By Emma Salvado.
Journaling is a canvas for our thoughts and feelings, a canvas for how things fit, for how WE fit, for how we refine Unity.
Journaling is how we stay in conversation with the Universe.
Journaling is how we sketch truth within our heart.
In a deep and lasting way, Journaling is how we practice the art of correspondence within ourselves. Where a diary is a place to track the circumstances of our lives, a journal is a place to unfold the events that lift and drop us through our days, a place to ask all the questions that have no answer, a place to find and gather meaning from all we go through.
The Inherent Sequence of Learning
The threshold of all learning is question and response. It’s the gift of inquiry that draws an inner response from us. This is how we return to promise, this is how we turn into our possibility. By inquiring and inwardly responding, we become authentic.
Real thinking involves question and response, which is at the heart of dialogue. When honest, we enter and engage true questions and stop seeking answers. While the surface world requires answers…. Which foods are safe to eat…? Can I drink the water in Bali …? Etc …The things that give us meaning – Truth , Love, Peace, Paradox .. – are unanswerable. They reveal themselves when we are in relationship with them, not when we answer or try to solve them.
A journal is a private , sacred place where we work out these relationships. The base of all learning is wonder ….. Our chief task as teachers , seekers, students, is to re establish and reaffirm the inherent sequence of learning, to open wonder with a question, and then to respond, to see how things go together, and then unify them.
Any practice, instrument, experience or technique that fosters the sequence of learning is a significant aid in the art of living.
One Common Assumption
One such instrument is the journal. Its use is extremely versatile. Its can serve as a lamp, a mirror, or magnifying glass.
A journal is a personal workspace of inwardness, a soul’s logbook.
These descriptions all share one common assumption – that there is something worth inquiring into, and something worth responding to. It’s the fundamental belief on which all learning is based. We often react to life, before inquiring into it. The importance of self study through a journal, is that is actualizes who we are by exploring our relationship to everything we encounter.
Once committed to the practice of reflection as a conduit between our soul and the universe, a journal can animate our concerns and curiosities, providing a way to weave a tapestry of all the different strands of life …, ( This is living Tantra)
We are always on a journey, and so there are always spaces waiting to be entered and explored. The journey of learning, whether we like it or not, never stops.
We question , then respond.
We correspond, feel and become real.
What sketching is to a painter , Journaling is to an awakened soul.
The Workspace
What then is the nature of this tool, a journal?
It is a daily and personal practice , that is significantly tied to the rest of our lives. Its a travel log, of our souls journey through the world. Just as exercise strengthens our muscles, our practice of question and reflection can enliven us, keeping us open, acute , perceptive, and thorough.
By being faithful to the art of inner dialogue, searching for meaning in events, issues , ideas and feelings we can inhabit the life we are given by engaging the world.
The Manner and Reach of the Journal
A journal seems to work best when its established as a daily or regular practice. I would encourage you to regard it as an intimate place where you can enter time and bear witness to the wonder of your life and all its hardships and wonders. Where you can be honest about how life is happening around you.
It’s a place where you get to tell the truth as only you see if, even when you’re wrong. Write as if no one will see it. Only after you have possibly for meaning from your questions, should you share what you have found…. Do the work yourself first…What’s most important is that you remain honest, without fear of invasion ( others reading it)
Above all, It’s YOUR journal.
I also encourage you to make the space of your journal personal. So it matters what it looks and feels like. It should be chosen with care, something that you have a connection too, something you want to return too. Something welcoming. It doesn’t need to be well organised, or logical, or neat. Let it unfold organically in a way that mirrors the questions moving through your heart and mind. It could be full of sketches or scribbles….. (I write upside down and back to front sometimes)
Generally is most effectively entered in three ways :
- It can be written in by responding to the impact of your experiences
- Responding to the things you read ( when I’m moved by a poem or text from a book)
- By inquiring into a journal question ( I am always on the lookout for questions that stir me, or others….. The kind of questions that have no immediate answers.
Ultimately these questions are carried by us like lanterns, that we swing in the dark to help us find our way.
The Life of Oneness
After initially beginning to journal, we can sometimes get frightened at times , because of the depth of life that opens up for us. In a world where we have grown accustomed to separating what matters from what needs to be done, your journal might seem a little disorientating.
It brings us back to our innate yearning for unity, for a life of oneness, for what we have in common, rather than what separates us.
We return to the art of correspondence, to see how things go together, so see how we fit into our life. Be ready to be opened as you enter a life of new depths. Because you may start to see your life differently, you might start to see all of life differently. You may have to allow other views in that you once thought didn’t belong.
We cannot make anyone learn but ourselves…… so work in your journal , by living closely to the heart of your experience. Feel it within yourself. Do not try to run or escape from the feelings or sensations that might arise from the work. Acknowledge them , and journal through them.
Discover what your thoughts and feelings point to, rather than summarizing what you already know.
Remember your journal is an experiment in authenticity. There is no right or wrong way.
Trust whatever comes.
The Magic you’re looking for, is in the work you’re avoiding.