On Creativity. On Life. Amera Ziganii Rao

The Milky Way l. (Bjorn Dahlem. Artist) 

On Creativity. On Life. Amera Ziganii Rao

I talk a great deal in my work about love, the love between two people. The true love between a man and a woman. At the same time, for me, my journey to becoming soul and entering Second Existence, was primarily and almost exclusively, through  the will and desire to become a writer. An original writer. An artist, even though I didn’t even know what that was when I began. I knew I wanted to be part of the incredible group of people who cover eternal truths, was how I saw it, in whatever creative field one looks at. And I wanted to know if it was possible and I wanted to know how it was done.

I studied these following quotes for 14 straight years (just a snippet is reproduced here) and eventually began to understand that the creative process, the real creative process to produce original, individual, self satisfying, moving, controversial and memorable work, was the same as living a true life. And this is first and foremost, to speak in the most general and piercing sense, the anima, the female psyche and all things, Venus. All things unseen. All things, indeed, undervalued on this planet. All art is essentially feminine. Soul is female. Ego is male. In the most symbolic sense. For real. And I was as male as they come. I should know. I come from a father who wouldn’t allow me to cry as a child. A girl child. Ain’t nothing about macho and cerebral and male that I don’t know about! He’s also the same father who officially took me into the kitchen at the age of eight, to wash up, while he told my brother to sit and do nothing, because this was ‘cissy’ work. But that’s a whole ‘nother story. My writing is full of it. How every man is brought up to kill every woman through slavery. And unfortunately, how well they all do it.

The beautiful irony. Not allowed to be a girl, and told I can’t be a boy either. My dear old father’s  biggest mistake, I am so happy to say. But that’s the male psyche overload. Idiocy. Dryness. Cruelty and just plain stupid. It’s the stupidity I resent the most. Because we all get poisoned with it. The prosaic, endlessly banal mediocrity of mind. Waved around as if it is intelligence. As if THAT is being an intellectual. Please! First Existence. Ego. The male psyche. Heartless stupidity. Ego.

The most seminal book I have ever read on creativity is by a man, but clearly, from what I know now, it is all about his ability to tap into his female psyche. His soul. ‘The Courage to Write’ by Ralph Keyes. Surely, the greatest description of courage and therefore the ability to live as one’s true self in life, let alone, to create. Amazing. So grateful to him. I spent a whole year, studying and living and breathing that book. I cannot recommend it enough. So, back to creativity. The female psyche. Soul. God. Imagination. Feelings. Love. Sexuality. Sensuality. Joy. The inner heart. Living a true life, living a whole life, living a love life, living a creative life, living a spiritual life, living an emotional life.

It’s all Second Existence, Second Existence being soul, but for us who are born into First Existence, First Existence being ego, this is almost impossible to understand. When we begin. Deepak Chopra talks of The Gap. Wayne Dyer talks of The Gap. Other masters talk of intuition, the sixth sense. It is all part of the same thing. What is commonly called silence or imagination. Meditation. Meditative contemplation. And the more trapped we are in ego, the less we like of either. Born into this over cerebral animus overload world of machines. The ego of the world. That feeds our own ego like junk food on a drip.

And creates the monsters we become. Dry, non imagination, war driven, terrified, spirit – less, co – dependency, chattering idiots. Been there, done that. Wore the T shirt for years and years. The truest analogy of Sophia Stewart’s script for The Matrix, I am sure. Equilibrium is the same. And so many more. First Existence is ego. The world is First Existence. Yes, we are in the grip of evil and it is all in us.

But once that journey to soul begins, the breaking one’s eye open, as was quoted in Six Feet Under by an older funky and free woman to the female character who’s developing as a photographer – fantastic phrase – breaking one’s eye open - the silence opens up to the magic within and without. Our soul communicating with the soul of the world. Imagination. God. Truth. Imagination. The unseen. The silence. The magic. The scariest place for ego, because ego knows what it means.

