Wen Fu, Fool!

This week I resorted to my skinny book technique (in order to stay on schedule in the midst of my post-holiday haze) and read Master Lu Chi's "Wen Fu" (The Art of Writing). Whilst Master Lu's life (as quickly communicated in the introduction) seemed to be a succession of raw fuckin' deals, this lil' book is BOSS. Floats like a butterfly, stings like the bees in the Wicker Man. :-)

Here's some highlights:

IV. The Satisfaction

Out of non-being, being is born;
out of silence,
a writer produces a song.

X. Shadow and Echo and Jade

When the mind is caged and separate,
the spirit wanders
and nothing is controlled.

XI. Five Criteria

The poet calls and calls
into the void,
but nothing answers.

XIII. The Masterpiece

Wanting every word to sing.
every writer worries:

nothing is every perfected;
no poet can afford to become complacent.

I've been reading a lot of books about writing lately, as that is the next step for me in this dissertation process. The ULTIMATE step! Actually WRITING the damn thing.

I have filled myself for YEARS with books and more books and ideas and obsessions -- underlining things, making notes, connections, following threads -- and now it is finally time to step into the wild frontier of actually putting forth my OWN thoughts, ideas, and articulating MY philosophy on the topic that has been the recurring theme in my life, art, and thinking. It's an exciting time to be in the mind of Juli Crockett. And terrifying. Incredibly terrifying.

It is a damn good thing that I recently started meditating regularly. Not only does the journey into effortlessness and emptiness have EVERYTHING to do with my dissertation on NOTHING... the practice itself helps to keep me grounded as I venture deep into the void. Like the 'ol Zen kōan about walking in a circle in both directions simultaneously:

Here I amn't, grounded in groundlessness.