The following are from a Dharma Writing Workshop given in Santa Barbara, CA by Kimberley Snow & Barry Spacks. The purpose of the workshop is to integrate dharma into our lives, to use writing as a support to practice, and to foster a sense of sangha as we write together.
BASIC FORMAT: We begin by checking our motivation for being in the workshop & our purpose for writing. We give rise to bodhichitta & make a prayer of aspiration. We meditate for fifteen minutes, then "free write" for fifteen. We share our work (optional!) which leads to a wide-ranging discussion of the topics raised. We enjoy a tea break, then meditate and write again (this time on a specific topic such as the kleshas). After a discussion period, we meditate for a few minutes, then dedicate the merit.
ALTERNATE FORMAT: We begin by checking our motivation for being in the workshop & our purpose for writing. We give rise to bodhichitta & make a prayer of aspiration. We talk about our writing & workshop something that someone has brought in. We sit for fifteen minutes, then discuss a particular genre (poetry, etc.) in "literary" terms. After a tea break, we write for fifteen minutes within that genre, then spend the remaining time sharing our work and discussing the topics that are evoked. After a discussion period, we meditate for a few minutes, then dedicate the merit.
DO try this at home: Adapt the above format, using the writing suggestions below.
Everyone in the Santa Barbara workshop made the commitment to write at least fifteen minutes a day, five days a week, on something connected with dharma. You can do the same. Novices might want to begin with Fear of Writing exercises.
SB Poetry: April is Poetry Month
Barry Spacks' Poetry Companion
Writing poetry
Understanding poetry
Poetry Links & Resources
Writing About Food & Spirituality
Includes meditations on fasting, cooking, eating. Can be used as an inspiration for free writing.Free Writing Jumpstarts from Barry Spacks:
For a speedy leap into some writing (poetry, musing, anecdote, whatever)
try starting with one of these prompt-lines:
1. When I consider my relation to the power of compassion (or use generosity...patience...sympathetic joy, etc.), I...
2. My problem with meditation tends to be...
3. Sure, enter a room thinking 'how can I help,' except that...
4. How "generate an altruistic intention to attain perfect enlightenment" without...
5. The unrelenting seethe of change...
6. What's most important to me, honestly, is...
7. How can form "be exactly Emptiness"? Does this mean that...
8. If I could take a magic pill to become totally the person I'd like to be...
9. Kill the Buddha if you meet him on the road?
10. Obsessed with desire for happiness, I...
Wisdom in the Words
Writing Yourself Well Resources for writers.
Adapted from Writing Yourself Home by Kimberley Snow:
If you we afraid of writing--and many people are, especially when they first start out--these exercises may help to lessen anxiety. Samples in the first exercises are from students and workshop members.
1. Visualize and describe a private place where you feet safe to write. It may be anywhere--your real writing room, a spot outdoors, somewhere in another dimension. Visualize it in detail. Return to this place each time you begin to write.
Examples:
"My room is big and yellow. I am the only person who is allowed in here. I feel safe here since there are magic bars on the windows to keep out every English teacher I ever had. Nobody can see what I write or how I write in this room."-In the entryway into my writing room is a sort of machine that shines light on me as I enter. It isn't exactly light but a technology from another planet that looks like light to us but what is does is to double my intelligence and my concentration."
2. Imagine yourself as a kindly, compassionate editor or teacher and give yourself advice on writing.
3. Write as badly as you can. Use every awkward construction, vague reference, or unclear concept you wish. Pile it on. Go on to double negatives, dangling modifiers, split infinitives. Lay into verbs that don't agree, references that don't connect, and the passive voice without end. Write across the margins and upside down on the page. Write until you like the feel of the pen in your hand, until you are having fun. Repeat this exercise every time you sense you are not in control of your writing.
4. Visualize your fear of writing: a teacher with fangs, a professor with a whip, yourself with a copy of Henry James, etc. Give them names and ask them their, origins.Talk to these fears. Find out what they want.Visualize a large closet outside of your writing room and, as you enter, put your fears about writing in this closet.
5. Ask yourself: "Who is it that is afraid?" Then ask: "Who is writing?"
6. Try to locate the fear in your mind. Where does it come from, where does it dwell, where does it go when it leaves?
7. Remember a peaceful scene after you sit down at your desk. Visualize yourself as your favorite writer. Pick up your pen and begin.
8. Take 20 deep breaths before you start to write.
9. Meditate for a few minutes, following your breath. Keep doing so as you begin to write.
10. Place statues from your shrine on your desk. Contemplate them as you write.