## Highlights - In each moment, we are immersed in a field of undifferentiated matter from which our senses gather bits of information. The outside universe we perceive doesn’t exist as such. Through a series of electrical and chemical reactions, we generate a reality internally. We create forests and oceans, warmth and cold. We read words, hear voices, and form interpretations. Then, in an instant, we produce a response. All of this in a world of our own creation. ([Location 118](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09Z7MH5C3&location=118)) - Think of the universe as an eternal creative unfolding. Trees blossom. Cells replicate. Rivers forge new tributaries. The world pulses with productive energy, and everything that exists on this planet is driven by that energy. Every manifestation of this unfolding is doing its own work on behalf of the universe, each in its own way, true to its own creative impulse. Just as trees grow flowers and fruits, humanity creates works of art. ([Location 131](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09Z7MH5C3&location=131)) - There is a season— And a time to every purpose under heaven A time to be born, a time to die A time to plant, a time to reap A time to kill, a time to heal A time to laugh, a time to weep A time to build up, a time to break down A time to dance, a time to mourn A time to cast away stones A time to gather stones together These rhythms are not set by us. We are all participating in a larger creative act we are not conducting. We are being conducted. The artist is on a cosmic timetable, just like all of nature. If you have an idea you’re excited about and you don’t bring it to life, it’s not uncommon for the idea to find its voice through another maker. This isn’t because the other artist stole your idea, but because the idea’s time has come. ([Location 144](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09Z7MH5C3&location=144)) - In this great unfolding, ideas and thoughts, themes and songs and other works of art exist in the aether and ripen on schedule, ready to find expression in the physical world. As artists, it is our job to draw down this information, transmute it, and share it. We are all translators for messages the universe is broadcasting. The best artists tend to be the ones with the most sensitive antennae to draw in the energy resonating at a particular moment. Many great artists first develop sensitive antennae not to create art but to protect themselves. They have to protect themselves because everything hurts more. They feel everything more deeply. ([Location 156](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09Z7MH5C3&location=156)) - We are all antennae for creative thought. Some transmissions come on strong, others are more faint. If your antenna isn’t sensitively tuned, you’re likely to lose the data in the noise. Particularly since the signals coming through are often more subtle than the content we collect through sensory awareness. They are energetic more than tactile, intuitively perceived more than consciously recorded. Most of the time, we are gathering data from the world through the five senses. With the information that’s being transmitted on higher frequencies, we are channeling energetic material that can’t be physically grasped. It defies logic, in the same way that an electron can be in two places at once. This elusive energy is of great worth, though so few people are open enough to hold it. ([Location 164](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09Z7MH5C3&location=164)) - How do we pick up on a signal that can neither be heard nor be defined? The answer is not to look for it. Nor do we attempt to predict or analyze our way into it. Instead, we create an open space that allows it. A space so free of the normal overpacked condition of our minds that it functions as a vacuum. Drawing down the ideas that the universe is making available. ([Location 170](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09Z7MH5C3&location=170)) - There’s a time for certain ideas to arrive, and they find a way to express themselves through us. ([Location 181](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09Z7MH5C3&location=181)) - This content does not come from inside us. The Source is out there. A wisdom surrounding us, an inexhaustible offering that is always available. We either sense it, remember it, or tune in to it. Not only through our experiences. It may also be dreams, intuitions, subliminal fragments, or other ways still unknown by which the outside finds its way inside. To the mind, this material appears to come from within. But that’s an illusion. There are tiny fragments of the vastness of Source stored within us. ([Location 194](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09Z7MH5C3&location=194)) - In most of our daily activities we choose the agenda and develop a strategy to achieve the goal at hand. We create the program. Awareness moves differently. The program is happening around us. The world is the doer and we are the witness. We have little or no control over the content. The gift of awareness allows us to notice what’s going on around and inside ourselves in the present moment. And to do so without attachment or involvement. We may observe bodily sensations, passing thoughts and feelings, sounds or visual cues, smells and tastes. Through detached noticing, awareness allows an observed flower to reveal more of itself without our intervention. This is true of all things. ([Location 215](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09Z7MH5C3&location=215)) - As soon as you label an aspect of Source, you’re no longer noticing, you’re studying. ([Location 223](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09Z7MH5C3&location=223)) - Each of us has a container within. It is constantly being filled with data. It holds the sum total of our thoughts, feelings, dreams, and experiences in the world. Let’s call this the vessel. Information does not enter the vessel directly, like rain filling into a barrel. It is filtered in a unique way for each of us. Not everything makes it through this filter. And what does get through doesn’t always do so faithfully. ([Location 240](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09Z7MH5C3&location=240)) - Our filter inevitably reduces Source intelligence by interpreting the data that arrives instead of letting