Prologue

Mars is the goal, and a very very tough one at that. Seen with the naked eye on a clear night, the red planet is at times visible as a magnificent star. Averaging at around a 100 million miles from the Earth, it appears as a distant point of light — upon which are pinned the hopes of a new generation of humanity. Why go to Mars? Why chase after the stars? There are many practical and highly important reasons, but the present work doesn't really concern itself about that side of things. This book is an expression of a pure visionary zeal that pushes the human spirit ever and ever onwards.

Mars is symbolic here, but it can be seen as symptomatic of the restless fever that afflicts the very soul of a human being, of one who potentially realizes that he or she has some great inner potential to realize. Even if that realization is only a vague, abstract urge as yet, it is enough to drive you nuts. And out of that divine craziness is born so much creative outpouring.

'Voyage to the Stars' is just a spontaneous outpouring, a crazy book about very serious creativity. It centrally features perhaps one of the sanest men that ever lived on this planet, the Buddha. In these pages, the Enlightened One goes on expounding the Dhamma of creativity, at the same time fervently championing the proposed human mission to Mars. The one who long ago propagated stillness of mind, quiescence, and cessation of desire, is now on an all-time project to project the human spirit all out: outward, upward, and forward. Follow the original preacher of the Golden Mean (though Pythagoras lived around at the same time) going to extreme lengths in beating the drums for a cause.  A resounding call to action that echoes with the music of a cosmic sphere, a planet covered in silent copper-colored dust — cold, bleak, lifeless dust of iron and titanium. The irony, the titanic irony of it all! But if you are keen on becoming more creative and proving your mettle to the world, then never mind the metals, simply steel yourself to get going, and get reading.

Just be prepared for a possible out-of-the-body experience, even as your astral body is transported to the starry realms while reading these pages! Nothing to worry though, your spirit-body will come back intact, only a little more enlightened — and soaking in the creative plasma from the silver-shine star-strewn empyrean environs, through the quivering conduit of the ethereal silver chord of light that binds it to the gross physical body. Don't let go of the ether-tether, but yeah! release-unleash your spirit! The paradox, the paranormal paradox of it.

But then creativity is nothing normal. They say creativity involves out-of-the-box thinking, here we go to the next level. We go into out-of-the-body, out-of-the-mind, and out-of-the-world thinking. That's what craziness is all about, after all.  

Read on, then. Bring on the soul, take on the goal!

PART I: The Sky is Falling

Creativity is not just about ideas. It is also about the ideals behind the ideas, those deeper values which make us committed to some higher ends of life. Creativity doesn't just imply thinking; at a very fundamental level it represents the striving of the inner spirit to discover a new meaning in existence, and create a greater purpose to life...

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PART II: The Enlightened One Talks on Creativity



Introduction

                                        


Having attained Buddhahood, the World-honored One thought thus: "To be free from mediocrity and to be creative, this is the most excellent Way." The Buddha began to wonder how he would propagate the knowledge. He said to himself:

"I have discovered a profound truth. It was difficult to perceive; it will be difficult to understand; only the wise will grasp it...                      
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Talks 1 and 2


1. Miracles

2. Skillful Thinking



Talks 3 and 4


3. Suffering

4. Intensity


Talks 5 and 6


5. Living with a Cause

6. Something Extra


Talks 7 and 8


7. Love and War

8. Desire


- Interlude -


a) King Solomon's Wisdom

b) The Tao of Creativity


Talks 9 and 10


9. Fear and Danger

10. Duty


Talks 11 and 12


11. Going with the Flow

12. Forbearance


Talks 13 and 14


13. Sensitivity

14. The Higher Life


Talks 15 and 16


15. Lies

16. Faith and Doubt


Talks 17 and 18


17. The Fire of Awareness

18. Dreams


                                 
                                                                 

 

PART III: Come Creatively Alive


Introduction



What is creativity? Creativity is reckoning with your imagination without ever totally reconciling yourself to custom. Breathe free. See far. Go high. Customs and traditions may be good in their place, but time and again they fall short of giving us space to breathe. We need to break out and break through.


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Set 1     Set 2      Set 3      Set 4   Set 5     


Set 6     Set 7      Set 8      Set 9   Set 10


Set 11    Set 12     Set 13     Set 14