Over and over, we have to go back to the beginning. We should not be ashamed of this. It is good. It's like drinking water.

We are important and our lives are important, magnificent really, and their details are worthy to be recorded.

This is the practice school of writing. Like running, the more you do it, the better you get at it. Some days you don't want to run and you resist every step of the three miles, but you do it anyway. You practice whether you want to or not. You don't wait around for inspiration and a deep desire to run ... That's how writing is too ... One of the main aims in writing practice is to learn to trust your own mind and body; to grow patient and nonaggressive.

That daydreaming seemed important at the time, but when I asked my teacher Katagiri Roshi about it, he said, "Oh, it's just laziness. Get to work." But as for discipline, I don't even use that word. I think more about passion or love. What I've really learned is the way the mind moves, and how the mind works. Rather than discipline, I know how to seduce my mind.

I love and care about literature, and great writers are our teachers. You're studying their mind when you read their work.

Write what disturbs you, what you fear, what you have not been willing to speak about. Be willing to be split open.

We should notice that we are already supported at every moment. There is the earth below our feet and there is the air, filling our lungs and emptying them. We should begin from this when we need support.