Philosopher Teaches His Writing Process — Henry Shukman

Henry Shukman is a poet, author, mindfulness teacher and Zen master. He has studied meditation for 35 years, principally in the Sanbo Zen lineage. His most recent books are Original Love (HarperOne) and the Zen memoir, One Blade of Grass. He is also the co-founder of the acclaimed single-path meditation app, The Way. He has taught at Google, the New York Times, Harvard Business School, and the Institute of American Indian Arts. He has written several award-winning books of poetry and fiction, and his poems have appeared in The New Yorker, Guardian and Sunday Times. He has a degree from Cambridge and an MLitt from St Andrews. Learn more about Henry's latest book, Original Love: https://henryshukman.com/writing/orig... Deepen your meditation with The Way: https://www.thewayapp.com/howiwrite 00:00:00 Introduction 00:00:33 Writing is being alive 00:05:20 Is writing a calling? 00:08:17 Writing is just like painting 00:11:00 A different way to see the world 00:15:42 Seeing infinity in ordinary things 00:21:55 The power of difficult emotions 00:28:56 Similarities between poetry and scripture 00:31:35 Struggle, shame and compassion 00:34:30 Meditation 00:40:28 Learning through languages 00:46:02 When writing feels alive 00:50:59 How to write when you're stuck 00:54:54 Lessons from Fiction 00:58:04 Lessons from Memoirs 01:04:08 Lessons from Poetry 01:05:51 Lessons from Zen Koans 01:11:32 Welcoming reality into your mind 01:18:27 Writing from the heart About the host Hey! I’m David Perell and I’m a writer, teacher, and podcaster. I believe writing online is one of the biggest opportunities in the world today. For the first time in human history, everybody can freely share their ideas with a global audience. I seek to help as many people publish their writing online as possible. Follow me Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... YouTube:    / @davidperellchannel   Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2DjMSbo... X: https://x.com/david_perell