Thank you for this and also for your for the link to Audre Lorde’s work on the erotic. I love what she says about how once you experience the erotic in one part of your life, you demand it in all parts of your life. I've found that to be true myself, especially as she defines the erotic as "a resource within each of us that lies in a deeply female and spiritual plane." A place of joy and power and pleasure that can be associated with anything we undertake, whether writing or making the bed. Meditation is like that too, a peaceful radiance that we can take into our ordinary lives. I don't have a ritual that I use to tap into that or my writing, but there is an egoless state of mind that I am able to slip into that I imagine a ritual like the one you describe helps to access that.
Thank you for this. The part about thinking we don't have time really meaning we don't have energy really hit home. I can have so much energy thinking about writing, but the moment I sit down, I start falling asleep. I'm going to try creating a ritual like this this week.
I love this idea! I've often grappled with the writing vs meditating and in fact one of my first ever Substack posts was about whether they might be incompatible (inspired by an article I found by Ruth Ozeki in which she said something similar, except for her it was the meditation that won out at first and for me it was/is the other way around). I don't 100% stand by that argument anymore but I definitely find my interest in meditation waning to nothing when I am deep in the writing zone. It's strange, because I feel like they should be complementary practices and yet I haven't found that to be the case. But I do love the idea of introducing something a bit more ritualistic and meditative to the writing practice itself! That could be a nice compromise, a way of treating writing as a form of meditation rather than a weird obsession/addiction.
Honestly it took years and years of both meditating and writing before the practices truly felt complimentary 😂but hopefully someone faster than me will read this post and have a sudden “oh!”moment because that’s how it was for me when I started to connect them. In dharma practice there is meditation and there is also the “view,” and part of what clicked for me was simply bringing the view into my writing the way I did in meditation. What I find useful about traditions like Vajrayana is that is turns your pre-existing obsessions/addictions into meditation. I think it’s good for artists since we love our addictions and I know I can’t quit writing 🫠
That is all very encouraging! I haven't heard of the 'view' in that context which is surprising because it sounds really useful! I will look into it. I love the idea of turning your obsessions into the object of meditation.
This take of Ozeki’s is so interesting and so is yours! So in my practice, Dzogchen, the take on thoughts is a bit different, I would say, than what she is describing. I would say that both the statements Ozeki is making are equally true and do not annul eachother but rather are concurrently happening. It’s not a binary, in other words. From my perspective, thoughts aren’t really considered a problem, the problem is more having to do with believing all of our thoughts and not seeing them as part of the natural lucidity of mind. I’m certainly not very successful at the practice but think this approach helped me as a writer and meditator see thoughts as something playful and free. Thanks for sharing your work and ideas, Kate. This conversation is so interesting to have with another fiction writer 💓
That sounds very nuanced! And fits nicely with my worldview about multiple things being true and many of our problems stemming from our unwillingness to understand or accept this. I would like to start learning more about the different traditions of Buddhism and their views on these things - most of my experience of Buddhism comes from the Triratna order which started in London and is aimed specifically at Westerners, so many of these nuances get lost.
There are sooo many different traditions and then within those traditions there are...more traditions, lol. Let me know if you would like the names of any books or teachers and I'll DM you!
Love the tips on creating a ritual before starting to write or any creative endeavor. In traditional ink painting, my teacher taught that the time spent grinding the ink bar into ink should be used as a meditation on what one was about to paint. Slowing thoughts so that you can enter a different space of making. (Thank you for the shout out!)
This is terrific advice! As someone who also writes fiction and memoir, and someone fairly new to mindfulness practice, I’m excited to apply these ideas next week at my residency. Thanks for sharing this with us :)
I also find the idea of “inner peace” kind of annoying. Outer peace, I’m definitely interested in. But to me this means an absence of greed and aggression. Not an absence of juicy interesting feelings. Maybe that’s what makes us writers?
I love the idea of making tea for Buddhas or benefactors before a practice, too.
Yes, without the juicy feelings life would be so boring and it’s also simply not how our experience works. It’d be a world without the beauty of story or poetry. One of my teachers describes this juicy quality as the “innate vitality” of mind and I think that’s very fitting. And also we can have all kinds of feelings without hurting people, don’t you think?
I love that White Tara Thangka. And nice tea cup, too, by the way!
Thank you for the suggestions about reframing art/work.
Curious about the piece about dance. Since having my Dakini practice my way of dancing has changed so much. I connect it to joy, fearlessness, transformation and aliveness.
That’s so interesting! I connect the dakini to those qualities too. Thank you for sharing that. I look forward to hearing your thoughts about the dance piece when it comes out.
I feel a lot better about meditation not being a peaceful business, now.
😂 I don’t know who started the rumor about that meditation is peaceful but they need to own up. Thanks for reading, Brian! 💕
Thank you for this and also for your for the link to Audre Lorde’s work on the erotic. I love what she says about how once you experience the erotic in one part of your life, you demand it in all parts of your life. I've found that to be true myself, especially as she defines the erotic as "a resource within each of us that lies in a deeply female and spiritual plane." A place of joy and power and pleasure that can be associated with anything we undertake, whether writing or making the bed. Meditation is like that too, a peaceful radiance that we can take into our ordinary lives. I don't have a ritual that I use to tap into that or my writing, but there is an egoless state of mind that I am able to slip into that I imagine a ritual like the one you describe helps to access that.
