Being in Nature

Dear Readers, Those of you who have read Tao-te Ching, Dhammapada, Bhagavad Gita and Devi Gita on these web pages understand that nothing in life is permanent. So is with the websites! Thinking matures, ideas grow and change, experiences enrich and interests shift. For the last four years I have been holding meditation workshops and seminars for writers. They teach a meditation methodology to help writers hone their skills: sharpen their unique voice, deepen individual style and improve verbal precision. The response to these workshops has been very encouraging. The participants tell me that as a result of this practice their writing has improved and so has their life. They feel less conflicted and more confident. Inspired, I am currently recording a CD "Body, Heart and Mind Meditations for Mindful Writers,"...

Writing Meditation Practice and Mindful Writers Group

Posted on June 17, 2011

I have spent more than twenty years practicing meditation and writing. Many times, I experienced that the pleasure and peace I derived from meditation was similar to the enjoyment I felt while writing. I experimented with combining the two disciplines and discovered that when I was in a meditative mood, my body felt unclogged, my mind clear and heart softened. Grounding the three components (body, mind and heart) in meditation enabled me to get absorbed into my work more deeply. My writing flow increased, voice became more confident and style distinct. The feeling is amazing. I call this way of working, Writing Meditation. About four years ago, I mentioned this to a friend. She suggested that I share this "best kept secret" with others. On her advice, starting from...

Lessons Learnt IV: The Devi Gita

Posted on April 15, 2011

in Being in Nature, Reading

0 Comments

Lesson Learnt IV: The Devi Gita Out of the four scriptures we have read so far the Devi Gita, the Song of the Goddess, is comparatively difficult to understand. But underneath the rough surface of this ritualistic, repetitive, and somewhat esoteric oyster are hidden pearls of wisdom. The Devi's teachings provide intellectual understanding and insight about the deep human concerns, the matters that link an individuals to their true Self. The Devi Gita portrays the goddess as all compassing. In it the male as well as female aspects of the Ultimate Reality are authenticated. Terrible as well as benign aspects of the Ultimate Reality are recognized. No caste is discriminated against. The scripture teachaes that each and every human being is worthy of the goddess worship. The Devi announces that all...

Speaking and Writing Schedule

Posted on February 24, 2011

Dear Readers, Below is my speaking and writing-with-other-writers schedule until June 2011. I look forward to seeing you at one or all of the following events. What has Writing to do with Meditation? A Three-Part Lecture Series: March 3, April 7 & May 5 This writing workshop teaches what it means to write meditatively and how to learn the discipline. Sponsored by Northland Public Library For further Information Call: 412-366-8100 Registration at: http://www.northlandlibrary.org Pennwriters Mindful Writers Group The goal of the Mindful Writers Group is to write with the whole self-mind, heart and body. Starting on Wednesday, March 16, 2011 the Mindful Writers will meet every Wednesday from 9:30 to 12:30 at Eat'nPark. Please join Mindful Writers Group Homepage on Yahoo.com. Writing Meditation: A Pennwriters Workshop A Writing Meditation Workshop will be presented at the Pennwriters Annual Conference. The conference will be...

Happy New Year!

Posted on January 17, 2011

Dear Readers, Happy New Year! The festivities of November and December are over. The earth has gone dormant under white, silver and black. The trees are bare, the birds have stopped their chorus, puddles of grey grass peek through the melted snow and the sunlight is faint. Life has faded to a dreamlike state from where creative ideas emerge. Muses awake. There is hardly a better time to write. These days when I am in the thick of writing, warmth glows within that is beyond any ordinary emotion. Writing lulls me and draws me within. One of the many treasures of my life as a writer (and meditator) is being steeped in silence and solitude during winter months -- away from noise and fast paced life. Through unhurried writing and sitting, I...

The Devi Gita: Introduction

Posted on October 8, 2010

in Being in Nature, Reading

THE DEVI GITA Song of the Goddess The Devi Gita (Song of the Goddess) is an important fifteenth century text from the goddess tradition (Shakta) of India. The scripture has ten chapters that form a section of a much larger work, Devi-Bhagavata Purana. The Purana itself may have been composed as early as the twelfth century to which the Devi Gita was inserted at a later date. It depicts the Goddess as the benevolent World-Mother. In the Purana she is less of a warrior goddess, as she is in some previous textual examples, and more a nurturer and comforter of her devotees and a teacher of wisdom. This development in her character culminates in the Devi Gita. The author of the Devi Gita is indebted to the Bhagavad Gita for many of...

Lessons Learnt III: The Bhagavad Gita

Posted on September 17, 2010

in Being in Nature, Reading

Lessons Learnt III: Bhagavad Gita With The Bhagavad Gita we have completed reading scriptures of the three major world religions namely Buddhism, Taoism and Hinduism. Many of the teachings of the Tao te-Ching (Lessons Learnt, August 14, 2009), the Dhammapada (Lessons Learnt II, January 8, 2010) and the Bhagavad Gita overlap. Teachings such as the presence of the divine within, finiteness and impermanence of life, the significance of stillness, silence and solitude in daily practice and the ability of each and everyone of us to have spiritual experience are common to these three religions. The Tao te-Ching and the Dhammapada recommend and the Gita warns that life is dreary, if not meaningless, for those of us who do not follow a spiritual path. The Bhagavad Gita teaches that human character is an...

Jung’s “Self,” Hindu Atman and Buddhist Anatta

Posted on August 27, 2010

THE "SELF" IN CARL JUNG, ATMAN IN THE GITA AND ANATTA IN THE DHAMMAPADA The noted psychoanalyst Carl Jung has contemporized the concepts of soul and spirit with his theories of the "Self." His work on individuation and the "Self" have amazing parallels with atman of the Gita and anatta of the Dhammapada. Jung studied the working of the human mind with meticulous detail and declared that the majority of us do not have complete knowledge of our mind. Workings of the human psyche, (conscious and unconscious mind) is as complex as the workings of our body. When we say 'I know-myself' we mean we know our conscious (ego) self only; we do not know our unconscious. The ego is only a small part of the psyche. The unconscious mind...

Thinkers and Scholars on the Bhagavad Gita

Posted on April 23, 2010

4 Comments

American thinkers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) and Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), and Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) had one thing in common; they were impressed by the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita. The Hindu scripture provided them with a new set of religious concepts that express spiritual energy. With the teachings of the Gita they were able to critique rationalism and materialism of the earlier centuries that so many of their contemporaries believed in. Emerson wanted individuals to become "Man thinking" rather than "Mere thinkers, or still worse the parrot of other men's thinking." He wanted his fellow countrymen to investigate their minds and to study the mind of the past through literature. By 1845 he had read Gita. In his Journal he writes, I owed-my friend and I owed-a...

Writing as a Spiritual Journey

Posted on March 12, 2010