Writing Is Religion

An intention I set this year was to deepen my seiza meditation practice. By deepen I mean follow the regimen recommended by the founder of the method, Okada Torajiro. The regimen: do seiza for 30 minutes when you wake up in the morning and another 30 minutes when you wake up in the evening. Nearly three months into 2026, I've managed to keep the habit.

To complement the deepening of the practice, I also decided to read Hara by Durkheim, which several of the people I practice seiza with online, including my teacher, have recommended. A couple of them said they were really moved by the book.

Unfortunately, I can't say the book has the same effect on me. The book was problematic for me in several levels but it failed me mainly because of its lack of clarity about its philosophical or religious leanings. I would've appreciated it more if the author was more explicit and honest about his Christian and Platonist leanings, which colored his interpretation of a relatively close experience of Japanese culture. Without this, I felt like, many times throughout my reading, I was reading a New Age book, which creates an illusion of wisdom through a tone of certainty that tries to hide vagueness.

I won't say reading the book was totally unbeneficial, though. It deepened my understanding of seiza meditation and meditation in general, and it did contian some useful nuggets of wisdom.

The best part of the book, which produced the best thoughts and ideas for me is Chapter 3. It was beneficial not because it directly affected my understanding and practice of Hara, but because it went beyond meditation and tackled all of human life, which is made up of all sorts of activities. As I read the chapter, I can't help but think about writing.

Below, I want to share the best quotes from this chapter of the book and explain how they helped me better understand writing.