and learns wonderment. Reclaiming wonderment is essential to excellence. Now I incorporate my mistakes, I learn by exploring.

3. Addiction to the need to know.

I have to know... I have to have it all figured out. I have to know where we are going. But having to know is very different from being informed. The opposite of being informed is lack of trust. But waiting on the other side of the addiction to the need to know, on the other side of this lack of trust, is Wisdom, one of the greatest of all human resources. Wisdom is never rigid.

4. Addiction to being fixated on what's not working rather than what is working.

If I fix what's not working long enough, it becomes a sure enough. All that energy makes it so. But on the other side of this addiction is that most invaluable human resource: Vision. Vision, the capacity to look at the whole as well as the parts, is waiting on the other side of this addiction.

Vision holds together the four parts of seeing:
Perception -- outer seeing
Insight -- internal viewing and connection
Intuition -- flame
Vision -- incorporates the whole of it all.

So when we take a look at the Four Universal Human Resources, we see on the flipside of these resources, the four addictions:

The Four Universal Human Resources

Love vs. Intensity
Power vs. Perfection
Vision vs. Being fixated on what's not working.
Wisdom vs. Need to know

The creative spirit knows how to use the four universal human resources. When we release the creative spirit within ourselves, we always remember who we are and whenever we don't release the creative spirit within ourselves we are involved in habituation and we tend to forget who we are.

Anthony Muchado, a South American poet, said it beautifully: "I dreamt last night, oh marvellous error, that honey bees were in my heart making honey out of my old failures."

It's what native people call the "re-greening of one's rapture" for life. As Africans say, "The earth sings in green."

I invite you to consider the creative spirit as relentlessly re-greening itself.

"If you look to others for fulfillment
you will never truly be fulfilled.
If your happiness depends on money,
you will never be happy with yourself.
Be content with what you have:
rejoice in the way things are.
When you relaize there is nothing lacking,
the whole world belongs to you."

Lao Tzu

ABOUT ANGELES ARRIEN: Anthropologist, educator, award-winning author and corporate consultant, Angeles Arrien bridges cultural anthropology, psychology and comparative religion. Her work with multi-cultural issues, mediation, and conflict resolution has been used with the International Rights Commission and the World Indigenous Council. She is also the founder and president of the Angeles Arrien Foundation for Cross-Cultural Education and Research, a fellow of the Institute of Noetic Sciences and the author of The Four-Fold Way and Signs of Life.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT ANGELES ARRIEN'S BOOKS, TAPES, AND TRAINING SESSIONS, VISIT: http://www.angelesarrien.com

Please note that Angeles Arrien is not a member of Subud or SICA and has no formal connection with either. Her work is presented here as a service because her work and insights are so relevant to our exploration of creativity and spirituality.

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