Instructions

Please watch the instructional videos to see PIA in action.

How to use the Practice of Immediacy in the Arts® (PIA):

Take time to sit quietly, breathe, watch your thoughts go by like waves on the ocean or clouds in the sky, notice your body sensations, listen to the sounds... and when you’re ready, follow the directions below.

Select artistic medium and materials you want to work with.
Choose a medium such as art (e.g., pastels, colored pencils, painting, drawing, sculpting),musical instrument, voice, writing, crafts (e.g., beading, wood construction, fabric), or dance/ movement, etc.
Open to not knowing.
Come from an attitude of openness, not holding to ideas and knowledge. Be like an open sky that does not try to control or understand what is passing through.
Include and express what you are aware of as it shows up.
Use your materials to express whatever finds its way into your awareness, no matter the source: smell of food cooking, thoughts, sound of birds chirping/cars going by,memories, body sensations, hardness of the chair, emotions, wind, a taste in the mouth.....It doesn’t matter..Include everything!
Express expectations as they are occurring.
Expectations include ideas about any kind of "spiritual" or "wisdom" attainment, as well as ideas about creating something attractive, original, beautiful or deep. Expectations become part of what you are expressing.
If you enter a creative flow, follow its unfolding. At times you may experience being carried along by a creative wave or current that may have a certain energetic feel to it. It may seem as if you are being lifted up and carried along by a creative flow that directs you towards certain media, forms, textures, and colors. The result of this flow may be an expression that is unified or fragmented, intelligible or unintelligible, familiar or remote. In any case, what you have created is not pre-planned but rather not knowing in action.

Painting, Oil Pastels, Pastels, colored pens/pencils

Choose the media and surface you want to work with. Open to not knowing. Express whatever you are aware of right now, any place on the surface, include any expectations. If you enter a creative flow, follow it.

PIA could unfold as:

hardness of the chair : thick straight purple line
car horn: squiggly red line expressed anywhere on the surface
thought: choose a color and write it any size and any where
smell of food: what shape and texture is the smell of food
sadness: blue color moving all over the surface
confusion: what color/shape is confusion, or write the word any size/shape
door bell ringing: choose a color/shape of the ringing

The process continues in this way until your session ends; whatever is present — birds, food cooking, whispering voices, a feeling, a cool breeze, a fantasy about a new job—gets expressed. If a creative flow emerges, follow its unfolding.

Writing

If you choose writing to open to not knowing and express this moment as it is, PIA might unfold like this:

the sound of a car: "Rrrrrrrrr......"
hardness of the chair: "hard"
a thought: "This is stupid"
a feeling: "Impatience"
the sound of the clock: "Tick tock tick tick tock"

Sometimes what emerges is a poem, a word, a line or just a syllable. Express how and where the words belong on the paper.

Clay

Letting your hands engage with the clay:

Open to not knowing.
Express what you are aware of as it shows up.
Express expectations as they are occurring. If you enter a creative flow, follow its unfolding.

Wood

If you choose to create a structure of wood and other materials using a glue gun, you will need to sit near the materials you'll be using so that they are available. Working with wood and other three dimensional materials and a glue gun is slower: the glue takes time to adhere, and placement of objects may be slower. Using this media, you may be aware of much more than you are able to express, and that's fine. Just notice whatever is emerging, and continue to attend to your structure.

Musical Instruments

The instructions for PIA with music are the same as with any other media:

Open to not knowing.
Express what you are aware of as it shows up.
Express expectations as they are occurring. If you enter a creative flow, follow its unfolding.

If PIA is being used in retreat, find a place to practice that is sensitive to other's silence. Some instruments have headsets so the musician can be in the same area as other PIA participants.

Bead Work

Bead work is slower—same directions:

Open to not knowing.
Include the immediate now, express what you are aware of as it shows up.
Express expectations as they are occurring. If you enter a creative flow, follow its unfolding.

Move all over the surface or one area. For example: A baby cries, select a bead color for the cry; if sadness occurs: sew the bead color of the sadness; if "this is stupid" judgment occurs sew the bead color of the judgment. If wanting to create a pattern occurs, sew the bead color for that thought(s). If you hit a creative flow follow it.

Mixing Modalities

Please feel free to work with several modalities at the same time if that's appropriate for you. For example, use art + words, words + clay + movement, or music + movement….

Opening to not knowing.
Include the immediate now, express what you are aware of as it shows up.
Express expectations as they are occurring. If you enter a creative flow, follow its unfolding.