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Review: THE WAY OF THE FEARLESS WRITER: Ancient Eastern Wisdom for a Flourishing Writing Life

Book Review of The Way of the Fearless Writer by Beth Kempton (Piatkus 2022)) 

Reviewer: Rebecca Otowa

(Beth Kempton is a writer and mentor who spent a year in Kyoto in the nineties, and has travelled back and forth frequently since then. Her books may be found on amazon.com.)

Now that the New Year’s season has passed and we are safely into 2023, many of us might be thinking, “How can I make my next year of life meaningful?” Here’s a book for you to find meaning in your own writing life. 

The few moments of time for creativity that we carve out from the rest of our lives; the moments when we really feel we have something to express that has never been said in quite that way before; we wish to have them, and have more of them – no matter what our previous experience of writing has been. And we all think of ourselves as writers, else we would not be in this group. 

As Beth says (p. 70) “… being a writer has nothing to do with other people’s validation, having things published, or being paid to write… Being a writer is writing. Being a writer is capturing things that spill from your head and heart, and putting them on paper. Being a writer is expressing the human condition and experience of existence in words.” 

To this end, we can use this book as a guide to finding or re-finding our writing voice. Sprinkled liberally with anecdotes from her own experiences, Beth, who already has a flourishing online mentoring business called Do What You Love , and four other books published (including Wabi Sabi), here gives us guidelines for feeling our way (back) into the joy of writing. 

The book presents writing as a practice for self-awareness, staying in the present, even enlightenment, and is based on three Gates of Liberation of Buddhist practice, called Mugenmon (The Gate of Desirelessness), Musoumon (The Gate of Formlessness) and Kuumon (The Gate of Emptiness). For each Gate section, there are four chapters, plus a Journey Note and a Ceremony when the Gate is safely passed. Tucked into each chapter are writing prompts in boxes, called “Write Now”. Other suggestions for writing are also provided, based on the theme of the chapter.

So, that covers the writing. Where does the “fearlessness” come in? I would say, both as a writer and as a Buddhist practitioner, that the book doesn’t pull any punches when it says that when you write, you may find yourself opening and mining memories of forgotten times, places and people and how they made you feel. It takes fearlessness to keep going when this happens, but the rewards are great. Because writing is, according to Beth, “about ritual, dedication and commitment, developing an acute awareness of beauty, dancing with inspiration, listening to the world outside yourself and going deep within.” (p. 7)

Sound like a tall order? It may seem daunting. But please allow me to add something of my own to this. Recently I had a long talk with a 26-year-old Assistant Language Teacher in my town (from Jamaica!), and she said that one of her perennial problems was that she lacked discipline. After many years of struggling in this department myself, I have come to the conclusion that within our character, either there is a bent toward self-discipline, or there isn’t. I know, after many trials, that to say to myself, “From now on, I’m going to do A every day” is a recipe for disaster. If you are a self-punishing type, it can be excruciating when, as inevitably happens, you fall from that lofty peak.

But I am not without self-discipline. I usually finish what I start, eventually. It’s just that I have found that, for me, making lists and telling myself, “if I don’t do this, I’m a terrible person” just doesn’t work. The Buddhist practice I am now doing says that everything, success, failure, whatever, is part of the path. And the path is something we will be walking all our lives, perhaps many lifetimes. So what’s the rush? What I told the ALT was this: Pick just one activity that you consider a high priority, whether it is eating breakfast, some cleaning chore, anything, and try to do it for a month. Don’t beat yourself up if you don’t do it every day. Just keep track of the number of days you did do it. At the end of the month, if you are satisfied with the total number of times you managed to do it, add another activity. If not, do another month concentrating on the first activity. And perhaps it would be good to consider WHY, sometimes, you were unable to do it. Maybe there was just no time that day, or your routine was disrupted. Maybe you just didn’t feel like it. And that’s OK. I did this in December with stretching exercises and walking. When I totaled them up, I found that I had only done these things 2/3 of the days of December. Well, that’s a lot better than 0. Maybe January will be better. 

But some people thrive on this kind of discipline. No less a writer than Stephen King suggested that aspiring writers “write something every day”. A ritual can help, as Beth suggests. Treating writing time as a really important thing, not relegating it to minutes of tired time just before bed, etc., can help too. I think personally that it is important to know yourself when you attempt this kind of discipline. I think that just jumping in and writing can help with this self-awareness too. That’s really what Beth’s book is about. Self-awareness often requires fearlessness. 

