IOP Seminar Series
Creative Awakening
Seminar One
Ordinary or Extraordinary Living ?
July 10th 2010
I am writing to tell you about a day seminar organised by The Institute of Oriental Philosophy – UK. This follows our very successful conference last year on Buddhism and creativity. It will be the first in a series of interwoven seminars exploring the idea of ‘Creative Awakening’.
The first seminar ‘Ordinary or Extraordinary Living?’ will consider how creativity, attention and consciousness can inform the quality of our daily lives. The speakers are Dr Gay Watson and John Danvers.
Dr Gay Watson: ‘Clearing the Ground’
This talk will consider paying attention to attention as the prerequisite for creative awakening. It will present an exploration in words and experience of our attention in support of a journey through presence, receptivity, openness, curiosity, and cultivation towards creativity.
Dr Gay Watson trained as a psychotherapist with the Karuna Institute of Core Process Psychotherapy, a Buddhist-inspired psychotherapy training in the UK. She has a doctorate in the field of Buddhist Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies of London University. She is the author of Beyond Happiness: Deepening the Dialogue between Buddhism, Psychotherapy and the Mind Sciences (Karnac 2008); The Resonance of Emptiness (Routledge Curzon 2001) and co-editor of The Psychology of Awakening (Rider 1999).
John Danvers: ‘Creative Awakening: Buddhism, Art and Everyday Life’
A talk about how Buddhism, art and poetry can initiate and reflect a creative transformation of everyday life. Reference will be made to ideas and practices drawn from Buddhism (particularly Zen), consciousness studies, contemporary art and poetry, phenomenology and ancient Greek skepticism- with an important visual dimension.
John Danvers is an artist, writer and academic. His works include drawings, paintings, installations and performance works and recently digital projections with live spoken texts. He has exhibited and lectured widely around the world including his well received talk at last year’s IOP conference entitled ‘Zack Hitti Zopp’. He is a member of the Editorial Board of the Internet Journal: Consciousness, Literature and the Arts, and is the author of Picturing Mind: Paradox, Indeterminacy and Consciousness in Art and Poetry (Rodopi 2006).
There will also be opportunities for dialogue and a panel discussion session.
I have attached a flyer and a booking form for the event. The seminar will be held in the beautiful surroundings of the old house at Taplow Court in Berkshire and due to limited space you are advised to book early.
I very much hope to see you there.
Kindest Regards
Jamie Cresswell
Director IOP-UK
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