Imagination means the end of ego. And that means standing up in a world of human machines and saying, ‘I want to be me. I believe in magic and I want to live a true life of heart, soul and freedom and courage and individuality’. And that is the most seditious thing we as human beings can do, apparently. I have lived that exodus. And it’s devastating and then absolutely beautiful. Incomparably beautiful. And worth every second of hostility, excommunication and ostracisation. Freedom. When we feel and think and understand and know we can never understand all at the same time. That is soul. The Creativity of the Soul. For life as well as creativity. For love as well as creating. For a creative life. Of love. Amera Ziganii Rao ©

Soul and a whole, true life in art or in life – I won’t use the word ‘happiness’. I have learnt that ‘happiness’ is a highly subjective word and means a million things - is also about something else we resist with all our (ego) might. And is excruciating to finally accept. That God is the dark as well as the light. That life is the dark as well as the light. Excruciating, but we survive and we begin to smile at last. Amera Ziganii Rao ©

And the truth comes that co-dependency is not some dysfunctional, wildly emotionally flawed state of being. Co-dependency is normal 'First Existence' love. Common love, every day love, what we all do so easily and with such complaining and misery and backbiting and meanness and frustration. Co-dependency is 'normal' love. Mastery it seems, is the ability to be alone, step out of the crowd, go it alone, and in so doing, be inter - dependent on other people and not stuck to other people, despite one's best efforts to be adult and mature. We share too much, talk too much and stay too much with each other. We do it because what we fear more than anything is to be left alone. That is mastery. Being alone is Second Existence. Samurai. Amera Ziganii Rao ©

I intend to embrace a real focus and fascination and acceptance of pain and suffering in myself and in the world as a state of permanence. And to help as many people as possible, overturn the sickness of Mars and Animus on Earth. I give my life into service. I was always going to do that anyway, after finding a little piece of happiness on this planet in this life, but I accept that the time for service is here and no happiness. I accept in truth and grace and honour actually. What else is there to do after all, other than utilise all my gifts and give my life into service. I accept. No happiness for me. Life is the abode of miseries and this it seems is the ultimate wisdom. Fine. Pain, suffering and empathy and sympathy for those who do not own themselves yet. I can help and help I will. I relinquish all my dreams forever. They don't exist and happiness is not my destiny. Service is. So yes, I am suitably fascinated by the new path. There's nothing for me here anyway. Animus overload of ignorance, harshness and cruelty I can do without. And if that is all there is for me, so be it. I tried with everything I had but it was not meant to be. Service, universal compassion and helping suffering instead. Whatever. Use me as you will. The sex I can take care of. The joy is in me. Because I am love. Use me where I can do the most work and help the most people. All life is sorrowful, says a Buddhist saying. Damn right, so let's try to help spread that word. I am spent, trying to be happy.  Amera Ziganii Rao ©

Polite society has not just separated spirituality from sexual desire, it has also separated spirituality from heart, from kindness, from feelings, from IMAGINATION and from vulnerability. That is the only thing profane on this Earth. Polite society. The cerebral, power driven, religious or (pseudo) scientific mind of evil. First existence. Ego. The prosaic, parochial, highly fearful, hate ridden, unintelligent life. Spirituality is feelings, passion, hardcore sacred sexuality, heart, higher mind and soul. Nothing less. Intention. Magic. Wizardry. Witchery. Sorcery. LOVE. Amera Ziganii Rao ©

Macho fairies. We are macho fairies and pixies and elves. We are allowed to be both. We are allowed to be the whole in our various mixes and we are allowed to be happy. Happiness is feeling. Happiness is vulnerability. Happiness is the heart. The imagination, the sensuality of life, the joy, the wonder and the curiosity that keep us young. Both are required to live a good life. Strength and vulnerability. Macho fairies. Amera Ziganii Rao ©

The Milky Way ll. (Bjorn Dahlem. Artist)

The Masters on Creativity

The ability to live with constant loneliness and a strong sense of revulsion for the banalities of everyday society. The most important thing a writer can have. Hunter S Thompson

I must create a system, or be enslaved by another man’s (woman’s); I will not reason and compare; my business is to create. William Blake

The unifying similarity among geniuses and innovators is not cognitive or affective but motivational. What is common among them is the unwillingness or inability to strive for goals everyone else accepts, their refusal to live by a presented life theme. Csikszentmihalyi

The heart of creativity is an experience of the mystical union…Those who speak in spiritual terms routinely refer to God as the creator but seldom see ‘creator’ as the literal term for ‘artist.’ I am suggesting you take the term creator quite literally. You are seeking to forge a creative alliance, artist to artist, with the Great Creator. Julia Cameron

