Writing as a Path to Awakening: A Year to Becoming an Excellent Writer and Living an Awakened Life

by Albert DeSilver

Overview

The best writers say their work seems to come from a source beyond the thinking mind. But how do we access that source? "We must first look inside ourselves and be willing to touch that raw emotional core at the heart of a deeper creativity," writes Albert Flynn DeSilver. In Writing as a Path to Awakening, this renowned poet, writer, and teacher shows you how to use meditation to cultivate true depth in your own writing—so your words reveal layers of profound insight that inspire and move your readers.

Constructed as a year-long exploration with a new focus for each month and season, Writing as a Path to Awakening includes:

• How to approach writing and reading with a greater level of presence and immersion
• Engaging curiosity, playfulness, and spontaneity to keep your regular practice fresh
• Meditating with poetry to deeply embody the power of language
• How you can spark your imagination by connecting to the groundless source of creation
• The meditative approach to storytelling—how not being trapped in your story liberates your capacity to create
• Editing, rewriting, and the path of spiritual transformation

"Writing and meditation practice are a powerful pair, a dynamic duo," Albert Flynn DeSilver teaches. "Together they nourish and push, trigger and define, inform and inspire, enable, and energize. To engage in both practices fully is to activate a more complete, creative, and spiritual self." With a mixture of engaging storytelling and practical exercises, Writing as a Path to Awakening invites you on a yearlong journey of growth and discovery—to enhance your writing through the practice of meditation while using the creative process to accelerate your spiritual evolution.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781622039111
Publisher:	Sounds True, Incorporated
Publication date:	08/31/2017
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	699,287
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Albert Flynn DeSilver
ALBERT FLYNN DESILVER is an internationally published poet, memoirist, novelist, speaker, and workshop leader. He has published several books of poetry and Beamish Boy (Owl Press, 2012), which Kirkus Reviews calls, "A beautifully written memoir of awakening and self-acceptance." He teaches at the Omega Institute, Esalen, Spirit Rock, and writing conferences nationally. He lives in northern California. For more, visit albertflynndesilver.com.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Preface Premise, Promise, and Precepts xi

Winter

Chapter 1 January

{Rebirth} Introduction: Writing as a Path to Awakening 3

Chapter 2 February

{Becoming} Reading on the Path to Awakening 21

Spring

Chapter 3 March

{Emergence} Practice and Process 35

Chapter 4 April

{Blossoming} Poetry: The Language of Possibility 55

Chapter 5 May

{Imagination} The Art of the Image 69

Summer

Chapter 6 June

{Amusement} Surprise, Humor, Taking the Vow, and Calling Forth the Muse 87

Chapter 7 July

{Audacity} Absolute Daring … Telling/Writing the Truth 99

Chapter 8 August

{Devotion} Permission to Flow 111

Autumn

Chapter 9 September

{Revelation} The Essence of Story: A Journey to the Center of the Self 125

Chapter 10 October

{Abundance} The Five Senses and the Embodied Self 141

Chapter 11 November

{Reflection} Editing and the Art of Revision 163

Winter

Chapter 12 December

{Sanctuary} Writing, Living, Dying, and Becoming … Full Circle 177

Afterword 187

About the Author 189

Editorial Reviews

09/04/2017
You are a creative genius, says poet and writing workshop instructor DeSilver (Beamish Boy) in this guide to using meditation practice as a source of inspiration and guidance. DeSilver separates the book into 12 chapters corresponding to the months of the year, with each considering a different step in the creative process: rebirth, emergence, imagination, amusement, revelation, and so on. As with many books on writing instruction, he includes practical exercises. “Schedule times for your writing practice. Calendar it now... like you would an appointment with your dentist,” he suggests. DeSilver’s key to unlocking creative genius is the use of meditation as a tool to develop mindfulness and internal awareness, and he includes exercises in each chapter for learning to meditate in both creative and spiritual capacities. DeSilver also shares stories from his life, such as the day he demonstrated to elementary school students how brilliant and natural they were at tapping into their imaginations. Spiritually curious types looking for creative inspiration will want to give his methods a try. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

DeSilver opens a doorway that allows for spiritual and emotional growth, concepts not discussed in typical writing books.” —Shelf Awareness

“In this gentle, lucid, erudite and compassionate guide, Albert Flynn DeSilver offers the wisdom and warmth of a true friend who has walked the path—one who reaches out a capable hand and offers it to the new writer, to the struggling writer, and says, ‘Here, here, let me show you not only how to write, but how to live.” —Dani Shapiro, author of Still Writing: The Perils and Pleasures of a Creative Life

“This book is full of wonderful insights, exercises, and some luscious prose. Luck for us, Albert Flynn DeSilver learned how to write as he was walking the spiritual path, a quality lacking in so many books on spirituality. This is an original, and a real good read.” —Wes Nisker, author of Buddha’s Nature: A Practical Guide to Discovering Your Place in the Cosmos

“This is a wonderful collection of insights, practices, writing exercises, and meditations to help you get words on the page, not just as an accomplishment, but as a way to discover who you really are.” —Susan Piver, author of Start Here Now: An Open-Hearted Guide to the Path and Practice of Meditation

“Albert Flynn DeSilver is our funny, wise, and vulnerable tour guide on this magical year-long journey through the soul of writing. I recommend this book to seekers who want to tell their stories, writers who want to connect with their deepest truths, and anyone who wants to use words as a path to what lies beyond language.” —Anne Cushman, author of Enlightenment for Idiots: A Novel

From the Publisher

07/01/2017
As their titles state, both of these books focus on writing as a tool to exploring and stimulating one's way of interacting in the world. Author DeSilver (Beamish Boy) claims that "a writer is someone who writes, not someone who is published," and that practice, repetition, and consistency are essential to creative expression on the page. He encourages readers to master these principles by offering stories, meditations, and writing exercises within the framework of the months of the year. For example, the theme for April is "blossoming," while October is "abundance." The goal is to encourage the practice of meditation and use art to accelerate a personal spiritual revolution.,Similarly, Matousek (Ethical Wisdom) inspires readers to explore their own narrative through writing. He outlines weekly prompts intended to spur readers to write honestly about topics such as their deepest wounds, greatest challenges, and hidden gifts in order to move more closely toward a liberated life. Each exercise offers a tidbit of the author's experience, core insights, a series of questions through which one can dive deeper, and an analysis of the topic under discussion. VERDICT Both volumes will help readers understand themselves better. DeSilver's concentrates more on the craft of writing, while Matousek's centers on self-revelation.

Library Journal