Amy Tan on Creativity-Ted.com

Quotes like: "The point is that it is irrational to assume an absolute truth. If there is any absolute truth, humanity is incapable of comprehending it, or knowing certainly that it is in fact the truth", and "the value of nothing. Out of every nothing, comes something" are now words that will forever be etched in my mind after listening to Amy Tan's Lecture on the Creative Process on www.ted.com, a website based off of ideas and concepts worth spreading, with a new video lecture, discussions, and post weekly.

Within a post filmed April of 2008, Novelist Amy Tan dug deep into the creative process, looking for hints of how hers evolved, and even sparked the subconscious mind of others to deeply define their creative process for themselves.

According to Tan, for us to embrace and fully conceptually understand the creative process, we first must be willing to accept that scientifically that their are chromosomes in the brain which triggers our mind to shift, and the other half is through divine intervention that is channeled through us in form of divine intuition and spiritual enlightenment, and a small portion from references and lessons learned from past lives.

Oddly enough, Tan also goes on to say that creativity can be traced to a wrongful birth principle. Simply put, you are creative due to the fact that you were not born who you thought you would be, and those creative energies are what pushes you to who you really are. Deep.

Tan's past played a huge factor to her creative process- both her father and brother passed away from being diagnosed with brain tumors just six months apart. From this, Tan was able to explain to the audience that when faced with trauma, and when faced with the notion of death, you become creative and optimistic naturally, in a survival sense.

In addition, it does not matter what your original interest are to be a creative being. All creative beings are multi-dimensional and able to filter and find their own interpretation of truth and understanding. Tan states that sometimes the answer to which you are looking for, is not the one that is factually searched by the basic observation of anything.

According to Amy Tan, most of the learning and creative process starts as a ambiguous thought, and the response being our true intent. Sometimes our true intent to do something does not match what we have planned or hoped for, but something far more creative is what comes from it. As i take a more defined look, this happens all the time within my industry or Music and Entertainment.


Finalizing her thoughts on creativity, Amy Tan states that, "Imagination is the closest thing to compassion." This is so true to me . And another word for compassion is "empathy". Imagination puts you into a story teller's own situation and allows you to sincerely feel how the person feels. That's an essential step for understanding and for being an effective listener. Also I understand why Amy talks about this, because "empathy" is an important step to creativity. My logic is: only when you truthfully put yourself into people's shoes that you get to feel the inner world and need of others, which becomes your inspiration to create. After all, creativity is, to some point, about problem solving, in my point of view.

I hope Amy Tan's " Creativity" lecture on Ted.com becomes a instrument to shift your way of thinking into having a more profound creative approach to rationalizing all that is in your reality, and all that you have aspirations to due. For me, it may very well become another insightful factor to my everyday way of life.


HERE IS THE AMY TAN "CREATIVITY" VIDEO