This 30 minute talk and slide presentation demonstrates how a mindful practice of reading and/or writing haiku can heal wounds of personal or collective trauma. Offering historical context and addresses critical issues pertinent today.
It was originally given at a public fundraiser for Naropa University in August 2021.
Appreciating and Writing Haiku: Autumn Session 2021
You are invited to enter into the haiku tradition in the spirit of contemplative study, practice and small group sharing. We will explore haiku through studying the works of ancient and modern poets across the globe. Writing exercises will be geared toward both beginners and more experienced haiku practitioners.
In the Autumn Session we will explore seasonal themes of sensuality, abundance, harvest, longing, impermanence, loss and more. We will reflect on these themes through our here and now experience.
From the rubbish-heap,
A morning-glory has bloomed;
Late autumn.
Taigi
Deborah will discuss haiku principles, offer graduated writing prompts and facilitate sharing in a safe online environment. Participants will always have the choice whether to share or receive feedback. The class will emphasis the central concepts of the haiku form including writing from direct experience, focusing on nature and keeping it simple and unpretentious. A syllabus and diverse recommended readings will be provided.
The group will be limited to 8 – 10 individuals.
The Autumn Session will run 4 sessions, each online session will be 2 hours.
We will meet on Tuesdays, 2:30 – 4:30.
The dates include: Sept 28, Oct 12, Oct 26, and Nov 9
Deborah Bowman, Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist, certified Gestalt Therapist and has been in private practice for 34 years. She is a retired Naropa University professor where she founded the Transpersonal Counseling Psychology and Wilderness Therapy programs and initiated the Naropa Community Counseling center. She served on the board of trustees of the C.G. Jung Society of Colorado and was a founding member of the Boulder Friends of Jung. She is author of several books including The Female Buddha: Discovering the Heart of Liberation and Love. Deborah enjoys hiking, birdwatching and haiku.
Throughout history humankind has turned to the creative arts to record, process and heal the psychological, social and cultural wounds of trauma. Artists have sung ballads of sorrow, painted canvases of rage and penned novels turning suffering into wisdom.
the short night:
after the hellfire
the day breaks
Kabota Mantaro
In these simple three lines we experience the juxtaposition of a descent into hell with the dawn of a new day. Client and counselor are asked to make the same creative leap in the work of psychotherapy; between then and now, burning and beauty.
Sharing poetry and visual imagery, this presentation addresses simple ways to incorporate an appreciation of the arts in addressing ways to heal our personal and shared trauma. Or in more poetic words we will learn to practice what the black American haiku poet, Sonia Sanchez, suggests:
You are invited to enter into the haiku tradition of writing poetry in the spirit of contemplative practice and small group sharing. We will appreciate the haiku form through our own efforts as well as the works of ancient and modern poets across the globe. Understanding the poetic impulse as a form of active imagination, we will explore applicable Jungian concepts and our personal experience of appreciating, writing and sharing haiku.
In the winter session we will explore seasonal themes of nature, the elements, solitude, reflection, humor, transiency, and the Japanese tradition of the death poem:
Frost on grass:
a fleeting form
that is, and is not!
Zaishiki
Deborah will introduce haiku principles, graduated writing exercises and facilitate sharing in a safe online environment. Participants will always have the choice whether to share or receive feedback. The class will emphasis the central concepts of the haiku form including writing from direct experience in the here and now, focusing on nature and keeping it simple and unpretentious. A syllabus with recommended readings will be provided.
The group size will be limited to 6 – 12 individuals. Limited sliding scale scholarships will be available.
The winter session will run 6 sessions, each online session will be 2 hours.
We will meet on Tuesday afternoons, 2:30 – 4:30 MST. The dates include:
Deborah Bowman, Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist, certified Gestalt Therapist and has been in private practice for 32 years. She is a retired Naropa University professor where she founded the Transpersonal Counseling Psychology and Wilderness Therapy programs and initiated the development of the Naropa Community Counseling center. She served on the board of trustees of the C.G. Jung Society of Colorado for nine years and was a founding member of the Boulder Friends of Jung. She is author of several books including The Female Buddha: Discovering the Heart of Liberation and Love. Deborah enjoys hiking, birdwatching and haiku.
Talk: Fri, Jan 31 7-8:30pmWorkshop: Sat, Feb 1, 9:30am-12:30pm
The Latin term ego was first used by Freud’s original translator to refer to the “I” as a mediator between raw instincts and social norms. As psychology became popularized “ego” became a slang term to describe attitudes and behaviors considered selfish and inflated.
In the 70’s Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche began utilizing the term ego to describe a neurotic process resulting in a solidified sense of self that is separate, self-referential and the cause of suffering. Buddhists around the world have embraced this usage of the term ego and use it regularly to describe the illusion of a static, autonomous and self-oriented identity.
In the Friday night presentation, we will tease out the threads of confusion that arise from the different usages of the term ego significant to popular culture, the field of psychology and Buddhist understanding.
On Saturday we will experientially investigate the implications of these multiple understandings of ego – and how we can utilize this knowledge to deconstruct and hold a “lighter” sense of self.