If you feel that now, in the New Year, is the time to pick up the reins (or the pen, or the keyboard) and write, this book provides an easy-to-read, friendly guide to doing that. 

Writers in focus

An unexpected encounter in the cosmos of Kyoto

by Kirsty Kawano

It was one of those sparkling summer days when the pale blue sky seems to stretch higher than usual. I was running errands near home and took the path along the river to avoid traffic and enjoy the view. I looked back and forth to the river as I cycled along, spotting some of the usual inhabitants – the eponymous ducks, herons and little egrets – and then, an unexpected one. I stopped my bike to gawk at it. At the edge of the grassy bank in the middle of the river was one of those things that there’s a sign about down at Demachiyanagi. A “neutrino,” or something, because that’s not the right word – but something like that. And if I’ve ever seen a South American beaver-like rodent smile, that’s what it was doing now. The audacity! And then, just like that, in the brilliant sunshine of a Kyoto summer, it took a moment to give its butt a good, long scratch.

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Poetry that is about the ancient capital or was set in Kyoto

Three Poems by Robert Weis

Sea of Clouds (the art of change)

The November sun
Dazzles our faces with eyes closed
The bright glow of coloured leaves
Is not of this world
Here, today
It is another universe
That looks like the world
As it is
Of islands, rivers, mountains, oceans
A monochrome universe
Emerges from the stone
Expanding my mind
Falling on the moss
Like shooting stars
The maple leaves
Swept by the autumn wind
Or by the gardener
In the twilight
From the path of Yoshida Hill
I walk along the candlelight on the ground
A black butterfly
As big as my hand
Escapes from the darkness of the undergrowth
- Or is it a bat?
A tiny tea house
Above the bamboo grove of Kodai-ji temple
Under the full autumn moon
That illuminates the scarlet maples
And the cold of a night
Full of promise
Drop after drop
The basin of water fills
With the inebriation of life
Under the amazed gaze
Of a wise man silent
Like the passing of time
Small granite monk's heads
In a sea of green moss
Smile at life
As well as to death
Autumn rings hollow
Under the crackling sound
Of leaves tinged 
With the past
I watch my thoughts
Reflected in the clear water 
Of the lotus pool
Then floating
Like a sea of clouds
In a distant sky.

Manabeshima

Under the clouds diving into water
The absence of a new beginning
In the middle of this inland sea
Calm as a shoreless lake
I consider the possibility of an island
Swaying in the wind
- A solitary jellyfish!

Kiyotaki or the valley of bliss

The number eight bus abandons me at the curve
Stone stairs going down
Stone stairs going up
The face of the Buddha is invisible
In this mountain temple
The Japanese maples smile
Behind their faces scorched by the sun
And the coolness of the mountain nights
Stairs again and again
The sound of a Japanese lute
Makes the humid air vibrate on the river
I follow the path that follows the water
Climbing over blunt rocks
And suddenly the sight of a vermilion bridge
Amidst the vermilion maples
A man is fishing with a line
Sitting on the granite pebbles
As in an old print by master Hiroshige
- The hanging bridge of dreams.

*************************

These poems have been translated from French by the author. The book Rêves d’un mangeur de kakis is available from the publisher (www.michikusapublishing.com) or directly from the author.

For other writing by Robert Weis, see Mind Games in Arashiyama, or 71 Lessons on Eternity. For more on his travels, see his account of a walk from Ohara to Kurama here, or his spiritual journey to Kyoto here. His account of Nicolas Bouvier in Kyoto in the mid-1950s can be read here.

Writers in focus

Rock Band Queen and Kyoto

by Yuki Yamauchi

The relationship between David Bowie and Kyoto is a source of endless fascination. Less well known is the connection between the city and the mega rock band Queen. Like Bowie, who I wrote about in April, Freddie Mercury was particularly attracted to Kyoto. 

Queen has several links with Japan. For example, more than 1,000 fans flocked to Haneda Airport to glimpse the quartet during the 1975 Sheer Heart Attack Tour, their first tour of Japan. In addition, Japanese lyrics account for a part of “Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together),” a closing track on the 1976 album ‘A Day at the Races’.