You breathe, new shapes appear, and the music of a desire is as widespread as spring begins to move like a great wagon. Drive slowly. Some of us walking alongside are lame. Rumi

Ego is not just having a big head. Ego is present every time you feel any kind of fear, or hear yourself saying, “That’s mine!” The truth tells us that nothing is ‘mine’ or ‘yours’, are all trustees. So where there is ego, there is attachment, and where there is attachment there is fear, and where there is fear there cannot be love. Detach from everything, and you will banish ego, fear will be no more, only then can true love return, and our oldest friend happiness will feel it is then safe to make a re-appearance in your life. Innerspace

I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the heart’s affections and the truth of the imagination. John Keats

Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration. Thomas Eddison

Imagination is more important than knowledge. Albert Einstein

Writing books is the closest men (women) ever come to child-bearing. Norman Mailer

You need not leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. You need not even listen. Simply wait. You need not even wait. Just learn to become quiet and still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked. It has no choice. It will roll in ecstasy at your feet. Franz Kafka

The Milky Way lll (Bjorn Dahlem. Artist)

You’ve got to pick a subject and stick your head into it. That’s what poets do. They write. You’ve already got your subject. It is you. Ted Hughes to Sylvia Plath

The Creative Process. Preparation. Unconscious Incubation. Moment of Inspiration. Getting it down on paper. Critical Revision. William Miller

I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us. If the book we’re reading doesn’t wake us  with a blow on the head, what are we reading for...A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us. Franz Kafka

To write any kind of imaginary work, you gotta fall on your sword. You gotta be ready to be blasted out of existence. Lots of times, the blood is on the floor. Arthur Miller

We are not physical beings who may have a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a physical experience. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Creating is a harrowing business. I work in a state of anguish all year. I shut myself up, I don’t go out. It’s a hard life, which is why I understand Proust so well; I have such an admiration for what he has written about the agony of creation. Yves Saint Laurent

The most creative and morally advanced people are typically not models of high self esteem. Their inner lives are often plagued by self-doubt, worries, fears and feelings of inferiority. One reason for this chronic insecurity is that they base their self- evaluations on very high personal standards, and thus their own behaviour seems inadequate and far from ideal in comparison. But this insecurity is usually a sign of an active conscience at work. Elizabeth Mika

Writing is the most difficult thing in the world and takes great courage. John Fowles

Isolation, spiritual dissociation and the possibilities of human awakening. Wikipedia on Saul Bellow

You have a bare stage and on that bare stage you have the world. It can become anything in front of you. It employs all the arts. Painting, music. And it’s there. It’s primitive. It goes way back and you know and you can feel. It connects us to our past, our loins, our innermost, that’s where we feel it. In films you still can be removed somewhat, but in the theatre, it’s you and that three dimensions and anything can happen. Al Pacino

A good writer stands above movements, neither a leader nor a follower, but a bright white golf ball in a fairway of windblown daisies. Hunter S Thompson

Be not afraid of greatness: Some men (women) are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them. William Shakespeare

Thought is more important than art. Art is one of the many products of thought. An impressive one, perhaps the most impressive one, but to revere art and have no understanding of the process that forces it into existence, is finally not even to understand what art is. Amiri Baraka

“Mr Anderson thinks that everything inside of him is worthless and embarrassing. Isn’t that right, Todd? Isn’t that your worst fear? Well, I think you’re wrong. I think you have something inside of you that is worth a great deal.” John Keating to Todd Anderson in Dead Poet’s Society

How to be an artist; Stay loose. Learn to watch snails. Plant impossible gardens. Make little signs that say ‘yes’ and post them all over your house. Make friends with uncertainty. Henry Miller

I am called an angry old man by the press and that is a wonderfully dismissive remark. No one asks me what the fuck it is I am angry about. The anger is based on facts and on what is actually taking place. I think that is too easily ignored. Harold Pinter (Just before he won the Nobel Prize for Literature)

I know where I am going and I know the truth and I don’t have to be what you want me to be. I’m free to be what I want. Muhammad Ali

Consider that the ocean is God. It has always been. Now reach in and grab a cup full of water. In that instant, the cup becomes the individual, but it has always been, has it not? This is the case with your soul. Gary Zukav

Nothing matters but the writing. There has been nothing else worthwhile. Samuel Beckett

