What now is Right
Attentiveness, oh disciples?
The only way that leads to the attainment of a calm
writing mind, to mindful ability to write, to a consistent and joyous practice
of writing is through the fundamentals of attentiveness.
And to what is the mindful writer attentive?
A person is attentive to her breath and to the moment, and
because she wants to write, wants to understand and perceive language, she is attentive
to the possibility of language, to the ways that language can arise in the moment.
The mindful writer is attentive to the language occurring
inside the present moment.
And what is inattentiveness for writers? To what is the
unmindful writer inattentive?
Forgetting to observe the in breath, forgetting to observe
the out breath, forgetting to observe the moment, the unmindful writer becomes absorbed
by thoughts of the past and thoughts of the future.
These movies of the mind rarely have anything to offer to
our writing. They are illusions that trick the mind into watching them full-screen
without any awareness of what we are doing. If about writing, these story lines
about the past or future are usually commentaries on our writing abilities or mirages
of reception in which an as-of-yet-unwritten text by us is read by as-of-yet-not-present
audiences in an as-of-yet-nonexistent place and time.
And how is the mindful writer attentive? How does language
arise in the present moment?
The mindful writer puts her mind on the in breath and on the
out breath. The mindful writer notes the physical sensations of breathing, the billows
of breathing, the three-part inhalation, the pastel temperatures of the breath,
the ascent of rib cage and torso, the rise of the belly, the mellowing of the face,
the push of the breath to the peninsula of the body, to the fingers and toes, beyond
the knees. If the mind wanders off the breath, the writer places it gently back.
This is the practice to develop baseline awareness.
And how is the mindful writer attentive? How does language
arise in the present moment?
This one-pointed attention on breathing is difficult. It is
very hard to make breathing the subject of each moment. So the mind departs from
the moment to make movies of the mind but also to generate language. This mind-generated
language rides on top of the crest of the watched breath. This mind-generated language
is a verbal banner above the watched breath. This mind-generated language is seen
at the bottom of the watched breath. This mind-generated language appears like an
italicized thread through the center of the watched breath. It is a like a scribble
on the screen of each moment.
The mindful writer can wait for language to arise in response
to the large emptiness of the moment. Free of context, such words are often enigmatic,
metaphoric, the impulses of the unconscious. It is as though they are large fish
drawn to the surface, attracted by the nutrition of mindfulness. Such words and
fragments emerge in contradistinction to the moment, as a response to the call of
awareness.
Or the mindful writer can steer her discursive thought, training
the mind to generate words by asking a question, tossing the question into the waves
of breathing. These can be questions about the content of a piece, questions about
the structure of a piece, questions about an image, about a single word, about a
comparison, about a contrast, about a narrative, about a metaphor, about a simile,
about a line of dialog, about a topic sentence, about a thesis, about a supporting
sentence, about a question, about a rebuttal, about an assumption, about a definition,
about a noun, about a verb, about an adjective, about an adverb, about a subject,
about a predicate, about an object, about punctuation, about a list, about a fragment,
about a long passage, about a short passage, about a stanza, about a paragraph,
about a line, about a sentence. The mindful writer watching her in-breath asks the
question of the moment, and the mindful writer watching her out-breath waits for
the answer from the moment.
This is Basic Writing. These are the basics of writing.
When these fundamentals are forgotten, when these fundamentals
are misplaced, when these fundamentals are perhaps never taught, the act of writing
becomes covered with vines of theory and vines of pedagogy, ever more complex, and
the individual who wants to write becomes further and further away from the present
moment and from the joys and tranquility of writing. The individual who wants to
write becomes entangled in theories and tied down by worry and doubt.
And how is mindfulness different from mindful writing?
The mindful person does not seek out language, does not fish
in her discursivity, is not attached to thought or words, does not sort or respond
to inner words but lets go of the words like a fish caught in a catch n’ release.
A mindful writer does fish in her discursivity and does respond to inner words.
But a mindful writer also maintains detachment, oh learners, recording the phrases
but suspending judgment.
Stock your voice, oh disciples, as you would an
ornamental fish pond, with the phrases of others.
And it is here that the venerable Dariputta, a twenty-something contemporary
poet with several awards from literary journals, stood shifting his robes and interrupted, saying, “I
read Ashton Joberry each morning. He puts my unconscious on spin cycle.”
And the Writer nodded, saying, “Yes, that is good. Find a
writer who puts your unconscious on spin cycle.”
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