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Writers in focus

The dharma of natural laws

by Preston Keido Houser

The dharma of natural laws
Initiate a sublime conclusion:
“No cause, no cause.”*

Zen sermons for all their flaws
Frame an eloquent elocution
The dharma of natural laws

To escape ideological claws
One source of absolution:
“No cause, no cause.”

Dreams must give us pause†
The crystal clarity of illusion
The dharma of natural laws

Being beyond is will or was
Exalt religious revolution:
“No cause, no cause.”

No curse no applause
Only a salient solution:
The dharma of natural laws:
“No cause, no cause.”


*cf. King Lear (4.7.75).
†cf. Hamlet (3.1.68).

******************************************

Preston Keido Hauser is a longtime member of Writers in Kyoto, a poet and a player and teacher of the Japanese wind instrument shakuhachi. He has been in Kyoto since 1981. His website may be found at www.keidokyoto.wordpress.com. To read more of his work on the WIK website, click here.

Authors who belong to Writers in Kyoto

The Back Way to Kiyomizu-dera

by Steve Alpert

The secret back way to Kiyomizu-dera begins on Shichi-jo Dori. It’s a secret now because the city of Kyoto over the last thousand or so years has grown up around it. Back in the Heian Period (794-1185), and maybe a little after that, it would have been how you got to Kiyomizu from the old Imperial Palace just south of what later became Nijo Castle. A visit to Kiyomizu was a popular outing for Imperial concubines of the day.

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BORN ABROAD, WRITING IN JAPAN: A Bilingual Live/Zoom Streamed Event in Shizuoka University

Image taken by Steve Redford and used as the poster & program image.

by Rebecca Otowa

On November 19, 2022, Shizuoka University professor Steve Redford celebrated his retirement with a very ambitious event. He invited two resident-in-Japan writers to join him in an event in which the three talked about their early lives, why they came to Japan, and their experiences of writing in English in Japan. They interspersed these personal tales with readings from their published works. About 50 live participants and 18 Zoom participants enjoyed the event. 

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Writers in Kyoto Present the Eighth Annual Kyoto Writing Competition

◆ THEME: Kyoto (English language submissions only)
◆ DEADLINE: March 31st, 2023 (23:59 JST)
◆ GENRE: Short Shorts (unpublished material only)
 WORD LIMIT: 300 Words (to fit on a single page)
 FORM: Short poems, character studies, essays, travel tips, whimsy, haiku sequence, haibun, wordplays, dialogue, experimental verse, etc. In short, anything that helps show the spirit of place in a fresh light. A clear connection to Kyoto is essential.

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Writers in focus

Enter the Ink

By Elaine Lies

He comes to me after nightfall. 

I’ve lit the candles and incense, rung the bells at the small shrine in my studio, bowed my head, all as if I’m about to start work. The sticks and the needles stand ready, lined up in their boxes; the ink in its jars, rows of blue and black, yellow, green, aqua, red. I used red a lot, for the sweeping arms of demons, the brilliant skin of the Goddess of Mercy, the sun rising from the sea, the leaping carp the surfers all wanted put on. But the ink is crusted inside the jars and dust lies over my worktable, so thick it’s almost furry. The table, with its black cover, is furry; the cats sleep there for hours, undisturbed. Bea is there now, curled in a tight cat knot. As I stare down, she unwinds, blinks her amber eyes up at me, yawns, curls up again. Soon, she is snoring. 

I am that insignificant. Now. 

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Writers in focus

The Story of Jisshinbō Renshō (実信房蓮生 – Clan Head, Priest, Poet

By Nicholas Teele

Front of Sanko-ji

Two of my favorite places in Kyoto are Yoshimine-dera and Sanko-ji. The temples are located partway up Shakadake, one of the mountains on the western side of Kyoto referred to as nishiyama (western mountains, 西山). Yoshimine-dera is famous for its beautiful ancient pine, its many blossoming trees, beautiful flowers, and autumn leaves. It is also the 20th temple on the Saikoku 33-temple Kannon Pilgrimage. Walking around the expansive temple grounds, with its various smaller temples, I always feel the “life force” of the place. Just beyond the north gate of the temple grounds is Sanko-ji. Both temples have a spectacular view of the city of Kyoto below, the hills and mountainsides of the eastern side of the city, and the areas to the south and southwest, but I actually prefer the calm of the smaller temple. And there, for a small fee, you can see some of the temple treasures and then enjoy a bowl of tea and a sweet in a quiet room with a perfect view. 

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