It doesn’t matter whether you are a believer, an agnostic or, like me, an explorer venturing through the spiritual landscape with more questions than answers.
It doesn’t matter whether you are a devoted Pagan, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, or Jew—or none of the above.
It doesn’t matter whether you are a novelist or poet, a playwright or essayist. Whatever you are, writing can be a true and faithful partner on your spiritual path—or it can be the path itself.
I have spent many years looking at writing through the lens of spirituality, and studying the connections between spiritual practice and creative expression. If there’s one thing I’ve discovered, it’s that there are as many ways to make writing your spiritual path as there are writers. Over the next few months, I’m going to be homing in on ways to incorporate writing into spiritual life. To get started, here’s an overview: the first 3 of 10 ways to write a sacred path.
Writing as meditation.
Meditation has been defined as extended thought, reflection, contemplation, or introspection
But the definition on freemeditation.com says it best: meditation is thoughtless awareness. It is a state in which we stop thinking about past or future and rest in the present moment. We aren’t forcing ourselves to focus on something or trying to accomplish anything. We just are.
At its best, writing can do this for us. When we become thoroughly and completely engrossed in the writing process, letting go of expectations and goals, hopes and fears: “We start to experience our Self, our spirit, our own inner beauty and the beauty of creation. We start to enjoy Being.” Buddhists often say, in meditation, we become like the surface of a lake on a very still day, reflecting everything around us in perfect clarity, without a single distortion or ripple. Writing can do this.
Writing as Prayer
Those who believe in a personal deity see prayer as a way of communicating with him or her: a request, a thank you, or praise—or, as Anne Lamott puts it, “Help. Thanks. Wow.”
For those of us whose beliefs don’t include a god or goddess, prayer is something else: It is a turning of our awareness to the Sacredness of life, to a sense of awe and mystery, to a connection with the Universe.
As one writer put it in the British newspaper, the Guardian: “to walk in the world and feel connected to its people, to feel at peace, to feel that one has prudent detachment and good judgment, is a prayer … because it involves a moment of self-awareness and world-awareness, the both together.” Writing can be this as well, a kind of “walk in the world” that provides connection, wisdom, and peace.
Writing as Questioning
Spiritual questions are doors waiting to be opened. They are windows into the Mystery. They are journeys into unexplored terrain. While the religious faithful feel spirituality is all about answers, for many of us, it is more about the questions.
In Writing as a Sacred Path, I suggest an exercise called “writing from not knowing.” I propose writing from a space of uncertainly and doubt. In this practice, we write about things we don’t have the answers to not as a way of getting those answers, but as a way of reminding ourselves of the great mystery of existence. A way of settling into the sacred Unknown.
Next post: more of the 10 ways to make writing your spiritual path.