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You say that making art is not an act of the mind or the intellect, but of the heart and the soul.

Yes, and I want to be clear about that. We have a culture that is very competitive and also very product-oriented. And artists live within this culture, so there is a tendency to advise artists to think about shrewd career moves and consider the odds and pursue an artistic unfolding much the way someone would climb a corporate ladder.

However, the reality is that, again, if we are living in an interactive and essentially a benevolent universe—and that in itself is a leap of faith for a lot of people—then it comes back down to the idea that every time we make a piece of art, we are in fact having a spiritual experience.

I think creativity is just part of our spiritual DNA, in one form or another. Artists talk about it a lot of different ways. But, essentially, when you're really in the moment of making something—whether you're singing or in acting or painting or writing—you have an experience of something moving through you. And people have that when they get involved with sewing an apron or making curtains or writing a letter. It's that funny sense of altered time—and that's a spiritual experience, although people don't often think of it that way. You know when someone will say, "I looked up, and three hours had gone by." That's because they were absorbed in the now. All spiritual practices talk about getting absorbed in the now.

Are You Listening to the Great Creator? continues...
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