Wolf at the Door Writing Weekend: Outrageous Courage
- Sat Sep 30th 2023
- 10:00 am
- 4:30 pm
- Booking required
- £100/£80/£55
It takes outrageous courage to face outrageous loss.
Francis Weller
In this online weekend workshop, Wolf at the Door team Dharmavadana and Vishvantara (talking here) will offer a variety of ways into writing about and with an experience of loss, from personal to planetary. Through this writing we can create a deeper channel for the celebration of love and gratitude, and we will certainly not be neglecting these.
The imagination makes available and harmonises what may seem contrary energies within us and makes a spiritual life possible. Wolf at the Door offers a friendly and nurturing way of exploring this essential human faculty through writing, with the help of a little meditation and ritual.
No writing experience is necessary, just a willingness to step through a door into new creative spaces, accompanied by experienced guides.
What to expect
You do not need to have attended previous Wolf at the Door weekends in order to come on this one. The event will be online by Zoom. As with our in-person events, the leaders will set up a variety of activities to stimulate the imagination and get you writing. Each day will run from 10.00 – 4.30, with an hour for lunch and tea breaks.
However, there will be certain adaptations for the online platform, as well as requirements in order to recreate as much of a ‘real life’ Wolf at the Door experience as possible.
Places will be limited to 18 to retain as much of the friendly, open and supportive atmosphere of our events as feasible, and to allow everyone a chance to read out their work, if they wish, and be heard.
We advise that if possible you use a laptop for the event, rather than relying on a phone or tablet, as we feel that using a tablet or phone will not give you the group experience available to laptop users which is essential to give us all a feeling of full group participation in the writing and reading back. However, this is not an essential requirement.
We also request that you make sure you can find a space while you attend in which you will be undisturbed and able to concentrate on the writing exercises, for the whole event. After the leaders have introduced each activity, you will be invited to move or turn away from your screen or to write – pen or pencil and paper is recommended. You will need if possible to switch off other devices too, and not have other distracting apps running on your laptop besides Zoom. We will also ask that you attend to the instructions for each exercise and to the reading out and not move away from your laptops at those points, if humanly possible.
As places are limited, booking is required and must be for both the Saturday and Sunday. We give out vital introductory guidance on the Saturday. There is a booking fee (see below for the price structure). Once you’ve booked, you’ll be sent Zoom log-in details which will last for the whole weekend and any other necessary information.
Open to all
Your guides
Vishvantara
Vishvantara has been reading and writing poetry since childhood and her debut pamphlet Cursive was published by HappenStance Press in 2015. She has twice been commended in the National Poetry Competition and won first prize in the Poetry London competition. She has been associated with Wolf at the Door for over twenty years and (like Dharmavadana) has been co-leading its writing workshops for nine years. She was Ordained in 2005 and teaches at the London Buddhist Centre.
Dharmavadana
Dharmavadana’s stories and poems have appeared in widespread outlets and he writes for the Triratna arts magazine Urthona, only recently standing down as its poetry editor. A Wolf at the Door retreat in 2000 revealed he could combine his loves of writing and the Dharma, and he is delighted now to be offering such retreats and workshops himself. He too was Ordained in 2005. An accredited Breathworks teacher, he also runs mindfulness courses.
Queries related to the contents of the programme can be emailed to Dharmavadana: dharmavadana@btinternet.com but please direct all other enquiries to the WLBC.
Much more information about Wolf at the Door writing workshops can be found here: www.wolfatthedoor.org
Dharmavadana (l) and Vishvantara (r)
Booking
The easiest way to book is online - just click the button below.
Please make sure you have read all the details of the event, have made sure you are eligible to attend (eg for 'going deeper' events) and are willing to make any commitments that are required.
Bookings are fully refundable up to 7 days in advance. After that we cannot usually offer refunds.
You can also book in person at the Centre, or by sending a cheque payable to West London Buddhist Centre along with your name, email and phone number and the name and date of the event to:
The West London Buddhist Centre,
45a Porchester Rd,
London W2 5DP
Please include your name, email and phone number with your booking.