it pass freely. ([Location 249](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09Z7MH5C3&location=249)) - It is helpful to know this default system can be bypassed. With training, we can improve our interface with Source and radically expand the vessel’s ability to receive. Changing the instrument is not always the easiest way to change the sound of the music, but it can be the most powerful. ([Location 261](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09Z7MH5C3&location=261)) - Though artists generally aren’t aware of it, that end work is a by-product of a greater desire. We aren’t creating to produce or sell material products. The act of creation is an attempt to enter a mysterious realm. A longing to transcend. What we create allows us to share glimpses of an inner landscape, one that is beyond our understanding. Art is our portal to the unseen world. ([Location 272](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09Z7MH5C3&location=272)) - Material for our work surrounds us at every turn. It’s woven into conversation, nature, chance encounters, and existing works of art. When looking for a solution to a creative problem, pay close attention to what’s happening around you. Look for clues pointing to new methods or ways to further develop current ideas. ([Location 297](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09Z7MH5C3&location=297)) - When clues present themselves, it can sometimes feel like the delicate mechanism of a clock at work. As if the universe is nudging you with little reminders that it’s on your side and wants to provide everything you need to complete your mission. ([Location 320](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09Z7MH5C3&location=320)) - A practice is the embodiment of an approach to a concept. This can support us in bringing about a desired state of mind. When we repeat the exercise of opening our senses to what is, we move closer to living in a continually open state. We build a habit. One where expanded awareness is our default way of being in the world. ([Location 331](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09Z7MH5C3&location=331)) - When we take notice of the cycles of the planet, and choose to live in accordance with its seasons, something remarkable happens. We become connected. We begin to see ourselves as part of a greater whole that is constantly regenerating itself. And we may then tap into this all-powerful propagating force and ride its creative wave. ([Location 336](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09Z7MH5C3&location=336)) - Living life as an artist is a practice. You are either engaging in the practice or you’re not. It makes no sense to say you’re not good at it. It’s like saying, “I’m not good at being a monk.” You are either living as a monk or you’re not. We tend to think of the artist’s work as the output. The real work of the artist is a way of being in the world. ([Location 352](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09Z7MH5C3&location=352)) - Broadening our practice of awareness is a choice we can make at any moment. It is not a search, though it is stoked by a curiosity or hunger. A hunger to see beautiful things, hear beautiful sounds, feel deeper sensations. To learn, and to be fascinated and surprised on a continual basis. ([Location 362](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09Z7MH5C3&location=362)) - It’s not always easy to follow the subtle energetic information the universe broadcasts, especially when your friends, family, coworkers, or those with a business interest in your creativity are offering seemingly rational advice that challenges your intuitive knowing. To the best of my ability, I’ve followed my intuition to make career turns, and been recommended against doing so every time. It helps to realize that it’s better to follow the universe than those around you. Interference may also come from the voices within. The ones in your head that murmur you’re not talented enough, your idea isn’t good enough, art isn’t a worthwhile investment of your time, the result won’t be well-received, you’re a failure if the creation isn’t successful. It’s helpful to turn those voices down so you can hear the chimes of the cosmic clock ring, reminding you it’s time. Your time to participate. ([Location 489](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09Z7MH5C3&location=489)) - If you see tremendous beauty or tremendous pain where other people see little or nothing at all, you’re confronted with big feelings all the time. These emotions can be confusing and overwhelming. When those around you don’t see what you see and feel what you feel, this can lead to a sense of isolation and a general feeling of not belonging, of otherness. These charged emotions, powerful when expressed in the work, are the same dark clouds that beg to be numbed to allow sleep or to get out of bed and face the day in the morning. It’s a blessing and a curse. ([Location 523](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09Z7MH5C3&location=523)) - All art is a work in progress. It’s helpful to see the piece we’re working on as an experiment. One in which we can’t predict the outcome. Whatever the result, we will receive useful information that will benefit the next experiment. ([Location 537](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09Z7MH5C3&location=537)) - We’re not playing to win, we’re playing to play. And ultimately, playing is fun. Perfectionism gets in the way of fun. A more skillful goal might be to find comfort in the process. To make and put out successive works with ease. ([Location 541](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09Z7MH5C3&location=541)) - Another approach to overcoming insecurities is to label them. I was working with an artist who was frozen by doubts and unable to move forward. I asked if he was familiar with the Buddhist concept of papancha, which translates as preponderance of thoughts. This speaks to the mind’s tendency to respond to our experiences with an avalanche of mental chatter. He responded, “I know exactly what that is. That’s me.” Now that he had a name for what was holding him back, he was able to normalize his doubts and not take them so seriously. When they came up, we’d call them papancha, notice them, then move forward. ([Location 546](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09Z7MH5C3&location=546))