When coming to Buddhist practice, one often does so with a sense of inspiration. One will sometimes have read stories from the Canon, or heard stories about modern monks who practice. On this basis, one can sometimes develop a bit of a roadmap in one's head, as to one's own practice will progress.
These mental maps can be very useful. At times, one's practice will proceed in the same way as the practitioners one has read about. At other times however, one may find that one's own path takes unexpected turns. These turns can sometimes take one's own practice in a different direction than those that one has read about. One might also find that although the path was unexpected, it leads to the results that one had read about.
Therefore, it can be good to write the mental map of one's practice in pencil. In this, way if an unexpected path opens up, one will be in a position to head down it. Sometimes, one may find that these unexpected paths lead to the results that one was hoping for.
