Summary
Love is the crowning jewel of existence. Our lives are defined and enriched by how much we practice loving and align ourselves with the powers of love. We explore love as the masterpiece of nature in this month’s edition of The Seekers Forum, looking into why it is so hard sometimes to “love your crooked neighbor with your crooked heart,” as the poet Auden put it. But how does the heart deceive a person into protecting what’s meant to be given away? How do we measure our love against others’ and come to imagine that love is a commodity? Something to be hoarded, stingily, or doled out in self-serving doses? What does it mean to love without condition, is this actually possible for insecure, imperfect human beings? Answering these questions determines the quality of your life and relationships.
SEEKERS SESSION TELECONFERENCE RECORDING
GUIDED WRITING SESSIONS
Tuesdays @ 5 pm Eastern
4 pm Central, 3 pm Mountain, 2 pm Pacific, 10 pm London, 7 am +1 Sydney
In these live weekly Zoom sessions, Mark guides you through a series of writing prompts designed to spur insight and self-development. Using his Writing to Awaken method, these hour-long sessions provide a space to explore the program theme, share questions and epiphanies, and engage in dialogue with fellow members. They lively sessions can help you develop an ongoing writing practice, and offer an opportunity to interact with Mark, who offers additional personalized writing prompts. Each session is recorded and links to the video and audio playback are posted to the website. Members can also share any work or thoughts in the easy to use forum.
More information on Guided Writing Sessions.
GUEST INTERVIEW WITH BARBARA LAZEAR ASCHER
About Barbara Lazear Ascher
Barbara Lazear Ascher is a former attorney and the author of five books of non-fiction, Playing After Dark (Doubleday), The Habit of Loving (Random House), Landscape Without Gravity: A Memoir of Grief (Viking Penguin), Dancing in the Dark: Romance, Yearning and the Search for the Sublime (Harper Collins), and most recently, Ghosting: A Widow’s Voyage Out (Pushcart Press).
She has been a columnist for The New York Times and Elle Magazine, a Contributing Editor at SELF Magazine, book reviewer for The Washington Post Book World, NPR essayist, and contributor to The Yale Review, The New York Times Book Review, The New York Times Sophisticated Traveler, Travel and Leisure, Gourmet, Vogue, and numerous other national journals.
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Mark’s recommendation of a video, podcast, article, book, or teaching, that offers further insight into the program theme. The Recommended Resource is posted on the third Sunday of each month.
PROGRAM REFLECTION
Mark offers final thoughts and takeaways from the monthly program. The Program Reflection closes each program and is posted on the fourth Sunday of each month.
ABOUT MARK AND THE SEEKERS FORUM
Mark Matousek is a bestselling author, teacher, and speaker whose work focuses on personal awakening and creative excellence through transformational writing and self-inquiry. He brings over three decades of experience as a memoirist, editor, interviewer, survivor, activist, and spiritual seeker to his penetrating and thought-provoking work with students. His workshops, classes, and mentoring have inspired thousands of people around the world to reach their artistic and spiritual goals.
The Seekers Forum is Mark’s online community dedicated to the cultivation of self-awareness and spiritual awakening through dialogue, writing, and self-inquiry. It is an online refuge and wellspring of wisdom for those seeking personal knowledge and the chance to connect with seekers from around the world, in an atmosphere of camaraderie, inclusion, and encouragement. Mark modeled The Seekers Forum after the Sufi notion of sohbet, “the spiritual talk of friends.” He wanted to create a non-sectarian, open-minded fellowship where no faith is required, and like-minded people from all traditions can come together to talk about the things that concern us all. What is the purpose of our lives? How does spiritual practice change us? How can we live in uncertain, often frightening, times as conscious, compassionate human beings? How can we balance the mind, body, and spirit, wake up to the truth of who we are, and deepen our connection to this astounding creation?
As Shakespeare wrote, “There’s more between heaven and earth than is dreamt of in our philosophy.” This is what interests us in The Seekers Forum. We hope you will join us!