Workshop- Lay Down the Weapons: Poetry, Wisdom & Inner Peace

Name: Workshop- Lay Down the Weapons: Poetry, Wisdom & Inner Peace
Start: 2026-02-07T10:00:00+08:00
End: 2026-02-07T10:00:00+08:00
Location: Hovea Ashram

About

"Lay Down the Weapons: Poetry, Wisdom & Inner Peace"

Join Dr Meath Conlan, Zen teacher, for a quiet day exploring ancient wisdom through contemporary poetry and accessible teachings. We'll discover that we're already enough, that the sacred is found in ordinary daily tasks, and that peace begins in our own hearts. No prior experience needed—just come as you are. Includes guided reflection, poetry readings, simple meditation practice, and time for rest. Leave feeling grounded, hopeful, and equipped with practical tools for daily life.

TWO ZEN KOANS from the MUMONKAN COMMENTARIES:

1. Case 7: Wash Your Bowl (practical daily living)
2. Case 1: Do Fleas Bite? (you're already enough + MU practice)

FURTHER EXPLANATION:

1. THE TITLE "LAY DOWN THE WEAPONS"
• Connects to Kate's profound poem!
• Immediately relevant (everyone carries weapons: judgment, striving, self-criticism!)
• NOT scary "Zen" (accessible, relatable!)
• Invitational (poetry + wisdom + peace = welcoming!)
• Promise of relief (laying down burdens!)

2. Zen CASE 7: WASH YOUR BOWL
• Most practical! (just do the next thing!)
• Immediately applicable (everyone has dishes, tasks, and daily life!)
• Connects to title (laying down weapon of STRIVING, just wash bowl!)
• The luncheon dishes story! (We'll LOVE this!)
• Relief from constant seeking (the path is HERE!)

3. Zen CASE 1: DO FLEAS BITE?
• Most liberating! (you're already enough!)
• Addresses deepest wound (feeling "nothing"/inadequate!)
• Includes MU practice (they take home a TOOL!)
• The Huntsman spider story! (vulnerable, relatable!)
• Connects to title (laying down weapon of SELF-JUDGMENT!)

4. KATE'S POETRY WOVEN IN:
In this final segment, we are invited to go within to that most intimate battlefield where all outer wars are born. Kate Barrett-Lennard's "Lay Down the Weapons" names a truth we often resist: that war begins in the human heart and mind. This is not comfortable territory. To face the ways we carry weapons—subtle or stark—within ourselves requires courage. The weapons Kate asks us to lay down are not only literal. They are the weapons of blame, of bitterness, of the stories we clutch that keep us imprisoned in past hurts. To lay them down is to rise to something greater: a life that breathes with love, prosperity, kindness; the wealth of an excellent Spirit bringing us all—not just some—to joy.
• "Lay Down the Weapons" (centrepiece!)
• Maybe others from her Mystical Writings?
• Poetry + koans = beautiful pairing!

Contribution: $30