In other traditions, good and evil are relative to the position in which you are standing. What is good for one is evil for the other. And you play your part, not withdrawing from the world when you realize how horrible it is, but seeing that this horror is simply the foreground of a wonder: a mysterium tremendum et fascinans.“All life is sorrowful” is the first Buddhist saying, and so it is. It wouldn’t be life if there weren’t temporality involved, which is sorrow – loss, loss, loss. You’ve got to say yes to life and see it as magnificent this way. Joseph Campbell

I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy. Rabindranath Tagore

I don’t think I run roughshod over people, but if something sucks, I tell people to their face. It’s my job to be honest. I know what I’m talking about, and I usually turn out to be right. That’s the culture I tried to create. We are brutally honest with each other. Steve Jobs

I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right. Albert Einstein

We cannot all be mystics in this oh so practical world. Those people who are termed ‘mystics’ try to push back the frontiers of the mind. They seek to define the soul within. Often their ideas are rejected or only accepted by a few. Soul Trek

The fullness of form, the tautness of form, all these things are connected with life and life is sex. Henry Moore

I am not my body, I am not my accumulations, I am not my accomplishments, I am not my reputation. I am whole and perfect as I was created. Wayne Dyer

Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who could not hear the music. Angela Monet

You are the luminous mystery in which the entire universe with its forms and phenomena arises and subsides. When this realization dawns there is a complete transformation of your personal self into your universal self...the complete loss of all fear, including death. You have become a being who radiates love the same way the sun radiates light. Deepak Chopra

...Beliefs demand loyalty. If you try to move away from the things you believe in, they will punish you. The belief will make you feel guilty. Guilt is your punishment for abandoning what you believe. Iyanla Vanzant

They have exiled me from their society and I am pleased, because humanity does not exile, except the one whose noble spirit rebels against oppression. Kahlil Gibran

Everyone thinks of changing humanity and nobody thinks of changing himself (herself). Leo Tolstoy

Art is innate in the artist, like an instinct that seizes and makes a tool out of the human being. The thing in the final analysis that wills something in him (her) is not he (she), the personal man (woman), but the aim of the art. Carl Jung

I have to talk myself into bravery with every sentence. Sometimes every syllable. Cynthia Ozick in Ralph Keyes book, The Courage To Write

He shows that while the writer’s anxieties - of unearthing unsavoury truths about oneself, of exposing oneself to ridicule, of hurting trusting friends – cannot be overcome, they can be harnessed and used to develop serious, powerful writing. Ralph Keyes. The Courage To Write

For decades I have wondered what was wrong with me, why I would write for a while and then lose momentum and eventually stop, shoving my manuscript into a drawer. I just thought I didn’t have enough talent, or, as Mr Keyes touches on in one chapter, that I was afraid of the reaction of family members if I were to write honestly. That is indeed one of my many fears, but how relieved I was to learn that many, many writers feel the same way! On Ralph Keyes, The Courage To Write

Writers block. Procrastination. Loneliness. Doubt. Fear of Failure. Fear of rejection. Just plain...fear. What does it mean if you struggle with these feelings on a daily basis? It means you’re a writer. Dennis Palumbo. Writing From The Inside Out

If you are an artist, people long for the depths of your expression; if you are a businessperson, they hope to be inspired by your vision and creativity. And no, the public doesn’t want the canned version of a good idea; they want YOUR good idea, the one that can only come from your own particular set of DNA. Suzanne Falter Barns

‘Fly’, Chamcha shrieked at Gibreel. ‘Start flying, now.’ And added, without knowing its source, the second command: ‘And sing.’

How does newness come into the world? How is it born? Of what fusions, translations, conjoinings is it made? How does it survive, extreme and dangerous as it is? What compromises, what deals, what betrayals of its secret nature must it make to stave off the wrecking crew, the exterminating angel, the guillotine? Is birth always a fall? Do angels have wings? Can men fly?
Satanic Verses. Salman Rushdie

My head is a torrent of ideas. Samuel Beckett

There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living. Nelson Mandela

Do you not see how necessary a world of pains and troubles is to school an intelligence and make it soul? Call the world if you please 'The Vale of Soul-making'. John Keats

Wisdom ceases to be wisdom when it becomes too proud to weep, too grave to laugh, and too selfish to seek other than itself. Kahlil Gibran

