Creativity is a divine spark, says Osho

Creativity has nothing to do with any activity in particular — with painting, poetry, dancing, singing. It has nothing to do with anything in particular.

Anything can be creative—you bring that quality to the activity. Activity itself is neither creative nor uncreative. You can paint in an uncreative way. You can sing in an uncreative way. You can clean the floor in a creative way. You can cook in a creative way.

Creativity is the quality that you bring to the activity you are doing. It is an attitude, an inner approach—how you look at things.

Don’t confine creativity

So the first thing to be remembered is: don’t confine creativity to anything in particular. A man is creative—and if he is creative, whatsoever he does, even if he walks, you can see in his walking there is creativity. Even if he sits silently and does nothing, even non-doing will be a creative act. Buddha, sitting under the Bodhi Tree doing nothing, is the greatest creator the world has ever known.

Once you understand it—that it is you, the person, who is creative or uncreative—then this problem disappears.

Not everybody can be a painter, and there is no need also. If everybody is a painter the world will be very ugly; it will be difficult to live. And not everybody can be a dancer, and there is no need. But everybody can be creative.

Whatsoever you do, if you do it joyfully, if you do it lovingly, if your act of doing it is not purely economical, then it is creative. If you have something growing out of it within you, if it gives you growth, it is spiritual, it is creative, it is divine.

Divinity and creativity go together

You become more divine as you become more creative. All the religions of the world have said: God is the creator. I don’t know whether he is the creator or not, but one thing I know: the more creative you become, the more Godly you become. When your creativity comes to a climax, when your whole life becomes creative, you live in godliness.

Love what you do. Be meditative while you are doing it—whatsoever it is, irrelevant of the fact of what it is.

Creativity means loving whatsoever you do—enjoying, celebrating it, as a gift of existence! Maybe nobody comes to know about it. The value is intrinsic.

So if get creative because you are looking for fame—even if you become as famous as Pablo Picasso—you will miss it. Then you are, in fact, not creative at all: you are a politician, ambitious. If fame happens, good. If it doesn’t happen, good. It should not be the consideration. The consideration should be that you are enjoying whatsoever you are doing. It is your love-affair.

If your act is your love-affair, then it becomes creative. Small things become great by the touch of love and delight.

Belief is powerful

The questioner asks: “I believed I was uncreative.” If you believe in that way, you will become uncreative—because belief is not just belief. It opens doors or it closes doors. If you have a wrong belief, then that will hang around you as a closed door. If you believe that you are uncreative, you will become uncreative—because that belief will obstruct, continuously negate, all possibilities of flowing. It will not allow your energy to flow because you will continuously say: “I am uncreative.”

This has been taught to everybody. Very few people are accepted as creative: A few painters, a few poets—they are one in a million. This is foolish! Every human being is a born creator. Watch children and you will see: all of them are creative. By and by, we destroy their creativity. By and by, we force wrong beliefs on them. By and by, we distract them. By and by, we make them more and more economical, political and ambitious.

You can’t be creative if you’re ambitious

When ambition enters, creativity disappears—because an ambitious man cannot be creative, because an ambitious man cannot love any activity for its own sake. While he is painting he is looking ahead; he is thinking, ‘When am I going to get a Nobel Prize?’ When he is writing a novel, he is looking ahead. He is always in the future but a creative person is always in the present.

We destroy creativity. Nobody is born uncreative, but we make 99 per cent of people uncreative.

But just throwing the responsibility on the society is not going to help, you have to take your life in your own hands. You have to drop all wrong conditioning. You have to drop wrong, hypnotic auto-suggestions that have been given to you in your childhood. Drop them! Purify yourself of all conditioning… and suddenly you will see you are creative.

To be and to be creative are synonymous. It is impossible to be and not to be creative. But that impossible thing has happened, that ugly phenomenon has happened, because all your creative sources have been plugged, blocked, destroyed, and your whole energy has been forced into some activity that the society thinks is going to pay.

Beware of the destructive

Our whole attitude about life is money-oriented. And money is one of the most uncreative things one can become interested in. Our whole approach is power-oriented and power is destructive, not creative. A man who is after money will become destructive, because money has to be robbed, exploited; it has to be taken away from many people, only then can you have it. Power simply means you have to make many people impotent, you have to destroy them—only then will you be powerful, can you be powerful.

Remember: these are destructive acts. A creative act enhances the beauty of the world; it gives something to the world, it never takes anything from it. A creative person comes into the world, enhances the beauty of the world—a song here, a painting there. He makes the world dance better, enjoy better, love better, meditate better. When he leaves this world, he leaves a better world behind him. Nobody may know him; somebody may know him—that is not the point. But he leaves the world a better world, tremendously fulfilled because his life has been of some intrinsic value.

Money, power, prestige, are uncreative; not only uncreative, but destructive activities. Beware of them! And if you beware of them you can become creative very easily. I am not saying that your creativity is going to give you power, prestige, money.

Creativity is a benediction

No, I cannot promise you any rose-gardens. It may give you trouble. It may force you to live a poor man’s life. All that I can promise you is that deep inside you will be the richest man possible; deep inside you will be fulfilled; deep inside you will be full of joy and celebration. You will be continuously receiving more and more blessings from God. Your life will be a life of benediction.

But it is possible that outwardly you may not be famous, you may not have money, you may not succeed in the so-called world. But to succeed in this so-called world is to fail deeply, is to fail in the inside world. And what are you going to do with the whole world at your feet if you have lost your own self? What will you do if you possess the whole world and you don’t possess yourself? A creative person possesses his own being; he is a Master.

That’s why in the East we have been calling sannyasins “swamis”.  The word swami means a master. Beggars have been called swamis, masters. Emperors we have known, but they proved in the final account, in the final conclusion of their lives, that they were beggars. A man who is after money, power and prestige is a beggar, because he continuously begs. He has nothing to give to the world.

Give, share freely

Be a giver. Share whatsoever you can! And remember, I am not making any distinction between small things and great things. If you can smile whole-heartedly, hold somebody’s hand and smile, then it is a creative act, a great creative act. Just embrace somebody to your heart and you are creative. Just look with loving eyes at somebody… just a loving look can change the whole world of a person.

Be creative. Don’t be worried about what you are doing—one has to do many things—but do everything creatively, with devotion. Then your work becomes worship. Then whatsoever you do is a prayer. And whatsoever you do is an offering at the altar.

Drop this belief that you are uncreative. I know how this belief is created: you may not have been a gold medalist in the university; you may not have been top in your class; your painting may not have won appreciation; when you play on your flute, neighbours report to the police. Maybe — but just because of these things, don’t get the wrong belief that you are uncreative. That may be because you are imitating others.

People have a very limited idea of what being creative is—they think it is only about playing the guitar or the flute or writing poetry—so people go on writing rubbish in the name of poetry. You have to find out what you can do and what you cannot do. Everybody cannot do everything! You have to search and find your destiny. You have to grope in the dark, I know. It is not very clear-cut what your destiny is—but that’s how life is. And it is good that one has to search for it, because in the very search, something grows.