“Peaceful radiance” is such a good way to put it because it has that shimmering, bright quality. Thank you for reading and sharing your thoughts!
Thank you for this. The part about thinking we don't have time really meaning we don't have energy really hit home. I can have so much energy thinking about writing, but the moment I sit down, I start falling asleep. I'm going to try creating a ritual like this this week.
You’re so welcome, Chase! I hope it goes well.
I love this idea! I've often grappled with the writing vs meditating and in fact one of my first ever Substack posts was about whether they might be incompatible (inspired by an article I found by Ruth Ozeki in which she said something similar, except for her it was the meditation that won out at first and for me it was/is the other way around). I don't 100% stand by that argument anymore but I definitely find my interest in meditation waning to nothing when I am deep in the writing zone. It's strange, because I feel like they should be complementary practices and yet I haven't found that to be the case. But I do love the idea of introducing something a bit more ritualistic and meditative to the writing practice itself! That could be a nice compromise, a way of treating writing as a form of meditation rather than a weird obsession/addiction.
Honestly it took years and years of both meditating and writing before the practices truly felt complimentary 😂but hopefully someone faster than me will read this post and have a sudden “oh!”moment because that’s how it was for me when I started to connect them. In dharma practice there is meditation and there is also the “view,” and part of what clicked for me was simply bringing the view into my writing the way I did in meditation. What I find useful about traditions like Vajrayana is that is turns your pre-existing obsessions/addictions into meditation. I think it’s good for artists since we love our addictions and I know I can’t quit writing 🫠
That is all very encouraging! I haven't heard of the 'view' in that context which is surprising because it sounds really useful! I will look into it. I love the idea of turning your obsessions into the object of meditation.
This is the essay - I find it kind of cringe to read now 😂 But sharing anyway because it has the link to the Ruth Ozeki article in, which I can't figure out how to share directly because it's a PDF! https://open.substack.com/pub/katebrook/p/on-writing-and-meditation?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=2uhhol
This take of Ozeki’s is so interesting and so is yours! So in my practice, Dzogchen, the take on thoughts is a bit different, I would say, than what she is describing. I would say that both the statements Ozeki is making are equally true and do not annul eachother but rather are concurrently happening. It’s not a binary, in other words. From my perspective, thoughts aren’t really considered a problem, the problem is more having to do with believing all of our thoughts and not seeing them as part of the natural lucidity of mind. I’m certainly not very successful at the practice but think this approach helped me as a writer and meditator see thoughts as something playful and free. Thanks for sharing your work and ideas, Kate. This conversation is so interesting to have with another fiction writer 💓
That sounds very nuanced! And fits nicely with my worldview about multiple things being true and many of our problems stemming from our unwillingness to understand or accept this. I would like to start learning more about the different traditions of Buddhism and their views on these things - most of my experience of Buddhism comes from the Triratna order which started in London and is aimed specifically at Westerners, so many of these nuances get lost.
There are sooo many different traditions and then within those traditions there are...more traditions, lol. Let me know if you would like the names of any books or teachers and I'll DM you!
I would welcome any recommendations you have!
Love the tips on creating a ritual before starting to write or any creative endeavor. In traditional ink painting, my teacher taught that the time spent grinding the ink bar into ink should be used as a meditation on what one was about to paint. Slowing thoughts so that you can enter a different space of making. (Thank you for the shout out!)
Oooh I love that one about grinding the bar into ink as a way to slow down. We’re not in a race!
This is terrific advice! As someone who also writes fiction and memoir, and someone fairly new to mindfulness practice, I’m excited to apply these ideas next week at my residency. Thanks for sharing this with us :)
You're so welcome. Thanks for reading! I hope your residency and mindfulness practice go well!
I also find the idea of “inner peace” kind of annoying. Outer peace, I’m definitely interested in. But to me this means an absence of greed and aggression. Not an absence of juicy interesting feelings. Maybe that’s what makes us writers?
I love the idea of making tea for Buddhas or benefactors before a practice, too.
Yes, without the juicy feelings life would be so boring and it’s also simply not how our experience works. It’d be a world without the beauty of story or poetry. One of my teachers describes this juicy quality as the “innate vitality” of mind and I think that’s very fitting. And also we can have all kinds of feelings without hurting people, don’t you think?
Yes! I love this. Mind as garden, not sterile empty room.
🍃🍃🍃🩵
mmmmh, nice!
I love that White Tara Thangka. And nice tea cup, too, by the way!
Thank you for the suggestions about reframing art/work.
Curious about the piece about dance. Since having my Dakini practice my way of dancing has changed so much. I connect it to joy, fearlessness, transformation and aliveness.
That’s so interesting! I connect the dakini to those qualities too. Thank you for sharing that. I look forward to hearing your thoughts about the dance piece when it comes out.