The Play of Lhundrub – Creativity in Dharma terms

This is a dry free brush Drutsa style calligraphy of a wonderfully deep Tibetan word Lhundrub – ལྷུན་གྲུབ། which generally translates as spontaneous. Spontaneous, because it is not caused. It has the meaning of being complete in itself, all of a piece with the totality of everything.

When considering the spontaneous creative play of mind, from a pure meditative state, clear of any grasping or rejection – There are three qualities of insight that arises from:

1. play (rolpa –  རོལ་པ།) of the mind
2. that has the creative ability or skill (tsal – རྩལ།)
3. that can be trained and developed to find (recognise, hole in on, spark) beauty (gyen – རྒྱན།)

Insight arises this way, be it in mathematics, art or Dharma itself. Play in all senses is needed – relaxation, playfulness, the right touch, willingness to let go of control, restraints, inhibitions and so on.

It is play that allows us to find beauty and there is an immediate feed-back as we recognise beauty be it in a mathematical solution, in a work of art or in the truth of the Dharma.

This artwork of Lhundrup was created to explain what ‘creativity’ means in Dharma terms, which can be read in full here.

Here below is the creation of this particular piece with the Awakened Heart Sangha with commentary from Tashi.