What does a famous music producer know about spirituality? As it turns out, plenty. Rick Rubin, who is better known for launching the careers of rock and hip-hop acts like the Beastie Boys, and reviving the career of Johnny Cash, has a book out titled The Creative Act: A Way of Being.
While I’m not sure Rubin ever mentions spirituality by name, this is a highly spiritual book. You’ll agree if you define spirituality like I do—a connection to something greater than yourself. And that’s one of Rubin’s primary messages:
We all have the ability to tap into a higher intelligence called “the Source.” It’s an intelligence that can help guide us creatively and inspire us.
You night be thinking, “guide me creatively? I’m not creative.” But hear Rubin out. He explains that creativity comes in many forms. Even if you’re not a painter, writer, or singer-songwriter, we all are creative in numerous ways. This can include how you decorate your home, write notes to friends, engage in a craft, or plant and grow your garden.
Where does inspiration come from? Rubin’s answer may surprise you.
After spending decades in the recording business, Rubin has a unique perspective on where creative ideas come from. He believes creativity originates outside our thinking minds, and comes from a place he calls “the Source.” (Which sounds a lot like Divine or Infinite Intelligence.)
The Source delivers inspiration to us. Rubin compares it to a radio tower whose signals are waiting to be picked up by our internal antennae. We hear these signals not by straining our ears, but by emptying ourselves to create a space to hear them. Rubin explains the process like this:
The answer is not to look for creativity. Nor do we attempt to predict or analyze our way into it. Instead, we create an open space that allows it. Drawing down the ideas that the universe is making available.
In other words, creative guidance is out there waiting for us to sense it. Rubin says there’s “a wisdom surrounding us, an inexhaustible offering that is always available.” But how do you pick up on something you cannot see, hear, or touch? The key is to bypass your conscious mind and listen not with the ears, but with something more akin to the heart.
Rubin believes we can tune into these transmissions during our everyday life experiences, and also find them in “dreams, intuitions, subliminal fragments, or other ways still unknown by which the outside finds its way inside.” This larger intelligence wants to make itself known and finds a variety of ways to accomplish the task.
To find guidance, we need to be aware.
We won’t find the inspiration we seek if we’re preoccupied with scrolling though our phones or binge-watching a TV show. Rubin points out that “we are constantly bombarded by data in life” and that “our senses are overwhelmed.” As a result, our heads are crammed with a lot of useless information, causing us to miss the important stuff that can guide us.
“We receive these messages all the time if we remain open to them. The more open you are, the more clues you will find,” says Rubin. While transmissions from the Source are ever-present, “they’re easy to miss. If we aren’t looking for clues, they’ll pass by without us ever knowing.” But when you stay alert to what’s happening around you:
You may notice apparent coincidences appearing more often than randomness allows—almost as if there is another hand guiding yours in a certain direction. As if there is an inner knowing gently informing your movements.
We just need to pay better attention. “When something out of the ordinary happens, ask yourself. What’s the message? What could be the greater meaning?” These events can be part of the Source, or larger intelligence at work. Rubin continues:
When clues present themselves, it can sometimes feel like the delicate mechanism of a clock at work. As if the universe is nudging you with little reminders that it’s on your side and wants to provide everything you need to complete your mission.
To make finding guidance easier, make awareness a spiritual practice.
To live life fully aware, Rubin recommends setting up a simple practice, a daily schedule where you engage in particular rituals at a specific time. One suggestion is to “take three slow, deep breaths upon awakening each morning.” This simple act can start you on the right track each day, centered and in the moment. You might also:
- Eat your meals mindfully, slowly savoring each bite with appreciation.
- Take a daily walk in nature, looking at everything entering your field of vision with gratitude and connection.
- Before sleep, take a moment to marvel at the feeling of your heartbeat and the movement of blood through your veins.
Rubin tells us that “isolated places like a forest, a monastery, or a sailboat in the middle of the ocean are fine locations to receive direct transmissions from the universe.” Clues often present themselves when we least expect it, even in busy spots where people are coming and going and we’re interacting with others.
The signals are there if we can learn to follow “the subtle energetic information the universe broadcasts.” Just stay aware and remain curious, because the universe usually offers better advice than our friends and family do. Rubin concludes:
The world is constantly changing, so no matter how often we practice paying attention, there will always be something new to notice. It’s up to us to find it.
Thanks to artist and friend Kerry Kearney for turning me on to this book.
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