Writing―The Sacred Art: Beyond the Page to Spiritual Practice

by Rami M. Shapiro

Push your writing through the trite and the boring to something fresh, something transformative. "Writing as spiritual practice has nothing to do with readers per se. You aren't writing to be read; you are writing to be freed. Writing as spiritual practice is conspiratorial rather than inspirational. It conspires to strip away everything you use to maintain the illusion of certainty, security and self-identity. Where spiritual writing seeks to bind you all the more tightly to the self you imagine yourself to be, writing as spiritual practice intends to free you from it."
―from Rami’s Preface This isn’t about how to write spiritual books. It isn’t about the romance of writing. It doesn’t cover the ins and outs of publishing and building a brand. Instead, this fresh and unapologetic guide to writing as a spiritual practice approaches writing as a way to turn the spiral of body, heart, mind, soul and spirit that leads to spiritual awakening. Lead by renowned spirituality teacher Rami Shapiro and award-winning writer and writing coach Aaron Shapiro―and featuring over fifty unique, practical exercises―it takes you beyond assigning inspirational words to the page. It shows you how to use your writing to unlock the joy of life and the infinite perspectives and possibilities that living provides.

Genres: Writing, Journaling, Spirituality

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Rami Shapiro is one of the most innovative rabbis of the last thirty years. An award-winning author of two dozen books on religion and spirituality, he received rabbinical ordination from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and holds a PhD from Union Graduate School. A congregational rabbi for twenty years, for the last fifteen he has been writing, leading retreats, co-directing One River Wisdom School, blogging at rabbirami.com, and writing a regular column for Spirituality and Health magazine called "Roadside Assistance for the Spiritual Traveler."

Reviews

[Emilie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprised by the meh reviews on here. I really enjoyed this book and hope to try out the exercises.

[Elizabeth Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was excited to find a book on writing as a spiritual practice written from a Jewish perspective. As it turns out, the book draws from a wide range of faith traditions for inspiration and reflection. The exercises are good and would facilitate both spiritual growth and improvements in your writing, although how the latter happens isn't spelled out. The overall emphasis of the book (moving beyond self to Self--relinquishing the ego) I found a bit strange. That's not to say I don't think it valuable; I just believe that spiritual growth always entails seeing the self in a broader human context--community, faith, history, tradition--and that writing necessarily connects us beyond the individual to others and the Other. So: Good exercises, odd theory.

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I find the focus on the Zen-like dissolution of the self in the book to be challenging. The author seems to being wholly invested in his own rhetoric while ignoring more recent frameworks--like neuroscience and memetics. I think what he trying to relate what Gerry Edelman describes in a much better fashion as the remembered present--basically that the self that we think is constant is actually dependent on the thalamus updating with the cortical brain, but this process takes a couple of nanoseconds therefore it is the *remembered* present. I find the writing stilted and inconsistent. The actual writing prompts themselves were interesting. I will try to integrate some of them into my practice.

[Louise Silk]

This book was created from a retreat the authors conduct and as such it doesn't work to simply read it- it requires lots of time and energy to do the exercises.

The most interesting part of the book is how it is organized into five levels of consciousness: body, heart, mind, soul, and spirit as a way to get at different parts of the writing process.

I found it confusing to being written by two people presented in one voice. It seemed artificial and I felt like I would have gotten more benefit from a dialogue.

There are lots of helpful books on the market about writing. Unfortunately, this doesn't add much to the topic.

[Quinn · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read on using a writing practice as a spiritual exploration and practice. Interesting ideas and exercises. Don't necessarily agree with all the thoughts, but enjoyed the book and some of the practice suggestions. Worth trying if you are a seeker. For some reason the first half of the book was much more stimulating, idea-generating and engaging than the second half.