Defining creativity can be a bit like biting one’s own teeth.
However, once mindfulness is established and embodied,
an experience of flow arises naturally, where the thinking mind fades into the background and the wondrous landscape of spontaneous creativity opens up within the moving bodies.
Once we have let go of the idea that we are the creators and we have to try find new ways to move, then there is space, the pressure is released and we can move freely, and as a result embrace and embody the natural flow of creativity as a consequence. We can surprise ourselves.
All of a sudden it’s possible to fly through the room, to roll and jump, to be still, to feel, to breathe, to hear and feel the music, to just be, and begin again.
“A thousand years ago, a great monk from Nalanda University named Atisha traveled from India to Tibet to help reestablish the purity of the monastic way of life.
He was sixty years old when he arrived in Tibet and, although he had planned to stay only three years,
he remained there until he died at the age of seventy-two. At one point, Atisha met one of the renowned
translators of Buddhist texts into Tibetan,
who asked him how best to practice.
Atisha replied,
"You should find the essential point common to all the teachings and practice that way.”
- An excerpt from ‘One Dharma’ by Joseph Goldstein
What is this essential point common to all the teachings? Is there such a thing? And how is one to practice it?
In the process of putting Original Condition together these were, and still are, the key questions that I ask myself.
When I read this passage the other night I was deeply moved.
For as long as I can remember, I have been looking around and questioning everything and looking for the essential points.
Recently, I had some time and space to take a look at what is happening in Ukraine.
There is a simple impulse that arises when we witness and experience suffering, and this to me is the essential point.
And this to me is what is at the heart of every being, the inherent response to ease this suffering
and move towards reconciliation, peace, union and freedom.
Let us not take this for granted and unclench our fists so as to offer our capable hands.
Testimonial:
“It has been amazing to explore our bodies like they were instruments, with their own creativity and intelligence. Discovering, moving and playing with the body as well as with others, in an open and supportive environment, has been an enlightening experience. Flowing with movement can help in the letting go of thinking, breaking through blockages, understanding better, feeling clearer and more alive - as well as being a lot of fun! It’s not really something that can be explained well enough with words, it is more of an experience to embrace, so, come, trust the process, and you will see for yourself."
- Marina
Testimonial:
"The immersion is an opportunity to explore what it means to really be/live/exist as a human being. To have an experiential soaking of being in a mindful state through meditation, movement, connection and creativity for an undisturbed continuous stretch of time.
Being surrounded with other like-minded people, in the most beautiful space and with the guidance of Dave we allowed ourselves the time to explore and dive deep into the practices and really feel what it means to be. What it means to move and create, to be vulnerable, to be free, to explore ourselves, our fellows and our surroundings. To rest, to play, to release, to listen,
to find stillness in movement and movement in the stillness."
- Jessie Raymond (a meditation & movement teacher,
mother, fashion designer & teacher currently in Rwanda)
on her experience in the Immersion in 2021
