Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity: 10th Anniversary Edition

by David Lynch

when you catch one fish that you love, even if it’s a little fish—a fragment of an idea—that fish will draw in other fish, and they’ll hook onto it. Then you’re on your way.

“Keep your eye on the doughnut, not on the hole.” If you keep your eye on the doughnut and do your work, that’s all you can control. You can’t control any of what’s out there, outside yourself.

There’s a safety in thinking in a diner. You can have your coffee or your milk shake, and you can go off into strange dark areas, and always come back to the safety of the diner.

When it marries, you can feel it. The thing jumps; a “whole is greater than the sum of the parts” kind of thing can happen.

There’s an ocean of consciousness inside each of us, and it’s an ocean of solutions. When you dive into that ocean, that consciousness, you enliven it. You don’t dive for specific solutions; you dive to enliven that ocean of consciousness. Then your intuition grows and you have a way of solving those problems—knowing when it’s not quite right

the mind wants to go to fields of greater happiness. It just naturally wants to go.

If you do what you believe in and have a failure, that’s one thing: you can still live with yourself. But if you don’t, it’s like dying twice. It’s very, very painful.

Hearing the music is just a verification that things are going the right way—for instance, the right pace or lighting. It’s just another tool to ensure that you’re following that original idea and being true to it. So it’s a good thing if you’ve got some music up front to play to see if the scene works.

You start rehearsing, and it doesn’t matter how far away things are. Just start. And you may say,“Oh, my goodness—we’re very far away.” (You say that internally, of course!) Then you start talking and rehearsing. And it begins getting closer and closer and closer.

if you pay attention to the original idea—stay true to that—it’s surprising how, at the end, even the things that were accidents are honest. They’re true to the idea.

certain things may have to be cut down or some things may need to be added. They’re not exactly mistakes. Some of the scenes that are removed from a film are kind of nice scenes on their own. But to let the whole thing work, they have to go. It’s part of the process—it always happens to some degree.

The more the artist is suffering, the less creative he is going to be. It’s less likely that he is going to enjoy his work and less likely that he will be able to do really good work.

what light can you turn on that removes negativity the way sunlight removes darkness? It’s the light of pure consciousness, the Self—the light of unity.

We’re like lightbulbs. If bliss starts growing inside you, it’s like a light; it affects the environment.

If you don’t have a setup, there are many times when you get the inspiration, the idea, but you have no tools, no place to put it together. And the idea just sits there and festers. Over time, it will go away. You didn’t fulfill it—and that’s just a heartache.

Stay true to yourself. Let your voice ring out, and don’t let anybody fiddle with it. Never turn down a good idea, but never take a bad idea. And meditate. It’s very important to experience that Self, that pure consciousness. It’s really helped me. I think it would help any filmmaker. So start diving within, enlivening that bliss consciousness. Grow in happiness and intuition. Experience the joy of doing. And you’ll glow in this peaceful way. Your friends will be very, very happy with you. Everyone will want to sit next to you. And people will give you money!

Try to get a job that gives you some time; get your sleep and a little bit of food; and work as much as you can. There’s so much enjoyment in doing what you love.

the only way to have balance in success and failure is to function on that Unified Field level. There’s your friend. You can’t fake it—you’re either in that field or you’re not. And when that field is fully enlivened, you can’t lose, no matter what happens.

Softer than the flower where kindness is concerned, Stronger than the thunder where principles are at stake. VEDIC DESCRIPTION OF THE ENLIGHTENED

meditation gives me a moment to stop the thinking and let my heart come forward.