If not Now, then when?
We must be willing to let go of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. Joseph Campbell ...
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Writings and Readings Blog
Madhu Bazaz Wangu
What to Expect from WMM
By now, some of you may be wondering if it would be worthwhile to practice weekly Writing Meditation Method (WMM). Questions such as, what would I accomplish by doing this? Are 15 minutes of meditation and 15 minutes of journaling going to change my life? Would this practice improve my writing or my profession? Help me complete the project I am currently working on? The answer to those questions is, Yes, yes and yes! The reason I am sharing WMM with you is because it has positively affected all aspects of my life. Looking back, I am amazed how naïve I was about the tremendous power of these practices. I was introduced to each one—meditation, journaling, writing—intellectually. After a long period of trial and error the practices balanced beautifully and integrated...
Read MoreOnline Meditation and Writing Begins!
Hi All, Hope you are enjoying holidays with your family and friends. Here are the things you need to do at our first Online Mindful Writers Meeting next Tuesday: Check in a few minutes before 10:00 am Below is the link to CD, Meditations for Mindful Writers, Body, Heart, Mind: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/pr1w5asvstfsl5d/AABE5ajUjmdgiMWBSnEeTSrIa?dl=0&preview=Body+Meditation.mp3 The CD has four meditations. We will begin with guided Body Meditation. (About sixteen minutes). Most of you are familiar with this meditation. If you are new to the Mindful Writers Group, listen to it at least once before you begin. After Body Meditation, at about 10:20 we will write in our journal for fifteen minutes. I'll provide you a prompt for day's journaling. Following the journaling, we'll write--a story, an essay, first draft of a novel or, if you are already working on a draft,...
Read MoreWhy Walk?
Walking clears your mind. Just walk! But not to burn calories or count miles but to commune with the natural world, and behold the benefits of walking in nature. Let the thought of walking excite you— walk anywhere and anytime—at dawn, at dusk, in full moon. Walk mindfully—with attention on your breath and on your steps. Your mind relaxed and your heart gladdened. A solution to your problem is bound to emerge. At the Mindful Writers Retreats we begin our day with a walk. “People say that walking on water is a miracle but to me, walking peacefully on the earth is the real miracle. Earth is a miracle. Each step is a miracle,” writes the Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh in his little book, The Long Road Turns to Joy. Kinhin, Zen...
Read MoreWhy Meditate?
Do you know our mind has similar needs as our body? Exercise and nutrition develop our muscles and keeps us healthy. But what mental activities can develop our mind? What can we do so that our minds are nourished and our dormant capabilities and potentialities are revealed? We know daily journaling is one such mental discipline that nourishes our whole self. The other, and more important, is the practice of meditation. Meditation integrates body, heart and mind, and releases tremendous inner resources. We all are familiar with times when we can’t stop thinking of something over and over again, when our thoughts run wild, when we hear constant jabbering that at times grows even louder. We long for quiet, we need silence. Somewhere to sit still, inhale and exhale in solitude. This...
Read MoreWhy Journal?
Significance of Daily Journaling Decades ago, like most people, I too had accumulated mental clutter that I could not share with anyone, neither with my husband nor with my daughters, people closest to me. Yet I felt I must get rid of it. But how? Then Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way and Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones taught me that mental junk must be dumped by penning it down, by writing freely about it in a journal. Journaling is an integral part of Writing Meditation Method (WMM) because like meditation it heals you inside out. It transforms you from masked individual to a genuine person. It enables you to express your authentic emotions. What you write may be deeply painful, embarrassing or guilt ridden but your notebook is for your...
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Online Mindful Writers Group
There are four Mindful Writers Groups in the vicinity of Pittsburgh, Western Pennsylvania. The members, mostly writers meet to meditate, journal longhand and work on their projects. Since 2011, regular weekly meetings have resulted in improved productivity, creativity and happier members. An increasing demand for such a group at distant places has persuaded me to start an Online Mindful Writers Group that is open nationally and internationally. If you would like to participate in Online Mindful Writers Group please add your name at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/706933849506291/?source=create_flow I look forward to meditating, journaling and writing with you. If you are not a writer, I encourage you to still join us as the Writing Meditation Method that we follow is beneficial for in any and all fields of work. Combined practice of meditation and journaling helps discover...
Read MoreFEATHERED QUILL BOOK REVIEW INTERVIEW
Feathered Quill's Lynette Latzko Interviews Author Madhu Bazaz Wangu FQ: Most Westerners are not familiar with Indian culture and practices, especially ones that have been outlawed quite some time ago like suttee. What did you hope to accomplish when you began writing The Last Suttee? WANGU: I wanted to let people of India and the world know that rituals like suttee and similar social traditions, that suppress women, continue to persist in many cultures. I wanted to write socio-economic and cultural reasons of the ritual, put it within the context of modern India and give voice to the ritual murder of a widow. Even one such horror is one too many.FQ: I read a bit about the suttee of Roop Kanwar in 1987, and was surprised to discover that eleven people were...
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Tokyo, Japan
“Travel is not about collecting passport stamps but keeping your eyes open.” Pico Iyer Tokyo, Japan We had all these images about Tokyo. In reality, it turned out to be quite different and still the same. Our hotel, Mandarin Oriental, was in the heart of Tokyo. The view from our room was of a concrete jungle sprinkled with skyscrapers. It looked terribly crowded yet strangely quiet. It was not one of the prettiest cities we had visited but has fabulous restaurants, unparalleled mass transit system, exquisite gardens, and it was impeccably clean. There were no trash bins on the roadside. People carried their trash with them to dispose it off at home or office. Two noteworthy features: first a sense of surprise when among the grey skyscrapers appeared stone lanterns, tori...
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Kyoto, Japan
KYOTO “Asia is not going to be civilized after the methods of the West. There is too much Asia and she is too old.” Rudyard Kipling From the gold city of Kanazawa, we rode to Kyoto by Japan Railway Thunderbird Express. Kyoto was Japan’s capital for over 1,000 years before Tokyo took its place. Kyoto is the city of Zen temples and tea ceremony, of glorious imperial gardens, and also sprinkled with art museums and modern cafes. It’s the yin of the country. Our first stop was the Golden Pavilion (Kinkakuji), the retirement villa of shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu. After his death in 1408, the building was turned into a Zen temple according to his will. Constructed out of wood in the middle of a large pond, its top two floors are completely covered...
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