Instructor: Chandra Ghosh Jain
Writing comes as a revelation, as a form of yoga or meditation, when the writer disappears in her writings and the only reality is the world she has created with her words. This leads to a profound experience of timelessness, when a single moment of inspiration becomes eternity. That is the whole art of meditation, the disappearance of the ego, the disappearance of the mind. Writing becomes a way to experience the unity of thought and its intrinsic spiritual nature.
Writing is therapeutic as well and is an effective way to overcome stress. Each experience however ugly, depressing or blissful becomes a reserve of emotions the writer draws on while creating her magical world of words. This helps in emotional healing. Writing is way to express the suppressed feelings. Life and writing get so intricately interwoven that life seems the tale of creation and the writer the carrier of the essence of life.
The purpose of this online course is to help you to familiarize yourself with the various elements of the writing as healing therapy. Writing helps to put your thoughts in perspective. It makes you see things from different or even the opposite angle. It will focus on heightened awareness. All senses perceive more than what is apparent. Meditation is not something occult, esoteric or outside the normal life. It's simply the art of mental self-control.
Lesson 1: Getting Started.
When one begins yoga or meditation one has to start with simple warm-ups and stretching exercises. When you first begin to practice yoga, the mind, like a child runs in different directions. For a while you may be able to stabilize your mind but the thoughts invariably get scattered. It is at this stage that you have to exercise conscious control. So I will begin by asking the students to write a few words that will help in focusing the mind.
Lesson 2: Now for the Stretching Exercises
We know that there are no limits to anything. You will discover something beyond the farthest star or inside the smallest quark. Similarly we also have no limits to our energy fields. Our physical appearance is not the end to our physical being. It’s not difficult to feel someone’s love or anger from across a room or even in the realm of the sixth sense.
Students will write about any peculiar experience that they have had which cannot be explained by normal parameters.
Lecture 3: Breath-counting Meditation and Writing
The Yogic science of re-attuning the flow and distribution of subtle energy in the body states that the flow and distribution of this energy is thought to directly affect consciousness in the most crucial of ways. It is the balance and flow of breath in the two nostrils, which guides the energy through the body. Breath and the movement of subtle energy is said to directly affect how we think and feel.
The students will be asked to write about extreme emotions and note the breathing pattern.
Lesson 4: Flame Meditation.
To get conscious control of different levels of awareness various techniques are recommended. Dhyan or focused attention is advised for the fixation of total attention on an object or an idea. Reach your inner space and awareness. Banish all thoughts then readmit them in a controlled fashion so that you may write about them.
Lesson 5: Silence and Creative Writing
Pay attention to silence. Use stillness.
Give in to the process of working towards the unseen and the undefined and experiencing the felicity of evolution. Once in place, the creative piece of writing often seems to transcend the writer's imagination and wonder.
Homework assignments: Each lesson has some in-lesson work as well as an assignment to send to the teacher for evaluation.
Lecture 6: Meditation and Writing
With regular practice your extra sensory perception increases. For those who undertake meditation life changes physically and emotionally. Writing helps to heal and de-stress.
In this lecture we will observe the changes brought on by meditation. The students will write about the changes.
Sessions begin: Contact Instructor.
Course: 6 weeks
Private Mentoring: $35
Tuition: $85
Chandra Ghosh Jain
"I write for the love of writing. It's the ear of the ear, it's the mind of the mind, it's the speech of the speech, it's the breath of the breathing, it's the eye of the eye..."
I write because I love to write. My mind is set free, on wings of passion and can fly to unknown lands and time. Searching for answers to hitherto unasked questions. Somewhere, sometime there is a hope that the writings will find an answering chord.
Chandra was born in Calcutta and spent her formative years in Delhi. She graduated in Economics (Honours) from Miranda House, Delhi University and received my her graduation in Economics from Jawahar Lal University New Delhi. For a brief while she taught Economics in Delhi University as a lecturer. She did her research on the ‘Changing Agrarian relations and its socio-economic impact on development’ from Rajasthan University.
Marriage brought her to Rajasthan a desert state, where time appeared to stand still. The veil separating the past from the present was thin. One could sense the fact that the history, which shaped the destiny of the place, hadn’t been lost. The violent and blinding sandstorms which blow through the hot summer months, revealed new shapes and contours, telling a different tale each time. Her husband’s postings offered her an opportunity to travel in the state, which boasts of palaces and forts of a bygone era; which forms a backdrop to many of her tales. She is presently working on an anthology of short stories, Quixotic Quest and Other Tales.
