What is Originality?

As creative individuals what we strive most for is originality and originality can only come from within yourself, from that part of you that is your primordial nature or state of being, of consciousness. To attain to this state one has to develop a discipline, some form of practice that will allow for this to happen spontaneously, for with originality comes spontaneity. To some this can happen without too much effort while to most ti takes a good amount of self inquiry, self discovery, self realization as opposed to the self that you thought of who you are. Only your true nature can manifest the truth, that which you hold to be true and not what you have been told or conditioned to think so. All the knowledge that you have accumulated from the day you were thought how to think are markers to guide you  along your way but what is your true path has no markers as it is the path least traveled. Your personal path is uncharted and each and every step you take is your own and only the unknown lies before you. For the creative spirit the unknown is the source of the insight that you seek.

Do not allow the knowledge that you have accumulated become crutches that you depend on while you are on the road to find out but be ready to fall flat on your face every now and then it it takes you to where you are headed, for every fall is a new challenge for you to rise again. The character that you are forging to become who you are is not written in scriptures or can be taught to you by another, the character you are forging is inherent within you and is waiting to be born with every labor that you push. Become a pioneer in all that you do and not follower, a creator and not a curator. The master sculptor already sees the sculpture within himself  all he has to do is manifest it into an external form utilizing the materials, tools and skills that he has learned from his masters. Creativity is an act of exposing what already is in existence within you but you have to be receptive to what is there effortlessly. Spontaneity simply means there is no thoughts involved in the creative expression, there is only the act itself.

A master swordsman, a Samurai is said to have said that a warrior considers himself already dead before he faces an opponent in a duel. With this in mind hea has already liberated himself from the fear of dying. A man who is conditioned with the thoughts of self preservation will always be handicapped but he who is free from any thought what so ever will act straight from his heart and acts with his complete instinct just to win. Styles and techniques are the means he has learned and mastered in order that he might execute his action flawlessly and most of all effortlessly. Like a swallow he flies without the thought of how he could fly or like a fish without the thought of how it could live under water. The freedom to be able to express oneself completely from one's inner being is spontaneity and artists that has honed their talents to such a degree will produce works of art that baffles others' imagination; this is originality.
# Originality. creativity, effortlessness.