Deborah Bowman, Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist, certified Gestalt therapist and has been in private practice for 32 years. She retired after serving 28 years as a Naropa University professor where she founded Transpersonal Counseling Psychology, Wilderness Therapy and the Naropa Community Counseling center. Deborah is author of several books including The Female Buddha: Discovering the Heart of Liberation and Love.
Deborah Bowman presents lessons learned from a climbing accident.
Some nights, stay up until dawn, like the moon does for the sun.Be a full bucket, pulled up the dark way of a well, then lifted into the light. Rumi
After my fall, I was lifted up by the grace of presence itself. Yet I recognize this lifting up as something we must do daily to stay awake to the gifts we are given.
There is no way to come up the well but the dark way. We blow it, in big ways and small, and we suffer real consequences. We need examine our failings and our fears and then let them go. May all of us, you and I, be a bucket full of lessons, overflowing with wisdom and love.
“Don’t you know that afflictions are nothing more than wisdom? And that the purest of blossoms emerges from the mire?” Benming
The 10th century Buddhist nun, Benming, captures a striking human truth in her poetic question —that wisdom and affliction are intimately related.If we had no afflictions, no pain, no struggle, no hard decisions; how could wisdom ever blossom?
Wisdom is the ability to see clearly into the most difficult of situations and imagine the least harmful intervention. This wisdom is born out of the mire of one’s own suffering and mistakes.We only learn to free others of pain from having learned to free ourselves.
A wise person waits patiently when submerged in the mire until a clear vision arises. Feeling her roots spread out in the mud and reaching her tendrils towards the light, wisdom arises gracefully like a lotus bud in a healing gesture.
Waiting for that moment when mind and heart arise together in spontaneous repair can feel like watching mud settle; it works, but waiting can feel like forever when we are hurting.Patience is often something we learn because we have so very little choice and impatience will just heap suffering on top of suffering.
We remember how the purest of blossoms and the mud are inter-mixed when we are seriously afflicted and a friend bring us flowers at the hospital. Friends, like the lotus blooming from the mire, are there for us at times of need. In the same way, we can learn to befriend ourselves and others when there is suffering.
“Learning to discover the treasure within you is the most worthwhile thing in the world.If you can put this into practice, you can live freshly, with a mind open like the sky, always overflowing with compassion.” Daehaeng Sunim
Asuras, temple in Angkor Wat, Cambodia photo: D. Bowman
In Buddhist philosophy and poetry, the sky is often a stunning metaphor for mind; infinitely spacious, clear and compassionate. These figures, Apsuras, are protectors of the sky and in the image appear to be standing in guard of the temple and the secrets to the treasure of mind that the temple represents
The secret is actually no secret at all.It’s just so close to our nose that we don’t see it at all.Like the sky, the mind is transparent yet all-pervasive.The depth of understanding that the mind affords us leads directly to a compassionate view of all of life, including ourselves and every human being.
Yet mind’s clarity is often obscured by the clouds of our confusion.Clouds we inherit from the prejudice of our culture and clouds we pile on through our habitual patterns and personal prejudice.We pre-judge all of experience through the overcast lens of our past experience and foggy hopes for the future.
The temple of the mind needs to be continually blown clean for us to see clearly, to see reality just as it is and to open our hearts with overflowing compassion for both life suffering and and life beauty. The practice of mindfulness is like the wind, helping us see clearly what is right under our nose.And noticing the breath, like a gentle wind, can be a companion guardian of the temple.
The feminine is understood as healing and embracing the whole; the whole our ourselves, our community and our planet. We invite you to join our small circle of creative healing so that you may bring your whole self into healing the larger circles of our world.
Together we will create a container of safety and discovery to re-member the inherent gifts of the feminine in our lives. Your guides will facilitate sharing, guided meditations, sacred ritual and expressive exercises.
Deborah Bowman, Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist, certified Gestalt therapist and has been in private practice for 32 years. She is a retired Naropa University professor where she founded Transpersonal Counseling Psychology, Wilderness Therapy and the Naropa Community Counseling center. She was a founding member of the Boulder Friends of Jung and facilitates the dream-painting process. Deborah is author of several books including The Female Buddha: Discovering the Heart of Liberation and Love. She enjoys hiking, birdwatching, photography and haiku.
Sue Wallingford, MA, LPC, ATR is licensed professional counselor, registered art therapist and associate professor in the Mindfulness-based Transpersonal Counseling Program, in the Graduate School of Psychology at Naropa University. She founded Boulder Art Therapy Collective and Naropa’s Community Art Studio-International, most recently known as Partners for Social Justice, where the aim is to collaborate with other socially minded organizations to inspire creativity, healing and compassionate action in the world. Sue is an artist and lover of the outdoors and nature. She is a part time resident of Tamarindo.
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Click on this link – NCC Client Access Fund – to find out how a small donation can make the difference in someone’s life by giving them access to counseling sessions that they could not afford.
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In-person or webcast participation with Deborah Bowman, Ph.D.
Follow the Female Buddha 