Anyone here do any Writing that is strictly aimed at their practice? (diary, poetry, essays, quotes)

zenmyste

Do you keep a common place book?

Its something where you write your favourite quotes in and thoughts or essays or write poetry etc etc..
(I suppose its like a spiritual diary)

ALSO; Does anyone know any blogs where people write their OWN BUDDHIST POETRY

Thanks..

lamaramadingdong

Yes- I use Moleskine oilcloth-cover journels to record quotes from Buddhist books that spoke to me when I read them. I am on volume 5. I throw one in my briefcase and read while waiting for meetings, at the airport, etc. I find writing the material helps me digest it better.

zenmyste

I am on volume 5..

Do u mean you have 5 books FULL of writing?

wow, cool.

lamaramadingdong

yeah, but they're small books. 3.5"x5.5", 192 pages each.

genkaku

I used to keep a day-to-day journal that was top-heavy with "Buddhism." Notebook after notebook, all of them sitting in the basement now, gathering mold. It was just a way of encouraging myself, I suppose. I know I would probably be embarrassed to reread them.

Nowadays, because writing seems to be too old a habit to break, I write a blog. It started out, like the notebooks, pretty heavily salted with Zen Buddhist stuff. But now it's just whatever pops into my head -- sometimes the spiritual-endeavor stuff that has interested me for so many years; sometimes just noodling about one thing or another. I figure that, if nothing else, readers (or I) can make their own decisions about the kind of idiot they would prefer NOT to be.

zenmyste

Blog looks good. Will be reading more of it tonight!
X

nobodhi

I love the idea of the practice of a personal commonplace book. hasn't taken root in my garden 'tho,

— writing IS my practice. ( of course everything is: for me, it's been central to my identified path, and livelhood ) • besides writing books as practice, i write haiku ... & translate buddhist poetry. an exhaustive list might include grocery lists, post-its, postcards, and ... online comments

Ficus_religiosa

I used to write down when and why I got angry because that was probably my biggest problem. I could be a little hot headed! It has really, really helped me focus on keeping my temper down by teaching me to realize when it was coming and handling it.
I don't write it down any more - I don't need to I've become much softer! Sometimes I have a fall back, but the feeling of shame sticks with me for so long after, that it's rarely an issue.. I also learned that you can have opinions without trying to force them upon others (even though I'm usually right )

Beej

i do. i find it very helpful. the only thing i try to keep in mind is to not become to dependant on my journal because its just another attatchment that may lead to suffering. but i use it to write down quotes, prose, poetry, practice suggestions, and sometimes i use it as a food shopping list... sometimes i use it as an umbrella when its raining... it really is quite helpful.
:coffee:

ZeroGhost

I have sketchbooks and journals. One journal book for my insights and discovered self truths, and another for night thoughts and journeys. As an artist, I have many visual ideas, and those are likened to creative awareness visual records.

karasti

I write some things down, it helps me keep them straight in my head, and then when I need to review, it's easier to look in a notebook than to look it up every time. I retain information better when I write it down, too. I do love the Kindle for that, I can just highlight anything I find interesting, which is a nice feature. Much better than using highlighters in a book!

When Dr. Arun Ghandi came to visit our community this past spring, he talked of every day as a child having to write down every act of violence he committed. That doesn't mean just hitting, but even violent thoughts, things like littering, wishing bad on someone, and of course over time he began to see even as a child how much he practiced violence and he was able to write less and less down. He even went to far as to include things like replacing a pencil before it was fully used, because it was a waste of the planet's limited resources. It was really interesting, and is something I should put into practice but haven't. I think I'll do it today, because I know I have a lot of negative thoughts and I'd like to recognize them better. Especially at 4am when the dog barks at me to take her out in the pouring rain

here is the Arun Ghandi information better than I explained it:
http://www.innerself.com/Behavior_Modification/violence_12192.htm

Beej

@genkaku - I like your blog... I like your straight forwardness. I found it to be a perfecty-service-able pair of old slippers...

upekka

i have been doing it for years now

i could have published four books (related to dhamma) from what i have been writing

when i read them now i feel happy because i can see my own developement on this sipritual path and what i wrote would help people (if they read them)

weather people read (by buying or borrowing) or not is upto them and i am happy with what i did

even though i have no intention to publish what i have been writing from the begnning of this year, i keep on writing because it helps to clear my thought which arises in meditation

upekka

actually i could get published four books and they are in my mother tongue