Journaling and Meditation Sessions

Location:

Zen Mountain Studio
The Hatchery Building
1 Roberts Street, Suite 201
Asheville, NC 28801

Free parking in the back — Baby Bull Restaurant.

Times:

  • Creativity Journaling: 5:30-7pm Sundays

  • Tao Journaling: 7-8:30pm Sundays

If you plan to attend, please either reserve a spot at the Meetup registration below, or send Rod a quick email (rod@herondance.org). The space can accommodate at most 12 people, and though it is unlikely than more than that will want to attend, just in case.

Overview

Journaling and meditation offer a way to enter the quieter currents beneath our daily lives—the place where old stories loosen, and new insight rises of its own accord. When we sit still, pen in hand, something within us begins to speak. Patterns that once felt inevitable become clear, fluid, and open to change.

We gather in a spirit of simplicity. We breathe. We write. We listen for what the deeper self is ready to reveal.

These journaling sessions at the Zen Mountain Studio in Asheville are free, contributions gratefully accepted. They may eventually evolve into more formal workshops.

If you have questions or want to reach out to me, my direct email address is rod@herondance.org.

These sessions draw inspiration from sources as diverse as the ancient poems of the Taoist mountain hermits to Carl Jung. We go deep inside in search of the messages that want to emerge.

Poems of the ancient wanderers of the mountains of northern China, and the Zen monasteries of old Japan, offer wisdom from silence, wind, stone, and mist. Their words are mysterious, spacious, and rooted in the same stillness that journaling helps us touch.

Emptiness, stillness, tranquillity, tastelessness,
Silence, non-action: this is the level of heaven and earth.
From the sage’s emptiness, stillness arises;
From stillness, action.
- Zhuangzi, 4th century BCE

If you feel drawn to slowing down, exploring the hidden currents that underlie your life and determine the recurring patterns, both positive and negative, and recording the messages in your journal that your inner wisdom wants to share, you will get a lot out of these sessions.

And to be clear, there will be no Buddhist or Taoist chanting or anything like that. You’ll be invited to use any meditation approach you are familiar with, or participate in a brief guided meditation.

. . .

Theses sessions are free, contributions gratefully accepted. You can contribute here.

You can receive our Substack, Zen Mountain Journal, here.

The root of creativity lies in the murky waters of deep imagination. Through journaling and meditation, we explore the shy song within—the quiet impulse that wants to emerge in our creative work.

A great work, and life, is based on a connection with the creator’s inner world. It grows out of still and musing meditation. It draws from the pre-verbal, the half-understood, the subconscious. There is a wisdom inside each of us that often cannot be put into words but, with practice, can be used to guide and shape our lives and our work. It is that which is holy inside us.

  • There are moments in a life, and moments in a day, when we see beyond the usual and glimpse something more real—an inner brightness, a sudden clarity. In those rare instants, a private song begins to rise within us. It surprises us. It lifts us. We want to stay with it, to hear it fully.

    - Robert Henri, The Art Spirit

And, the song is delicate. The intellect rushes in, analyzes, interrupts. The inner music retreats. We return to the ordinary. But that fleeting song is the very heart of creative life.

In this group, we nurture that quiet song from deep inside – what the ancient Taoist hermit poets described as the “silent music”. We access it through stillness, writing, and gentle attention. We gather not to perfect anything, but to explore the inner landscape from which true expression arises.

If you feel drawn to creativity as a form of exploring the murky waters of deep imagination—if you long to reconnect with the quiet imaginative pulse beneath your days—you will find these sessions useful.

Theses sessions are free, contributions gratefully accepted. You can contribute here.

You can receive our Substack, Zen Mountain Journal, here.