Writing and The Teflon Mind

The uninstructed person ages like an ox.
His bulk increases but his insight does not.
The Dhammapada translated by Glenn Wallis

An untrained mind is a velcro mind.
A Buddha mind is a teflon mind.
Venerable Tenzin Priyadarshi

So here it is almost midnight. For the past week, at this time, I have been hustling to get a blog post up.

I have several film reviews in draft form by Ron Wells, and some other tidbits.

After writing more deeply this past week, it is hard to just throw something out there, adn there are things I want to say with his reviews.

It is also hard to write something deep every day for a week when the only time that is quiet and without distractions and with decent internet is 11pm. And later.

I bet some of you know what I’m talking about. At least my house is cozy and tonight I can hear the rain dripping.

So I’m going to keep this brief. Otherwise I will eat all of the Santa Barbara s’mores caramel corn made in Ojai that I bought for my son but which goes well with Irish whiskey. And stay up far too late for too many nights in a row.

Because “The uninstructed person ages like an ox.
His bulk increases but his insight does not.”

The point I want to make here is about writing every day on this blog for 20 of the 26 days this month.

When I read this morning’s Weekly Wake-up from Leslie Rinchen-Wongmo, I immediately began thinking about how it connected with the Your Turn Challenge.

And how writing every day almost every month was helping me to stay connected to my muse (as one reader put it.)

I wrote on Saturday about how I surprise myself in my writing and in my teaching.

Today teaching I really surprised myself, and we are doing something I’ve never tried before and so far the results are really exciting, and I wonder if I would have taken the leap that I did if I hadn’t been writing in this way this week. (Yes I promise to blog about when the experiment is over on Wednesday.)

I wrote the other day the “writing leads to writing.” Well, insights lead to insights also.

Any sort of writing practice done with intention and mindfulness can help you develop a Buddha mind, a Teflon mind, where you will be able to deflect the crap and cook without sticking the good stuff.

No wonder when I talked with Seth Godin one time about “Stop Stealing Dreams” how I should teach he said to get my students blogging. Any sort of writing is great, but blogging, because it is public in a way that a journal is not, accomplishes more (which I explore in this post “why blog.”

Detail of a silk applique thangka above by Leslie Rinchen-Wongmo. His Holiness the Dalai Lama gave his blessings to Leslie’s work and encouraged her to make images that speak to the spiritual aspirations of people across religions and cultures. Her Weekly Wake-ups like this one provide a thread of inspiration to set your week on the path to awakening.

PS This is blog post is 550 words and #1580. Subscribe and you’ll know all about #1581!

Wow, 1580? I should throw a party when I hit 1600!