Saturdays from 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. EST

May 11, 18, 25 / June 1, 8, 15

About the Course

The world needs to hear your Dharma: your own spiritual journey, 

expressed with truth, humility, and grace.

In this six-week workshop, we will learn how to share our spiritual paths in writing: how to write with authenticity and vulnerability, how to say what we mean, and how to support others and be supported in the act of creation.

Each session will explore another facet of spiritual writing. We will be writing together, examining the works of renowned writers who write about or lace spirituality through their stories, their essays, their poems. We will hear from contemporary artists writing from a spiritual perspective, and have the opportunity to ask them questions and explore our writing with them.

In addition, we will have weekly time to write together for the duration of the course. Each weekly writing session will start with brief meditation practice, a quote, and an optional prompt.

We will discuss and explore how we can connect with the mind of meditation and our own, essential creative force. This course is a safe and supportive space to take risks with our writing, and to find a warm community of fellow writers. 

Session List

Live sessions will explore these topics and themes:

• The practice of meditation as a partner to the writer’s path 
• Writing aspirations
• Exploring a daily writing process
• Group writing exercises
• Balancing “Show” and “Tell” in nonfiction writing
• The relationship between connecting with the mind of meditation and writing
• Finding inspiration, and some of the pitfalls of spiritual writing
• Storytelling
• Group workshopping of our personal writing

May 11: Humility and Authenticity (with Frederick Meyer)

• Guided meditation practice.
• Exploring humility and authenticity in Dharma writing.
• Embodied practice for creative blocks or barriers.
• Group writing exercise.

May 18: Writing with Sacred Attention (with Nadia Colburn)

• How to come into a greater state of intuition and openness to receive the writing that wants to come through us.
• Short meditation and very gentle movement to integrate more fully the analytical and intuitive mind.
• Working with and writing into blocks as they present themselves in the body.
• How writing itself can be a site of contemplative and sacred experience.

May 25: Balancing Show and Tell in Nonfiction Writing (with Brad Wetzler)

• How to blend sharing personal experience with offering learning and takeaways.
• Writing vulnerable and authentic nonfiction.
• How to write about personal healing, growth, and transformation.

June 1: Writing as Offering (with Anjie Cho)

• Writing even though you never thought you’d be a “Writer,” or even considered yourself a “bad” writer.
• Weaving your story and voice into nonfiction writing that teaches, guides, and empowers the reader.
• Practical advice on book writing, publishing, and grassroots marketing strategies, and how writing can be an essential part of one’s offering to the world.

June 8: Dharma Journaling (with Frederick Meyer)

• How embodied, holistic journaling can be spiritual practice and support us on our paths.
• How to integrate Dharma journaling practice throughout daily life.
• Advice for journaling to generate spiritual writing you will share.

June 15: Inquiry as the Gateway to Insight: Cultivating the Creative (with Judith Simmer-Brown)

• Digging deep into the writing process.
• Interrogating our experience: finding our narratives in the present, with new discoveries to be made.
• Opening to ambiguity on our spiritual journeys: going beyond the tendency to think we know what our journeys mean, and opening to new possibilities as we explore.

About the Teachers

Frederick Meyer is a lifelong Shambhala practitioner. He first connected with Shambhala as a participant at Sun Camp, and has followed the Shambhala path through Rigden Abhisheka. Frederick helps lead the Shambhala.org community blog, and is the Director of Writers.com. He lives in New Orleans with his wife, Clara, their daughter, Anna, and their dogs, Lucy and Beignet.

Nadia Colburn holds a Ph.D. in English from Columbia University. She is a certified Kundalini yoga teacher and an Order of Interbeing aspirant in Thich Nhat Hanh’s Plum Village Tradition.

Her poems and creative nonfiction have been widely published in more than seventy national publications including The New Yorker, American Poetry Review, Spirituality & Health, Lion’s Roar, Truthout, Slate.com, American Scholar, Grist.org, Literary Imagination, Boston Review, Kenyon Review, Harvard Review, Yes! Magazine, Yale Review, Southwest Review, Boston Globe Magazine, Conjunctions, Colorado Review, Denver Quarterly, Women’s Studies Quarterly, LA Review of Books, Volt, Columbia: A Journal, elephant journal, Appalachia, Tiny Buddha, and many other places.

Nadia is passionate about helping students and clients uncover their full stories and unlock the power of their creative voice. Learn more at her website https://nadiacolburn.com/

Brad Wetzler is the author of the new memoir Into the Soul of the World: My Journey to Healing, published by Hachette Go in 2023. A longtime magazine journalist, he has written for The New York Times, Newsweek, Wired, GQ, National Geographic, Outside, and Travel + Leisure, among others. He is a book editor, memoir and nonfiction writing coach, and yoga teacher. Brad holds a masters’ degree in journalism from Northwestern University. He lives in Austin, Texas.

Anjie Cho is a feng shui educator, licensed practicing architect, and teacher of meditation and dharma arts. She’s the author of three books: Holistic Spaces, Mindful Homes, and forthcoming Mindful Living. 

In addition, Anjie is a long time student of ikebana, chanoyu, and a Shambhala Art teacher. She is the owner of Anjie Cho Architect PLLC, co-founder of Mindful Design Feng Shui School, and co-host of the Holistic Spaces Podcast. Learn more about Anjie at anjiecho.com, and follow her on Instagram @anjiecho.

Judith Simmer-Brown, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Contemplative and Religious Studies Emeritx at Naropa University, where she has taught for over 40 years. Simmer-Brown is a compassion trainer for the Compassion Initiative at Naropa. She is author of Dakini’s Warm Breath: The Feminine Principle in Tibetan Buddhism (Shambhala) and editor, with Fran Grace, of Meditation and the Classroom: Contemplative Pedagogy for Religious Studies (SUNY). For Shambhala, she teaches Shambhala Training levels, Mahayana and Vajrayana topics, with a special love of White Tara, feminine principle, working with emotions, compassion and social engagement.