11.21.2025 The Quiet Path to Creativity   I started practicing yoga more than 25 years ago. I learned that holding a difficult pose required not just physical strength, but a still mind and conscious breath. Over time, that conscious breath would become unconscious, softening into something natural and unforced, leaving me in a quiet, empty space where my meditation practice was born. In meditation, for me, reaching this comfortable space is a time of spontaneous creativity. What I feel in my body comes to me as images, but it’s not like watching a movie. Images present themselves in a felt sense: a paper heart dissolving in water, pink flesh turning to bubble, a beautiful knot of rope sitting deep in my hip. I’ve always been a visual thinker, inclined toward weird, wonderful, and unexpected connections. That’s been true since childhood. I have been drawing and painting since I was young. Recently, I came across a framed drawing of mine from the first grade. It was a cat with its paw on a mushroom, its face half turned away — a difficult perspective for a five year old. How did I do that? Where did that inspiration come from? On my first ever silent retreat, I was delighted at how these images allowed me to feel and see my body in a new way. The images that popped into my mind became guides in my own healing, and the artwork that emerged from that period reinforced a profound shift in my life. I knew what I had to do, and my art helped me express it. Now, each time I sit, I’m thrilled if an image presents itself. It can keep my art practice invigorated for a day, month, or even years. Sometimes it’s as simple as the inspiration to add a flash of orange to a painting of blue water. Other times it’s as involved as using a silicone brush to make thousands of tiny bubbles in and around floating bodies. This year, I have one of my paintings featured in our annual fundraising auction, inspired by floating in the ocean like seaweed. Seeing my childhood drawing of the cat and mushroom reminded me that even at a young age, images arose in me before I fully understood them. I simply followed my creative impulse and drew what appeared. I’ve come to believe we all have this capacity to create. In the three articles below, each writer explores creativity in their own world, and how it meets them. I encourage you to read them, and then find space to pick up a crayon, a pencil, or even a stick on a beach and move it across a surface, expressing whatever you’d like. What you create doesn’t have to mean anything to anyone but you. Trust your body and let go of your expectations, following the joy and healing doing so can bring. —Sharon Kosen Davis, Account Representative, Lion’s Roar Rima Fujita Has a Dream Art for art’s sake was her goal, then art became her tool for a larger purpose. Nancy Hom profiles the renowned artist and philanthropist Rima Fujita. After graduating from Parsons School of Design in New York City, the artist Rima Fujita was introduced to the most prestigious art dealers in the New York art world. This seeming good fortune came with a dark cloud. She was deceived, dealers stole her work, and she experienced sexual harassment. Even though she was making good money, she was miserable. She began to wonder, “Is this all my life will be?” In the late 1990s, Fujita had a dream that would answer that question. A voice said to her, “You must help Tibet!” “I’m not psychic, but I’ve always had a relationship to my dreams,” she tells me in an interview. “It was a commanding voice that you would not ignore.” This dream changed the entire course of Fujita’s life — her art, her spirituality, her mission in the world. ADVERTISEMENT Pema Chödrön & k.d. lang talk Buddhism, creativity, and “gapaciousness” The beloved Buddhist teacher and famed singer discuss Buddhism, creativity, and “the gap.” k.d. lang: It’s the gap, because I think real creativity comes from getting the heck out of the way. Creativity is not about creating big conceptions and stirring the pot so much that you just gotta throw up on the canvas or write, write, write, write. I think it’s about being so bored and being so empty and being so… gapacious. How to Unleash Your Creativity Geshe Tenzin Wangyal tells us how to unleash powerful creative energy and turn every action into a work of art. Creativity can be seen as a state of natural flow, one that spontaneously and effortlessly gives birth not only to manifest form, but to all experiences of body, energy, and mind. This state of flow, which has its roots in openness, occurs only in the absence of hope and fear. It is at once naturally joyful, peaceful, compassionate, expansive, and powerful. When you know how to tap fully into this open, creative flow, its beneficial qualities can extend to any area of your life. You can paint more masterful paintings. Your music can have more depth of connection. Your writing can be more genuine and moving. You will be able to solve problems at work, resolve conflicts with loved ones, or even shift your thought patterns with more natural spontaneity.