The Dharma of Poetry How Poems Can Deepen Your Spiritual Practice and Open You to Joy

Discover how to engage with poetry to support your spiritual practice, leading to more mindfulness, equanimity, and joy. Discover how engaging with poetry can support your spiritual practice--and lead you to more mindfulness and joy. In The Dharma of Poetry, John Brehm shows us how poems can be a source of wisdom and an entry into spiritual practice. He helps us understand how poems open up new ways of thinking, feeling, and being in the world that anyone engaged in spiritual practice--or wishing to live a more mindful life--might want to emulate. Brehm holds open the practice of mindfully entering a poem, with an alertness, curiosity, and open-hearted responsiveness that is very much like the attention we cultivate in meditation. A standalone book that also serves as a companion to the author's acclaimed anthology, The Poetry of Impermanence, Mindfulness, and Joy, this collection of lively, elegantly written essays offers in-depth explorations of twenty remarkable poems. It also offers poetry-related meditations and writing prompts that invite readers to directly engage with the poems and ideas discussed in the book, and expand their own practice of poetry. Additional resources include an essay titled "How to Lead a Poetry and Dharma Discussion" and a list of poetry resources for further exploration.