Ancient painters used to practice putting dots on paper in artistic disorder. This is rather difficult. Even though you try to do it, usually what you do is arranged in some order. You think you can control it, but you cannot; it is almost impossible to arrange your dots out of order.

From Shunryu Suzuki’s Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice, New York and Tokyo: Weatherhill, 1985 (first published in 1970), p. 32.

Addendum (September 26, 2016)

Random thought has attracted me from the onset of my writing project (e.g., “Method and Madness,” March 14, 1981). But this is easier said than done, it goes without saying. In fact, it is nigh impossible to achieve. Whence this quote plucked from one of Suzuki’s masterpieces, which I just came across in one of my uncharted journeys through my writings. And uncharted it surely is, for I select the next piece to read on my Residua website without any premeditation. At long last, there is substance to my ruminations about method and madness penned so many decades ago. My addenda now pop up all over the place without any rhyme or reason. At long last, I relish random thought for true. Or is it artistic disorder?