Visiting our affiliate center in Savannah on Cinco de Mayo, I was asked to talk about creativity in the context of Zen. In a way, that is a misconstruction, as Zen is the heart of creativity, not merely a context for creativity. So, even to speak of creativity and Zen is to make a separation that does not exist. Nonetheless, here is a beginning attempt to explore the relationship to foster clarity.

Creativity is variously defined in professional circles associated with the so-called creative professions. So-called because creativity has nothing to do with what one does, but is more an attitude of mind, regardless of the specifics of one's activities or livelihood. One definition of creativity in the design profession is making the familiar strange. When we consider what is meant by the familiar, it is seen to be the broad and deep category of everyday experience and knowledge. In fact, all knowledge of our world is, by definition, familiar. Otherwise, it would not qualify as knowledge.

In design school, certain exercises are engaged in pursuing this goal of making the familiar strange, including writing one's signature, which is the most familiar mark one makes on a daily basis. Only writing one's signature over and over, a thousand times — on the same sheet of paper, until it becomes something other than the familiar signature mark: a pattern, a texture. Or in large scale, on a sheet of butcher's paper, using a rag dipped in ink instead of a pen or pencil — a piece of graffiti, crude calligraphy, on a monumental scale. It becomes unfamiliar. Like saying aloud the word "elephant" over an over, until it loses all connection with the reality of an elephant. With repetition words become neutral, abstract—mere sound. Surpassingly strange sound, at that.

Similarly, after sitting in zazen for long periods of time, the familiar context of one's very consciousness—eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind; seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching and thinking—becomes strange, curiouser and curiouser. Sensory adaptation sets in on an incremental—and eventually profound—level. Samadhi becomes the platform for kensho—seeing the nature.