Dragon Taming for Smart People

Cultivating Creativity through Intuitional Science

Overview

This 2 day workshop addresses two problems that creative thinkers commonly face.

1. How do we get in touch with our inner muse and enter into our creative ‘zone’.

2. How do we maintain our emotional balance once the muse turns up and prevent our own creative energy from turning on us and destroying us?

 

We’ve all heard of ‘writers block’, and the tendency of brilliant individuals towards self destructive behavior is legend. In my experience, much of this ‘suffering for ones art’ is unnecessary, and sometimes tragically so. As creative beings, we need to learn not only how to access, but how to manage our creative energy.

I use the metaphor of the dragon because dragons come in two main versions: European dragons symbolizing Power, Greed and Aggression, and Oriental dragons symbolizing Power, Wisdom and Compassion. With the right tools and guidance we can awaken our creative power at the same time as cultivating our wisdom and compassion. This protects us from our own negative energies. Then we can tame our creative dragon and harness its power for good.

Connecting to our Inner Child

Pablo Picasso famously said, “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once one grows up.”

But how do we recapture that childlike state of mind? It begins with learning to let go of self criticism. We have to separate our analytical and imaginative functions – what actor John Cleese calls, “open and closed modes”. The two cannot co-exist.

Learning how to do this more consistently is a lot of fun. We are at our most creative when we are having fun – that is why musicians call it ‘playing’.

The Intuitional Science of Tantra Yoga

In the ancient science of Tantra Yoga these powers of creativity, intuition, imagination, wisdom and compassion, as well as our destructive tendencies, have long been understood as expressions of the various layers of the human mind. Long ago yogis developed specific meditation techniques to help us to gain access to those layers, and enable us to balance our inner energies. With the help of these practices we can control and transcend our tendency towards self-absorption or self-destruction and freely express our innate love, creativity and wisdom.

Outcomes

In this workshop you will learn to:

• Induce a child-like, nonjudgmental state where ideas flow uninhibited.
• Let go of worries and distractions so that you can go inward and hear the voice of your muse.
• Focus and still your mind and enter the place where wisdom naturally arises.
• Connect to the source of love within yourself so that all your creative expressions are colored with compassion and joy rather than existential angst.

A Creative Approach to Learning

As well as being a spiritual teacher, Dada is a musician and a humor writer so his teaching style is a harmonious blend of entertainment and practical learning. We all learn best when we are emotionally engaged. Unfortunately far too often teachers fail to engage us emotionally, and as a result the learning doesn’t stick.

Dada applies his creative powers to take listeners out of their heads, using music, singing, storytelling, humor and participatory exercises to induce laughter, tears and transformation.

The course includes a question and answer session with guest teacher Sid Jordan Phd., a psychologist and meditation teacher with more than 40 years clinical experience. Dr Jordan is known for his transformative work with guided imagery and is the co-founder of the Prama Institute, a spiritual retreat center in North Carolina.

Testimonials

“I attended Dada’s workshop on Creativity and Intuition. Besides being really inspired by the way Dada speaks from the heart, I’ve always been thinking how creativity can be a path to either destruction or elevation. I had my own theories, but Dada framed this in a sharp and methodic way, that will help me to work with my coaching clients.”

 Gustavo Prudente: Consultant, Coach, Author, Artist, from Brazil

 “I enjoyed Dada’s workshop on Creativity and Intuition. The really key thing for me was this tension in creative people between the self-destructive and transcendence, not only in artists like Dada, but in the scientist I’ve know who are particularly brilliant, but also troubled. The practices that Dada teaches from the yogic tradition are ideal tools, designed to take one to a higher level. They can take you from a place of inner darkness to a place of inner peace, without sacrificing your creativity”

Bruce McKuen Phd: Research Scientist in Bio-Medical Engineering