Excellence Reporter: Adriana, what is the meaning of life?

Adriana Attento: The meaning of life is to discover who you are. Beneath thoughts, ideas, feelings, images, sensations; beneath the personality or ego; beneath the fluctuating circumstances of life; beneath the ceaseless change of life is Consciousness. “The world you perceive is made of consciousness,” wrote Nisargadatta Maharaj, “what you call matter is consciousness itself.”

There are many paths to get to this realization or truth. Historically, the path has been to renounce everything, to enter into silence day after day in order to make contact with pure Consciousness, and perhaps have an experience of self-realization. In other words, traditionally, you needed to become a monk, a renunciate, a recluse in order to discover that Consciousness is the open, empty space from which the world (experience) is born. Traditionally, you needed to reject the world in order to have an experience of self-realization, discovering that you are Consciousness, that you are the Self which gives rise to everyone and everything.

However, another path is to enter into the heart of life, to go directly into the world, peering right into all its pain, pleasure, beauty, fear, loss, grief, panic, anxiety, depression, and despair. Instead of renouncing the world, be with it. Instead of dismissing what arises, become curious about it. Instead of becoming silent as a spiritual practice, enter into each and every sensation that is born from within – to discover that it too is Consciousness.

When a thing (whether it is a thought, a cloud, a bodily pain, or a feeling) comes into form, it is created. It becomes manifest. It is an aspect of the entire body of Creation. Entering into Creation can be a spiritual practice, one that invites us to go into the heart of life, and this includes the unique way that Creation may be arising in you. The unique way that life takes shape into your thoughts, ideas, images, and experiences. You see, within each of us there is a fountain of Life, a spring of vitality. If you were to point your attention inward, you would find there is a ceaseless arising of energy. Thoughts, emotions, images, memories, ideas, insights, dream snippets, and bodily sensations continue to be born.

Creation Meditation is a spiritual practice that invites us to go inward to meet the many forms (thoughts, images, etc) that arise, to get to know them, by giving them expression. A regular practice of creative expression can take place through writing, painting, dancing, or even sculpting. The modality doesn’t matter. What’s more important is placing attention within and giving outer expression to the inner experience.

This practice is called Creation Meditation because what arises from within is considered to be Creation or Nature itself. The creative force is not only what we use to create poems and paintings; it is the driving force of the universe. When a person opens up to the creativity within and develops a relationship with it, he or she can access the intelligence of Nature.

Traditionally, spiritual disciplines insisted on controlling or denying desires and experiences of the senses in order to evolve into higher states of consciousness. However, this practice teaches that you cannot experience complete awakening while restricting any part of your being. Creation Meditation is a practice that facilitates more than an intellectual discovery but an experiential awakening to who you are.

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~Adriana Attento is an advocate for developing a spiritual practice of creativity and facilitates in others the deepening relationship with the place from which creative inspiration emerges. It is through being creative that the intelligence of the heart awakens, revealing one’s life path, purpose, and passion. Adriana works with individuals who want to deepen their relationship with creativity – from getting the creative juices flowing, to allowing inner experiences to creatively emerge, to caring for soul’s images, to tending to the spiritual breakthrough process. Adriana has fallen in love with writing and been giving expression to her inner experience via writing since 1997. She deeply enjoys giving expression to the intelligence of Life as it emerges from within.
www.CreationMeditation.com

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