TO THE LIGHTHOUSE
Meditating with Virginia Woolf
An 8-Week Summer Reading & Meditation Course
Led by Lindsay Sanwald, MDIV
JULY 2ND - AUGUST 20TH
Tuesday Evenings 7:30-9pm EST on Zoom
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Weekly Kriya Meditation Labs (recorded)
Alternating Wednesdays/Saturdays 9-10am EST on Zoom
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“To the Lighthouse is at once ethereal and firm, as perhaps only a vision can be. A presiding presence with streaming hair and muscles stretched, the novel’s conception has the strength of a Blake angel. It is an exertion, a vaunting, a triumph of wonder, of imaginative speculation and defiance; it is that bolt of lightning Virginia Woolf began with, an instantaneous burst of coherence over chaos and the dark. She has shown us the shape of the human spirit.” (Eudora Welty)
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This course, open to all, is one part Summer Book Club and one part Kriya Meditation Initiation.
Over the daydreamy summer months we will carefully chart our way across the sensual and philosophical introspection of Virginia Woolf’s wondrous masterpiece of a novel, To the Lighthouse.
Alongside our literal reading practice (~45 pages/week) we will also endeavor to train ourselves how to regularly sit in our own endless interior musings (~45 minutes of meditation/week).
It is not always easy to catch Woolf’s ecstatic waves on the page… To reap the wonderful rewards of her luminous writing, the reader must first learn how to sit rapt and surrender to the constant flow of thoughts (citta vritti - waves of consciousness). Those willing to hold posture with her poetry for a sustained period of guided time will inevitably learn the art of meditation.
TOPICS WE WILL LIKELY TOUCH UPON…
Absorption, samadhi, Yogic philosophy, becoming the seer, utter simplicity, being and non-being, the Buddhist concept of bhavanga-citta, the Bardo, liminal states, thresholds, transparency, consciousness, creativity, death, writing, memory, sleep, dreaming, “extraordinary joy,” the art of cooking and hosting a dinner party, women, wives, mothers, painters, atheists, academics, artists, children… “love having a thousand shapes… “life stand still here…”
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“What is the meaning of life? That was all; a simple question — one that tended to close in on one with years. The great revelation had never come. The great revelation perhaps never did come. Instead there were little daily miracles, illuminations, matches struck unexpectedly in the dark.”
-Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse
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CLASS RITUALS
TUESDAY SATSANG
Our intimate group will meet every Tuesday evening from 7:30-9pm EST in the monastery of Zoom for eight consecutive weeks, tuning ourselves a full octave toward the Lighthouse. In this regular refuge called satsang (a gathering for devotional instruction) we will discuss our reading of the text and practice basic Kriya meditation techniques (asana, pranayama, visualization, mantra).
KRIYA MEDITATION LAB
Additionally, students are invited to attend a weekly Kriya Meditation Lab to practice a fuller exploration of yogic concentration, either in real time on Zoom (alternating Wednesdays and Saturdays at 9am ET), or on their own time via a recording. In the first four labs we will practice sitting for 18 minutes. In the final three labs we will aim to sit for 45 minutes.
1-ON-1
For students who wish to dive deeper, three individuals may elect to add on a weekly 1-on-1 session for private Kriya meditation instruction and dharma talks (psychotherapeutic spiritual discourse).
TEXT
Ahead of class, I ask that all students secure a physical tree-page copy of To the Lighthouse with Eudora Welty’s introduction ($7 new)
BOUEF EN DAUBE DINNER PARTY - SATURDAY, AUGUST 24TH
Those who complete the full octave of this summer reading endeavor are invited to Brooklyn NYC to be hosted at a recreation of Woolf’s magnificent Bouef en Daube dinner party scene in my cozy apartment.
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CLASS & READING SCHEDULE
WEEK ONE - INTRODUCTIONS & INTENTIONS
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BEFORE CLASS: SECURE TEXT, READ EUDORA WELTY’S FORWARD (6p); READ EXCERPTS FROM MOMENTS OF BEING PDF (10p).
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SATSANG: TUESDAY 7/2 (7:30-9PM EST): OPENING RITUAL
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MEDITATION LAB: WEDNESDAY 7/3 (9-9:45AM EST): 18-MINUTE PRACTICE
WEEK TWO - THE WINDOW
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SATSANG: TUESDAY 7/9 (7:30-9PM EST)
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MEDITATION LAB: SATURDAY 7/13 (9-9:45AM EST): 18-MINUTE PRACTICE
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BEFORE CLASS: READ p.1-40
“Yes, of course, if it’s fine tomorrow.” / “Going indoors, Mr. Carmichael?”
WEEK THREE - THE WINDOW, continued
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SATSANG: TUESDAY 7/16 (7:30-9PM EST)
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MEDITATION LAB: WEDNESDAY 7/17 (9-9:45AM EST): 18-MINUTE PRACTICE
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BEFORE CLASS: READ p.40-82
“He said nothing.” / “…and assemble in the dining-room for dinner.”
WEEK FOUR - THE WINDOW, continued
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SATSANG: TUESDAY 7/23 (7:30-9PM EST)
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MEDITATION LAB: SATURDAY 7/27 (9-9:45AM EST): 18-MINUTE PRACTICE
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BEFORE CLASS: READ p.82-124
“But what have I done with my life?” / “She had not said it: yet he knew.”
WEEK FIVE - TIME PASSES
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SATSANG: TUESDAY 7/30 (7:30-9PM EST)
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MEDITATION LAB: WEDNESDAY 7/31 (9-10AM EST): 45-MINUTE PRACTICE
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BEFORE CLASS: READ p.125-145
“Well, we must wait for the future to show.” / “Here she was again, she thought, sitting bolt upright in bed. Awake.”
WEEK SIX - TO THE LIGHTHOUSE
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SATSANG: TUESDAY 8/6 (7:30-9PM EST)
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MEDITATION LAB: SATURDAY 8/10 (9-10AM EST): 45-MINUTE PRACTICE
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BEFORE CLASS: READ p.145-182
“What does it mean then, what can it all mean?” / “The boat was in the middle of the bay.”
WEEK SEVEN - TO THE LIGHTHOUSE, continued
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SATSANG: TUESDAY 8/13 (7:30-9PM EST)
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MEDITATION LAB: WEDNESDAY 8/14 (9-10AM EST): 45-MINUTE PRACTICE
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BEFORE CLASS: READ p.182-209
“They don’t feel a thing there…” / “Yes, she thought, laying down her brush in extreme fatigue, I have had my vision.”
WEEK EIGHT - BOEUF EN DAUBE DINNER PARTY
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BEFORE CLASS: FINAL CREATIVE PROJECT
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FINAL SATSANG: TUESDAY 8/20 (7:30-9PM EST) - STUDENTS SHARE PROJECTS
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BROOKLYN DINNER PARTY: SATURDAY 8/24 (6PM) - STUDENTS SHARE PROJECTS
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Commit to the voyage out NOW!
$45/week
for weekly satsangs & meditation labs
$108/week
*limited to 3 students*
to add on weekly private 1-on-1 dharma talks/kriya sessions (45m)
