The workshop is inspired by Soji, the Zen practice of meditative tending, and considers how this practice can support our writing.
Certain daily tasks can overwhelm, interrupt, impede writing. What changes if we approach these in a mindset of care and tending, rather than with an expectation of outcome? A Soji mindset helps parse these tasks into friendlier increments. In Soji, you enter the task you’re doing for a set period of time, attending to it as fully as possible.
Each 2-hour session includes
- An opening circle where each person sets & (optionally) shares an intention for the session.
- Guided writing & discussions
- 3 structured sessions of contemplative tending
In Zen practice at the Village Zendo in NYC & at the San Francisco Zen Center, I loved the practice of Soji, the periods of contemplative cleaning/tending. I loved how just immersing myself in a specific task for 20 minutes would have such a clarifying and grounding effect. I often find that writing and cleaning/tending are very complementary so this workshop is a way to bring these elements together in an exploratory way.
Primarily, we will be invoking the spirit and practice of Soji to explore how it might support and nourish our writing.
Consider whether there is a specific task that’s calling to you and whether there are any supplies that would be handy to have around, or just show up and see what arises .
Workshop Info
10 - 12:15 pdt
You don’t need to do anything to prep for the workshop, but if you’d like to gather a few things to have within reach, here are some ideas:
- supplies for a task you have in mind.
- materials for your preferred modes of writing: plenty of paper, pens, pencils, favorite notebook, sketchbook, yoga mat, cushion, etc.
- optional: a small selection of resonant objects/photos
- something that provides you comfort/ reassurance/ encouragement
- optional: some notes or fragments (prose or poetry), a piece of your writing in process.
Here are a few items people have worked on during past soji sessions:
(taken from the chat)
- to be in company
- open the book proposal!
- historical research / but also clean the bathroom
- track changes on edits
- momentum to get through the rest of the day
- stack of masks that need to be washed
- bake a pie
- gently packing for a backpacking trip
- scaffolding/yoga stretches
- ink my pens
- do some dishes
- tend to printer foibles
- rest
- sort archives
- clean water filter