November 20, 2016 from 1:30 P.M. To 4:30 P.M. @ the Ink Spot, 2730 Historic Decatur Rd #202, San Diego, CA 92106
How can a Buddhist monk in exile from his homeland since the mid 1960’s, arrive in positive Existential/ Zen space sans bitterness and vitriolic? Poetry? Meditation? How about poetry as meditation. Thich Nhat Hanh, whose main crime was wanting peace for Vietnam, was banished from Vietnam in 1967 by both South and North Vietnam. Join San Diego Writers, Ink teaching artist Jim Moreno in taking a look at the poet, peace activist, and global spiritual leader’s poetry, showers of light which commit acts of mindfulness, delicacy, and reliable insight for the reader.
Sogyal Rinpoche describes the poems of Thay as “deeply touching, human, and lucid, Thich Nhat Hanh’s poems have an almost uncanny power to disarm delusion, awaken compassion, and carry the mind into the immediate presence of meditation.” Natalie Goldberg wrote of the Zen mystic’s poetry that “these poems seep into you. Not through your brain, but through your whole body.”
“The engine with its flames will carry you along”, the kind, compassionate monk writes in his book “call me by my true names: The Collected Poems of Thich Nhat Hanh”. The quote is from the poem,
“Getting Into the Stream”and reflects the transformational medicine of sitting and meditation. Could we not say that poem-making is a meditation, perhaps a prayer, because of the main ingredient of Truth.
You may not enter the four fruits of meditation described by the author but you will also not enter a critique group. Thich Nhat Hanh: The Voice of the Buddha — Poetry of Enduring Moments by A Zen Mystic is a poetry class that starts with a Container of respect for all participants, beginning or seasoned poet. Moreno will request all participants to accept his respect for their writing, and to respect all other participants’ verse so there can be a Container that transforms ego to community. Writing in community is different than writing in solitude when all in the class contribute to the essence of the Container. Cooperative consciousness leads to a safe milieu for deeper writing.
Jim will also read comparative poetry as prompts which amplify the meditative themes of Thich Nhat Hanh. Poems of Mary Oliver, Li Po, Jane Hirshfield, Li Young Lee, Louise Gluck, and Wislawa Szymborska will assist workshop participants in generating original poems. We at San Diego Writers, Ink invite you to join Jim on Sunday, November 20, and enter the stream.