WRITING IS HARD WORK

“Writing is hard work (Lewis Carroll’s school in Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland taught reeling and writhing), and there is no point in fooling ourselves into believing that it is all a mater of inspiration. Many of the books that seem, as we read them, to flow effortlessly were in fact the product of innumerable revisions. ‘Hard labor for life’ was Conrad’s view of his career as a writer. This labor, for the most part, is not directed to prettifying language but to improving one’s thoughts and then getting the words that communicate these thoughts exactly. There is no guarantee that effort will pay off, but failure to expend effort is sure to result in writing that will strike your reader as confused. It won’t do to comfort yourself with the thought that you have been misunderstood. You may know what you meant to say, but your reader is the judge of what indeed you have said. Keep in mind Matisse’s remark: ‘When my words were garbled by critics or colleagues, I considered it no fault of theirs but my own, because I had not been clear enough to be comprehended.’”

—Sylvan Barnet, A Short Guide to Writing About Art

The Parable of the Burning House

“There was an old man, who was wealthy and owned a ramshackle dilapidated house with but one door. When he was outside the house one day, he saw that it was on fire. He had five, ten or twenty children, who were playing in the house. He did not know what to do. If he had entered the house and tried to take hold of the boys in order to save them, the foolish children would have run away from him in all directions. He called to the boys and cried: ‘Come, my children. The house is on fire.’ But the boys did not heed his words, and they did not even understand what he meant by ‘fire’, so ignorant were they. He then showed his upaya-kaucalya by calling out: ‘Boys, I have put bullock-cars, goat-carts, deer-carts and other beautiful toys for you outside the door. Come out and take them.’ When the children heard this, they straightaway ran out of the house and were saved from the jaws of death. The father gave them splendid and costly carriages.

“In this parable, the father is Buddha; the children is life in this world; the three carts are the three Ways of the Buddhist Church, which lead to different degrees and kinds of sanctity; the costly carriage is the highest Way, the Mahayana.”

—From the Saddharma-pundarika, quoted in The Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhist Sanskrit Literature by Har Dayal

Mary Pipher on Writing and Meditation

“Both writing and meditation are ways to expand and enrich time. In meditation, we learn to examine our thoughts and feelings from a new perspective, to watch the river of our consciousness flow by, observing it but not attaching ourselves to it. We train ourselves to have a meta-consciousness that observes ourselves observing, and that enlarges moments into infinity. In writing, we also develop that meta-consciousness. We experience our lives as lived events, but also as material to be carefully examined later for richness and meaning. Just as meditation makes life more aware and joyous, so writing allows us to live more deeply and fully. Both involved the sanctification of time.” -Mary Pipher, Writing to Change the World

Jack Kornfield on the Wisdom of the Heart

“The wisdom of the heart can be found in any circumstance, on any planet, round or square. It arises not through knowledge or images of perfection or by comparison and judgment, but by seeing with the eyes of wisdom and the heart of loving attention, by touching with compassion all that exists in our world.” –Jack Kornfield, A Path with Heart: A Guide Through the Perils and Promises of Spiritual Life

Natalie Goldberg on Writing and Awareness

“In order to write we must have an awareness of who we are—and who we aren’t. If you don’t know either, writing can help teach it.” –Natalie Goldberg, An Old Friend From Far Away