“Learn how to meditate on paper,” wrote Trappist monk, mystic and social activist Thomas Merton. “Drawing and writing are forms of meditation.”

Poet, Buddhist and writing teacher Diana Goetsch, who’ll facilitate the Sacred Inclusion Network's November 17 Online Community Exploration, thinks about writing in much the same way as Merton.

“In my writing, and also in my teaching, I see no essential difference between the spiritual and the artistic path. For one thing, both are lifelong practices in letting go of ego (if only temporarily),” she said.

A renowned poet and fellow of the National Endowment for the Arts, Goetsch believes that anyone who wants to can use writing as part of their spiritual practice. For years, she’s taught writers of all levels, and is is famous in writing circles for the Free Writing Intensives she’s taught across the United States since 2007.

These intensives, and her new Actually Writing weekly series, target a fundamental skill that nearly every writer relies on, yet is seldom taught — how to fill a blank page.

"To compose on the page, we must engage particular muscles, and we must do so in an ego-free zone that gives us the permission to suck, which is also the permission to be brilliant," she said.

Join us for this session, which will include writing and lively discussion.

Full Disclosure: All Sacred Inclusion Events are offered "by donation." The size of your donation for us is not important, but simply serves as your commitment to attend.