Writing in the Art of Zen

Ray Bradbury on writing:

Work.  Relaxation.  Don't think.

"An athlete may run 10,000 miles in order to prepare for 100 yards.  Quantity gives experience.  From experience alone can quality come."

"Suddenly a natural rhythm is achieved.  The body thinks for itself." 

"You begin to write as you...There is only one type of story in the world: your story."

Rewrite as many times to do your best.  There are no failures, just lessons, so keep learning - Kendra Bonnett, Writing Alchemy on Youtube

I'm practicing writing on my moleskin.  The method I'm using is a combination of free association and zen-like focused flow with only the topic as the guide, which means that it may have incomplete phrase-like sentences and may even swing the other way to stream of consciousness run-on sentences.  What I will attempt to do is to not cross out any part of it, so that whatever is written is there, not corrected, in it's original form.  At first it will be slow-going to get the flow, as it has already been in these first couple of entries.  But as I keep writing, I hope it will become as natural as any other skill I've developed.

Go where the evidence leads

Tea party supporters are more scientifically literate than the general public?  And it surprised the researcher?  I'm sure this prof will also be surprised at how much they know about economics too.

The admission in this article is very telling.  I'm glad Prof. Dan Kahan was at least willing to accept where he was wrong, change his views, and was man enough to admit it to the world!

A Different Approach

Instead of waiting to figure out what I should write, I should just write.  I've been inspired to restart this blog.  Every single day (or as often as possible), I'll write on a topic for exactly 30 minutes.  I won't make corrections until afterwards for about 10 minutes.  The following 20 minutes will be logging what I did for the day in my other blog.

Catching a simple thought

I'll work this out somehow.  At some moments, I get this feeling of fulfillment, of pride in who I am as a Christian, of being part of something when I think of simplifying my life to the point of almost being like a monk in a Shaolin monastery.  I can't seem to catch a permanent sense of it, but when I do, I feel a sense of something unique and holistically satisfying when I think of being a monastic, to be away from the world for a while, but at the same time living simply while living in the world.  I see myself in simple, comfortable clothes, almost like a tai chi outfit, barefoot most of the time or in sandals, and in a constant deep meditative state in whatever I'm doing.  I don't want to mix any type of paganism into my Christianity.  I'm well aware that shared aspects of Zen and Christianity are merely a bridge to begin dialogue.  Superficially similar, fundamentally different - worlds apart.  Though, whenever I think of Zen, I'm reminded of the emphasis on simplicity in how I should live my life, the simplicity of Jesus.  Not that I'm making life simple, as if I'm making an artificial existence, a make-believe world.  But there is one simple way to live life, the way Jesus lived - allowing the Spirit of God to move me, to be in step with Him, to be in line with Him, His flow, His movement in the world.  To be truly one with Him and inevitably to be one with His Body.  Obviously not in the monistic sense that some Christians have adopted.  My brothers and sisters who subscribe to that are being misled, thinking that the oneness mentioned in Zen and other thoughts with a monistic worldview is the same as the oneness that Jesus spoke of, the oneness of being united with Him, of being one with the Father.  It's not in the likeness that we have with each other, but in the unity of being in Him, in what He did and continues to do for us.  We are not all connected, but we are connected once we acknowledge Jesus for who He is - the Way, the Truth, and the Life, the Creator, the Source.  So how do I live my life so I can be in line with Him, to be in step with His will, while acknowledging that I am a unique individual?  Submitting to the Head of Christ as I am part of His Body.  I have to be sensitive to His move, listening to His still small voice in the innermost part of me, like a limb responding naturally to the electrical current from the brain.  How simple!  
Now the question is, when do I begin?