For more info, visit https://go...

For more info, visit https://go to.sacredinclusion.com/writing
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Writing as a Spiritual Gateway

Writing as spiritual practice? Approach that blank page with beginners mind. November 21 practicum: https://ift.tt/3pec95c

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Writing as a Spiritual Gateway

“Learn how to meditate on paper,” wrote Trappist monk, mystic and social activist Thomas Merton. “Drawing and writing are forms of meditation.” Poet, Buddhist and writing teacher Diana Goetsch, who’ll facilitate the Sacred Inclusion Network’s November 17 Online Community Exploration, thinks about writing in much the same way as Merton. “In my writing, and also in my teaching, I see no essential difference between the spiritual and the artistic path. For one thing, both are lifelong practices in letting go of ego (if only temporarily),” she said.

A renowned poet and fellow of the National Endowment for the Arts, Goetsch believes that anyone who wants to can use writing as part of their spiritual practice. For years, she’s taught writers of all levels, and is is famous in writing circles for the Free Writing Intensives she’s taught across the United States since 2007. These intensives, and her new Actually Writing weekly series, target a fundamental skill that nearly every writer relies on, yet is seldom taught — how to fill a blank page. "To compose on the page, we must engage particular muscles, and we must do so in an ego-free zone that gives us the permission to suck, which is also the permission to be brilliant,“ she said.Join us for this session, which will include writing and lively discussion.

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The Psychic, The Mystic, the Paranormal (brief excerpt)

Dancing with Flow (excerpt)

The Mystic, the Psychic, the Paranormal

Jeffry J. Kripal is a bit of an iconoclast when it comes to the study of religion.

He’s more interested in anomalist phenomena – the mystic, the psychic, the paranormal – than he is in things like religious history or the philosophy of religion.

A professor and Associate Dean of Humanities at Rice University, Kripal began his publishing career in controversy. Some Hindu scholars took exception to his 1995 book, Kali’s Child: in which he characterized Hindu saint Ramakrishna’s mystical experiences as homoerotic.

The response to the book wasn’t all negative. Michael Murphy, the cofounder of now iconic Esalen Institute, loved it. Thus began an immersion into the intellectual epicenter of that Big Sur epicenter of the human potential movement, and Kripal’s 2007 book, Esalen: America’s Religion of No Religion.

As Kripal relates in this podcast, his Esalen exploration marked the beginning of the second phase of his work, which he describes on his website as a “history and analysis of the relationship of mind and matter, particularly as this relationship is made manifest in ‘paranormal’ events and experiences, such as mystical experiences, parapsychological phenomena, near-death experiences, abduction events, ufological encounters, and psychedelic states.”

Kripal’s quest is to expand scholarly inquiry into the study of phenomena that can’t be easily explained within the constraints of the scientific method.

“What’s happened in our public culture is we have conflated science and materialism, which is just an interpretation of the science. It’s a good interpretation, but it’s an incomplete interpretation. And it rigorously blocks out all of this stuff I want to talk about, because this is the stuff that drives religion,” he says.

Links:

• Kripal’s personal site
• His Rice University site
• His Amazon page
• Sacred Inclusion Network
• Sacred Inclusion Network's Facebook Group
• Sacred Inclusion Network's YouTube Channel
• Like the podcast? Support us on Patreon! 

 

 

Check out the Diversity and Spirituality’s newest podcast

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The Mystic, the Psychic, the Paranormal - the work of Jeffrey J. Kripal

Take part in a Sacred Conversation for Activists this Thursday. Offered by donation and strictly limited to five participants: https://bit.ly/35gj30P

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Join an elite group of five, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or Saturday

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"Dancing with Flow"

Angelo John Lewis' Zoom Meeting

"Dancing with Flow"

"Life is a Miracle"

Paul Corson Excerpt

Sacred Circle Gathering

Adventures in Meditation

Like a lot of people of my generation, my first exposure to meditation was through Zen.  Following the instructions of the teacher, I sat on a cushion with my spine straight and a downward focus. I following the rhythm of my breathing and returned to the breath whenever thoughts intruded.  Practicing Zen proved OK for awhile, but after awhile I began to crave something more.  It didn’t take me long to learn that there were as many forms of meditation or spiritual exercise as there were physical exercises.  One example involves the manner and direction of breathing.  Focusing downward towards the solar plexus, results in grounding or a focus on the practical. Focusing on the heart stimulates compassion. Focusing upward tends to open up intuition. Adding other elements, such as visualization, mantra and breathing in a circular fashion –  all of these produce different results. This Wednesday, September 30th, we’ll learn and practice two distinctly different forms of meditation: tonglen, which helps the practitioner awaken compassion; and a form of Tantric meditation, which encourages the practitioner to experience the sacredness of all of life. We’ll also learn the Ignatian practice of the Examin, that invites us to find the movement of the Spirit in all the people and events of our day.  The Spiritual Practice Exploration will be held at 7-10 pm ET on Wednesday September 30th (check your time zone here). To register or learn more about the facilitators, visit the event page.

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Ready for an Adventure in Meditation? ✨ Wednesday, Sept. 30 7-10 pm: https://bit.ly/spirit-practice

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