According to Osho, artistic creativity becomes perfect in direct proportion to the artist’s absence: the less ego, the more perfection. True creation happens when the creator surrenders, disappears into the act, and becomes a hollow bamboo for the unknown to play through. Perfectionism is an ego trip; the real artist seeks totality, not flawlessness—by being utterly total, grace and authentic perfection happen on their own.
Stop trying to be perfect; lose your ego in the doing, and real perfection shows up by itself.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
One day you spoke to us about perfection and creativity. What is the relationship between artistic creativity and perfection? Is not creativity in music, painting and poetry an attempt to reach perfection in visible and audible form? Is the artist simply creating a more refined ego as the so-called saints you often talk about?
The real artist certainly thinks of totality -- how to be total? -- but never thinks of perfection. And the beauty is: those who are total, they are perfect. And those who think of perfection are never perfect, never total. Rather, on the contrary: the more they think of perfection, the more neurotic they become. They have ideals. They are always comparing, and they are always falling short! If you have an ideal that unless this ideal is fulfilled, you will not think yourself perfect, how can you be total in your act? If you think, for example, that you have to be a dancer like Nijinsky, then how can you be total in your dance? You are constantly looking, watching yourself, trying to improve, afraid to commit any fault... you are divided. A part of you is dancing, another part of you is there -- judgemental, standing by the…
So there is the world of logic, where adding increases and subtracting reduces. And there is also the world of love, of poetry, of the heart—where subtracting does not reduce but, on the contrary, increases; and where hoarding reduces. If a person hoards his love, he will rot. Within days he will find love has disappeared. Love grows only by being given away. Lao Tzu says, ‘The highest perfection is like imperfection.’ The only mark of imperfection is that it is evolving—dynamic, in motion, flowing, moving ahead. The perfection of this world too is a perfection that keeps on moving—moving from perfection to more perfection, and always from perfection to perfection. Then God can be both perfect and evolving. And unless he is both, the notion of God cannot help us to understand existence.
Recently I had a glimpse of emptiness. In my work I communicate through images juxtaposed strangely. Will the clearing process allow the image to rise anew, or as I vanish will the work vanish?
When Rabindranath, a great poet, used to have moods, was possessed, he would go in a room, close his door. For a few days he will not eat, he will not come out. He will just silently listen to the voice of God. He will purify himself so that he can become the right vehicle. He will cry and weep and he will go on writing. And whenever anybody asked he would always say. "Whatsoever is beautiful is not mine, and whatsoever is ordinary must be mine. I must have added it." When Coleridge died, almost forty thousand incomplete pieces of poetry and stories were found -- forty thousand. Almost all his life his friends were saying, "Why don't you complete them?" He said, "How can I complete? He starts; he has to complete -- whenever he wills. I am helpless. One day he possessed me and then a few…
What is creativity?
That's the paradox of creativity. If you see a painter painting, certainly he is active, utterly active, madly active -- he is all action. Or if you see a dander dancing, he is all action. But still, deep down there is no actor, no doer; there is only silence. Hence I called creativity the state of paradox. All beautiful states are paradoxical. The higher you go, the deeper you go into the paradox of reality. Supreme action with supreme relaxation: on the surface great action is happening, in the depth nothing is happening, or ONLY nothing is happening. Creative quietude is the supreme action -- the precious suppleness, simplicity, spontaneity and freedom that flows from us, or rather through us, when our private egos and conscious efforts yield to a power not their own. Yielding to a power not of your own, surrendering to a power that is beyond you,…
Is it ever possible to paint a totally satisfying painting?
Rabindranath again has to be remembered. He wrote six thousand songs -- seems to be the greatest poet the world has ever known -- and each song is a beauty. But when he was dying he was crying, he was saying to God, "The song that I wanted to sing, I have not sung yet." An old friend was by the side of the bed, and the old friend said, "What are you saying? Have you gone mad? You have sung six thousand songs. In Europe, Shelley is thought to be one of the greatest poets. He has sung only two thousand songs. You have defeated him three times. You should be happy and contented!" Rabindranath opened his tear-filled eyes and he said, "I am not. Yes, six thousand songs I have sung, but you don't know the inner story. The inner story is, I wanted to sing only one…