Class
Writing to Study the Self with Farnoosh Fathi
November 7, 2026
2:00 PM - 5:00 PM
November 7, 2026
2:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Join poet and longtime Zen practitioner Farnoosh Fathi for a half-day course on the three energies of mindfulness (smrti, samadhi, and prajna) as the fundamental medium of poetry.
Through contemplative writing exercises, we’ll explore the poetics of emptiness and its relationship to compassion, the practice of “beginner’s mind,” and the poem as a pursuit of our highest attention. We’ll spend time with sutras by Eihei Dogen and Dongshan Liangjie, alongside poems by Sun Buer, Izumi Shikibu, Emily Dickinson, Paul Celan, and Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge.
You’ll leave with a felt sense of how writing poetry and practicing mindfulness illuminate one another, and with practices to carry that exploration forward.
Beginners and familiar practitioners, students of poetry and/or Zen: all are welcome!
Fee (sliding scale) — $75-$120
Questions? If you have any questions or concerns about registration, please contact us at info@brooklynzen.org.
Farnoosh Fathi is the author of the poetry collections Great Guns (Canarium 2013) and Granny Cloud (NYRB Poets 2024), editor of Joan Murray: Drafts, Fragments, and Poems (NYRB Poets 2018), and founder of the Young Artists Language and Devotion Alliance (YALDA). Since 2011, she has practiced, so gratefully, with sangha, at both the San Francisco Zen Center and the Brooklyn Zen Center. She currently lives in Troy, NY and teaches at Barnard College.
Boundless Mind Temple is located in the Parish House of Christ Church Cobble Hill, next to 326 Clinton Street. Enter the driveway on Clinton, go past the scaffolding, and through the double doors.
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Please see BZC’s Updated Health & Wellness Policy for more information.
To request a refund for this program you must notify BZC in writing at least two days before the beginning of the program. You may request a full refund by emailing info@brooklynzen.org. This policy supports the organizing effort involved in managing registrations and cancellations and the largely volunteer-based structure of the Brooklyn Zen Center.