I believe there's an inner power that makes winners or losers. And the winners are the ones who really listen to the truth of their hearts. Sylvester Stallone

The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. Friedrich Nietzsche

The choice is made. I thirst for Wisdom. Now hast thou rent the veil before the Secret Path and taught the great Yana. Thy servant here is ready for thy guidance. 'Tis well Shravaka. Prepare thyself, for thou wilt have to travel on alone. Thy Teacher can but point the way. The Path is one for all, the means to reach the goal must vary with the pilgrims. Which wilt thou choose, O thou of dauntless heart? The Samtan of Eye Doctrine, fourfold Dhyana, or thread thy way through Paramitas, six in number, noble gates of virtue leading to Bodhi and to Prajna, seventh step of Wisdom. The Book of The Golden Precepts

When I was 5, my mother told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life. John Lennon

What progress we are making. In the Middle Ages they would have burned me. Now they are content with burning my books. Sigmund Freud

Another misconception is that ability automatically leads to high achievement, that compelling talent will overcome all obstacles. As children, many of us heard inspiring stories about eminent men and women who did just that. However, the reality is that there are both circumstantial and psychological factors that can adversely affect the actualization of the gifted. Mary Rocamora. Misconceptions About The Gifted

Art is the highest form of hope. Gerhard Richter



The Milky Way lV (Bjorn Dahlem. Artist)

In other words, there are two things to become soul. In life, love and creativity. The female psyche (in all of us) and courage. Courage, courage and courage. And all it takes is work. Skilled work from the right sources. The wisdom journey is the courage journey is the greatest academic journey any of us will ever make in this life. An academic journey and a silent journey. Knowledge + imagination =  wisdom = the whole. Amera Ziganii Rao ©

A Mystic, a Mother, an Artist, a Philosopher, an Intellectual, an Academic, a Thinker. A Feeler. Women and Men of Venus. Amera Ziganii Rao ©

No wonder men (and women) of Mars are so power led. They don't have anything else. Animus out of control. No heart, no sex and no love. Got it. The other tribe. The tribe of non soul. Blandness, 'respectability', rampant materialism, and sexless mediocrity. Mars overload. Not attractive. Not nice. And certainly not sexy. No love = no passion. No passion = no interest. Amera Ziganii Rao ©

Knowledge + imagination =  wisdom = the whole. Amera Ziganii Rao ©

Other Links

Toltec Wisdom. Don Miguel Ruiz

http://ameraziganiirao.blogspot.com/2011/05/toltec-book-of-wisdom-don-miguel-ruiz.html

Courage. The Joy of Living Dangerously. Osho

http://ameraziganiirao.blogspot.com/2011/07/practical-wisdom-courage-osho.html

Lives of Freedom. Born to BECOME Free. Amera Ziganii Rao

http://ameraziganiirao.blogspot.com/2011/08/lives-of-freedom-born-to-become-free.html

The Other Commandments. The Laws of Spirit. Dan Millman

http://ameraziganiirao.blogspot.com/2011/11/other-commandments-laws-of-spirit-dan.html

Dark Nights of The Soul. An Excerpt on Sex. Thomas Moore

http://ameraziganiirao.blogspot.com/2011/05/dark-nights-of-soul-thomas-moore.html

In Favour of the Sensitive Man ll. Amera Ziganii Rao

http://ameraziganiirao.blogspot.com/2011/05/in-favour-of-sensitive-man-ll-amera_14.html

Picasso. A Few Images

http://ameraziganiirao.blogspot.com/2011/05/picasso-few-images.html

Wolf. Sex and The Two Tribes. Amera Ziganii Rao

http://ameraziganiirao.blogspot.com/2011/05/wolf-david-gandy-photograph-amera.html

Amera Ziganii Rao is a philosophical writer, essayist, social commentator, prose writer, dramatist and photographer artist as well as a consciousness explorer, self actualiser and emotional healer. She is a former journalist who is now turning professional with her art forms and indeed, her healing forms, after a long journey of inner searching, self teaching and exploring many layers and areas of both craft and wisdom. She is now working on her first book of philosophy and esoteric thought, and social and cultural commentary. She is also showing her first photography collections. And last but most definitely not least, she is building a business to share her consciousness and empowering explorations to reach as many people as possible across the world. She is 46 years old and currently lives in London.