It felt like being on the road this morning. You know, that strange waking in a motel on the way to somewhere, feeling? The coolness in the air and silent emptiness on the roadway punctuated by a random car rolling by. A little sad, but a little free.

“Truth is a pathless land…” 

Jiddu Krishanmurti plays a significant role in my life and creative practice, between which there is little separation. When I was a baby, my parents began attending the Krishnamurti talks at the Oak Grove in Meiner’s Oaks in the Ojai Valley. We lived in Venice in the house I was born in near the boardwalk and we would drive up PCH and up the mountain to hear him speak. It is some of my earliest memories, the Oak Grove, the gathering, his voice that I only heard from a distance and my best friend, Francesca. 

This led to my parents acquiring land in the national forest by partnering with Francesca’s parents and so, we lived off grid in the wilderness under the vivid stars in the clear air, drinking fresh water from a spring up the hill. The land was my teacher and my protector, and I adhered always to the pathless path as I traveled through it and my life. 

Damaged in Processing 

Practice is quite integral to such a journey. There are resources and skills that make such an undertaking possible and probable. While we must accept the value of the unknown, we can also practice knowing. The middle way is a dance between opposites which do not have to be in opposition. It is the nature of balance, growth and change. Things are not fixed, however, they are real and we can observe and reveal understanding of that reality. 

In this way, suffering (dukkha), often presenting as the chronic habits of traumatized selves manifesting as identity, has opportunity for resolution continually rising in the present moment. 

Dharma Centered Creating 

I’ve never been a fan of the tortured artist trope. The artist as victim. It did not align with the dharma teaching and practice of lessening suffering. Suffering is a part of life, this is inherent, this is what the four truths acknowledge, but the eight fold path gives us a framework for agency within this condition and opportunities for liberation and compassion and freedom which I was entirely intent upon integrating and implementing in my life and creative practice. 

My expressions of “suffering” are my expressions of truth, experience, healing, transformation and compassion. Rising to what is real, accepting and releasing with patience. 

Freedom 

Is possible. It is turning from a dependent relationship with violence to a way of peace rooted in truth. It is a journey each person must take for themselves as an ever unfolding experience of what is actually here.

It is extremely helpful to work with others who are also practicing, so I have begun to form a Dharma centered, secular artist sangha. For me, there is no separation between the spiritual and the material and the dharma demonstrates this in practice. I was trained in the Vipassana tradition which brings mindfulness into daily application in every moment, every action. 

To intentionally apply Vipassana techniques to one’s creative process, in my experience, is to invite freedom, through healing, into your life, your work, your relationships and your creative expression.

Dhamma Road Art School and Salon 

Mindful creating accountability and support workshops focused on learning and applying meditation practice and principles to the development of the artist and their work. 

At the intersection of my spiritual and philosophical trainings and my professional career in photography, art and music is the Mindfulness School for Damaged Creatives. 

Emerging from my own lived experience of illness and recovery in relationship with creativity, this practice is the way I do my work and the way I live my life. It is the methodology for my self development and agency within my journey. It is everything. 

After one year of teaching students to develop their meditation, it is emerging that the next step is in application. As my students are also artists and creators who are applying their practice to their work, it makes sense to intentionally create space and augmented support for these endeavors. 

I invite all artists and creatives to this path at any stage of process, career and meditation experience. The workshop is not focused on a particular craft but on the creative process itself.

www.attasalina.com/creativity-and-mindfulness