Do you ever feel as if you’ve started a new religion?

I probably started an old religion more than anything. People will come up to me and say “The Artist’s Way is a Sufi book,” or “The Artist’s Way is a Buddhist book,” or “The Artist’s Way is a creative spirituality book, or science of mind book. It seems to connect to a great many spiritual pursuits. And I think that’s because if you get the barnacles off, most spiritual traditions teach pretty much the same thing. So I think that since art is a spiritual path, and it can be pursued within any number of religions, The Artist’s Way is complementary to other religions.

Personally, I think of myself as a working artist. I am very careful that although I do teach I’ve spent an equal amount of my time actually making things. There are many artists who would never talk about art in spiritual terms. And yet they would be having the experience and learning the spiritual lessons exactly the same as a spiritual path but they would never put like that. I’ve been a writer for 35 years. This has taught me patience. God knows this has taught me humility. God knows it has taught me to enjoy inspiration and conscious contact when I feel it. These are all the same thi-ngs that a monk would tell you. If you meet somebody who has done one thing long enough, they’ve always learned a lot. Someone who’s been a baker for 35 years has learned the same lessons as a painter who has learned the same lessons as a monk. — Beliefnet.com (Concluded)