Writing as Spiritual Practice

Feb 5, 2011
Susannah White

Spiritual Practice - Steven White

Natalie Goldberg suggests that writing can be used as a spiritual practice to observe the mind. She connects writing to Zen practice.

In her book Writing Down The Bones, Natalie Goldberg claims that: ‘Meditation and writing practice are coincident.’ She understands these connections because she has studied Zen, since the 1970s, at the Minnesota Zen Center in Minneapolis. She was taught by Katagiri Roshi at the Zen Center and she describes much of her spiritual journey in the book Long, Quiet Highway.

When Goldberg first went to the Zen centre she tried to learn how to do sitting meditation, where you gaze at a white wall, watch your breathing and let any emotions come and go. However, she came to realise that she could observe her mind, in a similar way, through writing her thoughts and feelings down as they arose. Goldberg writes: ‘There are many truths. To do writing practice means to deal ultimately with your whole life’.

What is Writing Practice?

In her book Wild Mind Goldberg explains that writing practice means writing, every day, for a set period of time. Buy a cheap notebook and a suitable pen and then you will be ready to begin. In Zen meditation you sit and watch your breath, no matter what you feel. In writing practice you just write down whatever comes into your mind and then record the next thought and then the next.

The idea of writing practice is simply to arrive at the paper and to keep your hand moving. You should not edit or cross out any of your writing and not worry about grammar or spelling. Goldberg explains that the aim of this writing is to break through social politeness and to ‘explore the rugged edge of thought’. Just write down your thoughts and feelings without censoring them.

Observe Your Mind.

Goldberg quotes Rinpoche, a Tibetan Buddhist master, who said: ‘We must continue to open in the face of tremendous opposition. No one is encouraging us to open and still we must peel away at the layers of the heart’. The key point of writing practice is to write down whatever is passing through your mind in order to become fully present. This practice of paying attention underpins much Buddhist teaching and it is also mentioned by Lewis Richmond in his book Work as a Spiritual Practice.

Sometimes strong emotions may arise or your writing practice may take you back into past events. If this is the case, you should follow the energy and write whatever arises, even if it is upsetting or frightening. Goldberg claims that many of her students cry as they use writing practice to move through negative past experiences.

Writing is a Spiritual Path

Goldberg explains: ‘we all have a dream of telling our stories- of realizing what we think, feel, and see before we die. Writing is a path to meet ourselves and become intimate’.

Writing about your thoughts allows you to move through them and to watch them as they arise and die away. After a few months of writing practice you may begin to notice your own obsessions and thought patterns. However, the aim is not to judge but simply to pick up the pen and record whatever is passing through your mind. This is how the mere act of writing becomes a spiritual practice. It allows you to watch your own mind just as sitting meditation does.