Creating Every Day Thought by Thought

okay

let’s review creativity 101.

let’s consider this a software

update we’ll remove a few bugs

we’ll add a few features that makes you

a more conscious creator

of the rest of your life now

what do we need to know about creativity

in the very beginning

is that it’s simply the manifestation of

something

from nothing we cannot help ourselves

but be

creative because we’re children

of creation we’re sparks

of original light we’re incarnations

of original thought every atom

in our bodies was forged

in the big bang and i

am here to say that because we’re

children of the cosmos which is

ever expanding explosive creation

in itself that we by default

are creative and can’t help but be

creative

so what is the process of how to

get something real that was once

only a thought or an image

in our mind and that process

is a process of

mind body and spirit

so it’s a total engagement of our

total beings and

the process is first thought gets

implanted from you might

say intelligence at large thought enters

into our mind hundreds thousands of them

every day

you know you decide which ones you’re

gonna mess with

you’re going to engage with that one and

not that one

and we select that consciously

and then it moves down into the area of

our heart

where our emotions get involved and then

we begin to feel joy

and delight about the thing

that we’re going to be manifesting

and then we begin to speak about it

and our thoughts our feelings and our

words

actually propel that thing

into reality and you have all done this

millions of times in your lives so this

is just

remedial actually for you

but we run into a problem because when

we

enter the world we’re like lightning

bolts of imagination

we’re unlimited we’re we’re a raging

fire of possibility and then

well let’s just say we might have a

particular radiance like

a hundred watt bulb let’s just say we

all come in

100 watts bright as the dickens

and then people start messing with us

they’re shaping us how they want us

they’re giving

us their thoughts and we start

collecting this debris

from other people’s bad thoughts

that are inherited and that don’t belong

to us

and it looks like this our

100 watt bulbs down 80 watts

50 watts 40 watts you have all had lunch

with 10 watt people

and by now they’re not your friends

anymore

because life’s too short so how do i

know this

i know it because i’m born gay

people who are born gay know things

especially if you’re born into a

catholic family

into a homophobic culture

then your radiance gets diminished

over and over day after day

by sixth grade this kid’s trying to

figure out how to commit suicide

how does that happen how does it happen

that we have so many kids so many young

adults despairing

it’s because nobody knows how to clear

off their

debris we have to learn

you know great mystic said the process

of enlightenment

is a process of subtraction

not addition you don’t need to know

anything more than you know right now

to be on your path of enlightenment but

you have to get

rid of all those inherited thoughts

that don’t serve you

and that’s what you come to these talks

for

trying to get rid of bad thoughts you

know my mom

is one of the most creative people i

know but she inherited this thought that

she’s

not good enough for this or that she

says to me after her grandson

chad is born oh no by the time chad’s

old enough to care about my life

my childhood stories i’m going to be

dead

or to see now to remember them

so i say well write him a book oh i

can’t write a book

she says we all know that voice

i said well can you write him a letter

oh she goes anybody can write a letter

well then here so i schlep out my old

macintosh

computer give her this little disc

say put it in the computer type on this

type them up 10 or 12 letters and i’ll

help you

make a book

so she takes the thing home couple weeks

hibernating away

by the time she gives me the disc back

it’s got like

37 letters on it

and this is the book we made letters to

chad

memories of her being the oldest girl of

14

kids on a dairy farm in upstate new york

now she knows she’s a writer now she

knows she can write books

next thing i know help me with the

biography on your father

oh now i got to do the book on the

history of our family reunions

i was her publisher i had to tell her to

stop

i have my own books to write so this is

how it works

she had a thought it gave her great joy

to think about oh chad knowing the

stories of my childhood

she talks about it to me it gets

manifested

it sells out immediately at the family

reunion

by the time she died she’s in the fourth

printing

of course we only printed 25 at a time

but still she died an author

it’s just like these guys

they have an idea they talk about it oh

they feel it they feel it

they declare their independence they

write their constitutions

next thing you know we’re living in 50

states paying taxes

this is how it works thoughts

feelings talkie talkie reality

it’s just how it works because it’s a

biological process for us

just like trees and don’t forget this

