Naropa Summer Writing Program, Week 2, June 9 – 14, Boulder, CO
Dharma Poetics and Other Contemplative Practices
The Kerouac School’s heritage is linked to contemplative practice. The Buddhist yogin, Naropa whose name graces our university was pundit of the 11th century, was both a yogin and a university administrator at the famed Nalanda University. The poet-saint Milarapa wrote famous dohas. Zen practice, contemplative mind, and devotion has produced some of the greatest poems in the world, from Tu Fu to Mirabai to Rumi to John Donne.. Dharma references “things as they are” and the practice encourages “notice what you notice” (Allen Ginsberg) without clinging or doubt. Keats “negative capability” – being able to hold disparate thoughts in the mind without any irritable reach after fact or reason – resonates with the ideas here. The founders of the Kerouac School (Allen Ginsberg, Anne Waldman, and Diane di Prima) were all meditation students. The Kerouac School is founded on an ethos of mutual support, strength in community, non-competitive education, and “wild mind” tolerance. Trusting our imagination and one’s own consciousness and tender heart is a practice. Cutting through pretension and cliché. Naropa also honors other spiritual traditions in the arts and philosophy. And present will be writers in the mystical Christian, and Native American spiritual traditions, as well as creative writers who work with Somatics and other healing practices. Part of this week will include a half day of silent meditation.
Week 2 guests include:
Reed Bye
CAConrad
Bhanu Kapil & Melissa Buzzeo
Joanne Kyger
Layli Long Soldier
Sawako Nakayasu
M. NourbeSe Philip
Michelle Naka Pierce & Sue Hammond West
Margaret Randall
Julia Seko