Workshop Details

The course will run twice, on alternate Saturdays. The first course starting on Sat Jan 18th is for anyone who can make the timing. The second running of the course is at a time to allow participants from North America to attend eg., 10am Pacific time / 12pm Central time / 5pm UK time/GMT. Participants from UK/Europe and elsewhere can attend also, but priority will be given to applicants from North America for the second running of the course. 

The workshop will involve six online sessions at fortnightly intervals offered by Jim Griffin. The sessions will follow a format of reading some lines of poetry with 30 minutes of contemplative meditation and then 30 minutes of shared reflections.

Rumi and St John of the Cross are two of the greatest mystical poets within the world’s spiritual traditions – Rumi the Sufi teacher in 13th century Anatolia and John the Carmelite Christian monk in 16th century Spain. Both men experienced reality as a radiant manifestation of the Divine, and gave voice to that experience in sublime ecstatic poetry. In these workshops we will reflect on key poems by our two authors and allow a deepening conversation to develop session by session. Each session will last an hour and a half, and involve a poem, or some lines of a poem, a period of meditation, and shared reflection. Our meditation together is central, and allows us to dive into the spiritual depths explored by each author.

Jim Griffin is a psychotherapist and teacher of meditation, and has previously taught world religions at universities in the UK and abroad.