Creativity

Krishnamurti

Question: What is true creativity?  And how is it different from that which is celebrated in popular culture?

What is generally called creativity is mostly man-made: painting, music, literature, both romantic and factual, all the architecture, the marvellous technology, and all those who are involved in all this, the painters, the writers, the poets, the philosophical writers, probably consider themselves as creative.  And we all seem to agree with them.  That's the popular idea of what is a creative person.  Do you agree to that?  I think we all see that, that all man-made things most beautiful, the great cathedrals, temples and Islamic mosques, some of them are extraordinarily beautiful.  I don't know if you have seen them, and if you have, they are really marvellous.  And the people who built these were anonymous, we don't know who built them.  They were only concerned with building, writing, the bible, and all that.  Nobody knows who wrote them.  But now, with us, anonymity is almost gone.  And perhaps in anonymity, there is a different kind of creativity.  It is not based on success, money, and twenty eight million books sold in ten years, and so on and so on.  The speaker himself at one time tried anonymity because the speaker doesn't like all this fuss and nonsense.  He tried to talk behind a curtain!  And it became rather absurd.

So anonymity has great importance.  In that there is a different quality, different - this personal motive doesn't exist, the personal attitudes and personal opinions, it is a feeling of freedom from which you are acting.  But most creativity, as we call it, is man-made.  That is, this creation takes from the known.  Right?  You know the great musicians, Beethoven, Bach and so on, it is from the known they act.  And the writers, philosophers and so on, also have read, accumulated, developed their own style and so on, always moving, acting or writing from that which has been accumulated, known.  And this we call, generally, creativity.

Now is that really creative?  Please, let's talk about it.  Or is there a different kind of creativity which is born out of the freedom from the known?  You understand my question?  Because when we paint, write, create a marvellous structure out of stone, it is the accumulative knowledge, whether in the scientific field or in the world of art, human art, there is always this sense of carrying from the past to the present.  Or imagination, romantic, factual, moral and so on.  Is there creativity that is something totally different from this activity that we call generally creativity?  You are following?

We are asking, and I think it is rather an important question to go into, if you are willing, whether there is an action, there is a living, there is a movement, which is not from the known.  That is, is there a creation from a mind that is not burdened from all the turmoils of life, from all the social pressures, economic and so on, is there a creation out of a mind that has freed itself from the known?  And it can then use memory.  You understand?  Knowledge.  But we start with knowledge and that we call creative.  But we are suggesting that there is a creativity which is not born out of the known.  When that creative impulse, or movement takes place, it can then use the known.  But not the other way round.  I don't know if you are following what I am saying.

If you don't mind some time, try, or find out whether the mind can ever be free from the known - the known being all the accumulative experience, remembrance, the knowledge that one has acquired, the impressions and so on, if the mind can be free from all that.  And in that very state of mind creation as we know it may not be necessary.  You understand?  A man who has a talent for writing feels he must express himself, he develops his own style, the way he writes, Keats, and so on and the others, they have this impulse to fulfil, create.  Perhaps their own lives are not all that beautiful - like Michelangelo, Raphael and all those people.  Sorry to quote these names, I am not learned but I have visited many museums when I was young, I was pushed into it and all that, and the remnants of all that remains.  And I have talked to a great many artists, writers, friends and so on.

 It seems to me that all our creation in the scientific world, knowledge, human art, it always from a point, from a talent, from a gift, and that gift is exploited to its fullest extent.  Like a musician who has a gift, a protege, he becomes tremendously important.  And we common people admire all that and wish we had some of that.  As we haven't got it we run after them, we almost worship them - the conductors, you know the game that goes on.

And when you begin to question what is creativity, as the questioner is asking, is it something totally different, which I think we all can have.  Not the specialists, not the professionals, not the talented, gifted, I think we can all have this extraordinary mind that is really free from all the burden which man has imposed upon himself, created for himself.  And then out of that sane, rational, healthy life, something totally different comes.  And that may not necessarily be expressed as in painting, architecture; why should it?  You follow?  If you have gone into this fairly deeply, and I hope you will, you will find out that there is a state of mind which actually has no experience whatsoever.  Because experience implies a mind that is still groping, asking, seeking, and therefore struggling in darkness, and wanting to go beyond it.  But a mind that is very clear, not confused, has no conflict, has no problem.  You understand?  Has no problem.  You try it.  Such a mind has no need to express, talk - I am talking, sorry!  The speaker is talking not because he wants to impress you, or anything of that kind, which is too silly, or persuade you to certain attitudes, opinions and judgements, it is a kind of friendly communication with two people who are concerned with all this enormous complex life, who haven't found a complete total answer to all this.  And there is a complete and total answer if we apply our minds, our hearts to this.

So there is a creativity which is not man-made.  Don't please say, that is god-made, that has no meaning either, because if our own minds are extraordinarily clear, without a shadow of conflict then that mind is really in a state of creation, which needs no expression, no fulfilment, all that publicity and nonsense.

From Questions and Answers : Krishnamurti Foundation Trust Ltd, UK