When I was a young man studying Zen meditation, I got the chance to study with the outstanding Roshi Gerry Shishin Wick at Great Mountain Zen Center in Colorado. He gave me much great instruction, but there was a moment I will never forget.

How do we grow as artists and as humans on the path?

Did I hear you say “challenge”? Yes, you are very much on to something there…One thinks immediately of Frida Kahlo in her bed after the bus accident turning to painting. Or Byron Katie sleeping on the floor and having an experience of profound awakening when a cockroach crawled across her foot.

I know that you’re here for it. I know that on a fundamental level you get the importance, to your soul and the souls of others, of rooting your creative practice in your spiritual practice. Or at least you have a sense of how the two are connected.

Want to take a 3 minute creative break right now?

Any creative time contains possibility: maybe it will change your state, maybe it will change your day, maybe it will shift something for the rest of your life. In 3 minutes? I dare you to find out. You’ll need: something to write with, and the internet-connected device before you.

If you’re a Nirvana fan then you’ve probably already got “as you were, as I want you to be…” floating through your head after reading the subject line. I won’t deny the intentionality of that on my part.

What is enlightenment?

Um…dang, I thought you were going to answer that, but then I remembered that this is a newsletter and not an actual dialogue. So I guess I just set myself up to answer it.

Imagine the sound of the Pixies, “Where is my mind?” playing in the background as you read…
1. The first rule of song club is…go ahead and talk about song club all you want. Song club is all about community, so why wouldn’t you invite your friends?

David Bennett started taking piano lessons at age 11, and by age 13, he stopped lessons in favor of teaching himself. Now, he teaches literally millions of people on YouTube.

When you were a little kid, did your parents hang your kindergarten artwork up on the refrigerator? Did you make a drawing of you and your mom as stick figures holding hands under a crayon rainbow and fold it in half and write “Happy Mother’s Day” on the inside?