Showing posts with label How to Go Deep. Show all posts
Showing posts with label How to Go Deep. Show all posts

Thursday, November 21, 2013

How to Go Deep

Somewhere inside every writer dwells a mystic.

Yet we live in deconstructionist times. Seems like there's a precise formula for accomplishment in everything, guaranteed by some marketplace-dwelling 'guru'.

Good writing? Writing success? Is there a difference? Yes.

If you want to deepen your understanding of writing, if you want to explore your passion for writing, talk to people who are devoted to the practice of a demanding thing. I emphasize devoted. Think about what that means. Ask, Why do you do it? A true devotee will give you one answer: I do it for the sake of the thing itself. A yogi practices yoga for its own sake. A painter paints for its own sake. A nun practices her religion for its own sake. A race-car driver races for its own sake.



A true devotee asks nothing from that which he is devoted to. As a devotee you give yourself to the glory of something much bigger and more important than yourself, at whatever the cost to you. And you do it with gladness. And you are rewarded. You may not be rewarded in the way you expect or want. The point is, if you practice this thing with your whole heart, without greed and without vanity, you will transform your life.

[Image note: E's drawings]

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