Luminaries to consider the profound impact of creative thinking

August 27, 2009

VANCOUVER – Can creative thinking enhance personal fulfillment and lead to a kinder and more peaceful world? And exactly what is creative thought and its role in nurturing compassion and education of the heart?

These are some of the questions an eminent panel will consider on Tuesday, 29 September, at the Creativity and Well-Being dialogue, held at the Orpheum Theatre in Vancouver. Tickets are available at Ticketmaster.ca. The Dalai Lama will join some of the world’s most inspiring intellects including Sir Ken Robinson, Daniel Siegel, the Blue Man Group, Eckhart Tolle, Murray Gell-Mann and Matthieu Ricard to explore the topic.



This panel will consider creative thinking and its importance in building peace and a moral global society. The participants will discuss how the creative process can become an effective resource in harvesting the wisdom of the heart and cultivating emotional balance.

Ken Robinson, a recognized expert in the field of creativity and innovation, comments that when people are doing something that resonates with them personally and draws on their own aptitude, it is transformative. They achieve “flow”, or come to reside “in the zone”; they are absorbed to such a degree that it becomes a holistic experience. “It speaks deeply to our sense of fulfillment,” says the author of All Our Futures: Creativity, Culture and Education, whom Queen Elizabeth II knighted in 2003 for his services to the arts and education.

One way of defining creative thinking, suggests Murray Gell-Mann, a prominent scientist who received the 1969 Nobel Prize in physics, is when you liberate yourself from confined thinking. “A selective letting go takes place,” similar to that which occurs in meditation, he noted recently. “In creative work you have to let go of preconceptions. In meditative states, letting go is a very important part; it’s also very important part of compassion; you have to let go of hindrances.”

Moving into a state of letting go of preconceived notions into a state of “not knowing,” is important, says panelist Eckhart Tolle, the spiritual leader who wrote the internationally-acclaimed best seller, The Power of Now.

“So, when you can be at ease with not knowing, you have already gone beyond the mind. A deeper knowing that is non-conceptual then arises out of that state,” Tolle writes.
“Artistic creation, sports, dance, teaching, counseling — mastery in any field of endeavor implies that the thinking mind is either no longer involved at all or at least is taking second place.”

Matthieu Ricard is a French biochemist turned Buddhist monk, who has received a number of awards for his humanitarian efforts. Ricard, who will moderate Tuesday morning’s panel, says that when a person achieves a state of flow, they experience emotions of happiness, kindness and compassion.

The theory that creative thinking is a critical element to furthering and enhancing our life is shared by Daniel Siegel, the Executive Director of the Mindsight Institute. Siegel, an educator and psychiatrist, purports that cultivating creativity in schools opens students to new possibilities, transforms neural circuits and ways of thinking. “A learner becomes filled with passion and the mind is awakened to find true fulfillment, engender feelings of compassion, and promote kindness and peace.”

Chris Wink is a co-founder of the Blue Man Group, a creative organization that sprang from “an outrageous idea” and has since grown to include theatrical shows and concerts and an innovative elementary school. He believes that the 21st Century will require creative thinking to survive and thrive. “The problems facing the planet will require creative approaches to compassion; creativity that will deal with global issues.”

Join these creative thinkers at the Educating the Heart session of the Vancouver Peace Summit, presented by the Dalai Lama Center for Peace & Education in collaboration with the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre at the University of British Columbia. Supported by Irving K. Barber.  For more information, visit the DLC web site.