The Environment of Creation

  How do we distinguish between being masochistic and being spiritual?

There are so many times in life that it seems a valid goal to be with the situation as it is and not have the need to run away from external circumstances that seem to being taking us out of our center. But when is it wise to make a choice to remove oneself from a situation that is not healthy or is a consistent distraction from our life's purpose.
 
When do you say enough and move on?

Like so many other challenging aspects of life- this too appears to require an acute awareness of where the line is between taking care of oneself and running away from one's own experiences in life. So you are living with roommates that you can't stand and trying to be disciplined in your daily life with your art, your reading, your spiritual practices and are constantly interrupted literally and just generally energetically. Thus you have a consistent reason not to be able to complete the tasks that you have set out for yourself. Let's face it anyone trying to be disciplined with their spiritual practice or living on the creative life path faces enough internal, daily obstacles, that the last thing that they need are external distractions. There is already so much resistance around that existential meaning crisis that so many artists and spiritual seekers face. Ironically, you find time and again that artists do place themselves in challenging external environments. So why do we do this?

Do we do this to hinder the artist process, so that we can place blame on external circumstances and not have to take responsibility for our lack of ability to be creative to concentrate on our life's work? Is this external environment actually an escape from the basic existential anxiety around trying to create meaning in one's life?
 
Or is it actually just this opposite: is this external environment actually the fuel that sends the artist back to themselves - like the concept of equal and opposite forces. Is it that the more external distraction that the artist faces the more he/she must return to his/her core and with more distraction he/she moves deeper inside of his/herself? But what is the balance?

How does the artist know which is the right answer?
 
It is true that I should be able to maintain my center no matter what the external circumstances -but is this a necessary component of my creative process? It is similar in many ways to the artistic concern, throughout the ages, that without deep heartache and pain that the artist would not be able to create. But isn't creation that comes out of these painful places a different kind of art? Can art be classified based on its emotional or spiritual origin? Is this reactionary art? Collective consciousness art? Universal principal art? or I hate my roommates and can't really focus art? Do all of these have the same purpose in their existence?

Is catharsis of emotion in the form of a painting the same as the ink drawing of a spiritual master who has meditated for decades?

Obviously, all art has different messages and energies to convey...so perhaps this is how you, as an artist, decide what environment to place yourself in. If you want to do reactionary art - place yourself in the such an environment which will consistently provoke this. If you want to present universal principles - do the like. The core element, perhaps, is to recognize when you do have choices and why you are making the choices that you are. The circumstances in which you find yourself are not an accident. Taking responsibility for the environment in which you find yourself both externally and internally is part and parcel to the production of an authentic, creative, and aligned spiritual being. Another aspect here, to keep in mind, is that we have a tendency to repeat the patterns that we have grown up with. So if you grew up in an environment where you constantly felt inclined to hide away and this is where and when you produced your art - you will likely be inclined to produce the same circumstances throughout life in which to produce your art. It is as though you associate these emotions and this state mind and general state of external energy with the production of art. Somewhere in your consciousness there is a belief that without these uncomfortable, distracting circumstances you actually wouldn't be able to be artistic, that your creative self literally needs to feed on being reactive against negative external energies. Maybe this is true? Maybe it is not. But the key is to be mindful of these aspects and to allow yourself to experiment with what happens if you drop this story - What happens when there are no longer any distractions from the outside? Then do you begin to mimic the negative energies internally? Do you begin to feel anxious? Or do you actually feel free to be creative in a naturally aligned way, not reacting anything but actually able to mirror or channel the energies of the universe without interruption?