I know meditation is used to center oneself and focus on the inner person and to gain clarity about any thoughts or situations you may find yourself in and therefore is thought of as a more serene act, but in my experiences I thought I would try something different. As someone who practices zazen quite often one day I felt moved to try a sort of free writing style of meditation. (any of you out there who write know what I am talking about) Free writing is used to help cure writer's block and free the bonds of conventional thought sometimes for those who have trouble expressing themselves.
As I was sitting one night (often what us zen followers call meditating) I tried to sort of open myself to any thoughts and even invite as many thoughts into my head at once as I could to see where the natural progression of things would flow. Now, if any of you have been practicing zazen for any extended period of time this kind of becomes a hard thing to do as you train yourself to close out the distractions. This time (purely for academic reasons) I tried to welcome everything I could mentally. Naturally though the thoughts started to coalesce and a clear train of thought emerged. It was almost like playing the devil's advocate...Invite as much anarchy into the picture and watch the order come about.
Anyone else ever do this? I know that if my teacher were to hear of my doing this it would definitely earn me a few taps of the keisaku.
I would love to hear some feedback from others. I don't think I will make this a habit, of course, but definitely something that struck me as interesting to try.