because we’re nature

we’re nature and we’re just like trees

and you know from science class

trees have this magical ingredient

called chlorophyll helps them do this

magical turning of the invisible

sunlight

in air into food and nutrients for the

whole tree in the root system

well that’s what’s that called

photosynthesis

and what do humans do i call it

infosynthesis

because we’re converting thoughts into

reality all the time

it’s human experience and we turn it

into inspiration

for each other for the good of the whole

because we’re born for the good of the

whole

and what happens when we do that

is good for us it’s where we

derive our meaning

our joy and our sense of purpose

the more aware we are of how

we create what we experience

the more gifts we bring to the harvest

of turning our human experience

into wisdom it happens

for us this day

happened for me some years ago

outside of death valley when i see a

flock of

birds in their murmuration is what they

call it where

all these birds suddenly act in the same

way

at the same time and i was so fascinated

by that i get out of my car i parked out

were in the breakdown lane

get out of my car lean up against the

hood

of my car and start to videotape the

birds

next thing i know everything goes black

because somebody hit my car

from behind doing 75 miles an hour

so what happens is of course i get

thrown

far away into the heart scrabble desert

my car lands on top of me

and i’m unconscious and when i come

to i think oh my god

i’m going to have to shimmy out of here

so i just shimmy out

but what happens is i’m impaled

under the muffler this is death valley

in august

never go there under the muffler and i

can’t move

so i know now this is my last few

moments

on earth i try to be brave full of

anxiety

try to summon up the courage to let my

body go consciously just get to that

point

announce to whomever whatever

here i come here i come

and i felt it i felt my soul go right

out through the soles of my feet

this little sound then i hear the voices

oh my god is somebody there is somebody

alive

right back in i’m right back in my body

i’m going like i’m here i’m alive

where are you where are you i’m under

the car

i hear their feet i hear the sound i see

their skinny little legs they’re right

out in front of me

by my back tire wait there

wait there they say we’ll go get help

so this voice comes out of me unlike any

voice i’ve ever heard

says to them you are the help

just lift up the car

they look at each other no way man we

can’t lift up this car

you are the help lift up

the car next thing i know

the cars raised up like it weighed

like a feather two hands come out

pull my hands pull me out and those two

men

saved my life that day

but all they knew was all they

heard all their lives

helps up there helps out there

because nobody tells us because we get

dusty bulbs

because of bad thinking from other

places

but the reality is we are the help

we know that now you know it used to be

okay i grew up singing he’s got the

whole world in his hands

but it’s not appropriate anymore

because we have created a world where

human beings have the capacity to

destroy it

we’ve made this world with our thoughts

our feelings

our talk and so it’s not appropriate

to sing anybody else has

the world in his hands because it’s in

our hands so to think of ourselves

now like satellite dishes

to mind at large

to think of ourselves

as beings in a conversation

with creation itself

beings who are here

in order to protect and make

safe this world for the beings

to come because we

have that in our

creative power

so i say that

the spiritual issue here for us

is that our creativity

is our spirituality in running shoes

it’s what are you committed to

spirituality is

little to do with religion religion is

what you learned as a kid

it’s it was inherited it was a body of

doctrine that may or may

be moot for you now but your

spirituality is

something that you’re creating every day

based on your commitments

whether you take a stand for something

whether you are for justice or

for peace and how that’s

evidenced by your actions

that’s your spirituality

and so what we’re saying here is that

the only thing that we need to do

in order to create a the lives you want

to have

and be the world

we want to have

is to be conscious

about what we’re for

how we speak about it

and how we imagine ourselves

as peacemakers

and justice makers in this world

knowing that those steps

not only create for us a better life

but create for these kids to come

a better life and when they google you

in 10 years or 20 years

you want to hope there’s going to be

some evidence there

that you showed up

that you showed up for yourself as a

role model

of conscious creativity and created

the masterpiece you came here to have

as your personal life

and that you co-created with me

and all your co-creators here in this

town

a society in a community

that you can look back and say

this place looks like it looks because i

was here

that’s what we’re wanting to do

that’s the power of creativity

and this has been your software

update

amen