Appamada Studios

Studios are creative collaboratories where people come together to share creative energies for envisioning, designing, crafting, and building in a particular arena or topic. Appamada Studios are fueled by shared creative energy, curiosity, Zen practice, and vows. The numbering of Studios suggests that different kinds of Appamada Studios are possible (For example, Zen and Art, Zen and Parenting, etc.). What they share is a creative approach.

A Studio may be bounded in time, or continue as long as its members wish.

A Studio has a lead facilitator or facilitators, who must be at least Council Member in experience level. 

Format:

The format can be determined by each studio but each studio session begins with 5 min. meditation, metta phrases, and guidelines, and ends with a dedication of merit (such as our morning eko).

Guidelines/Reminders at the start of a session:

  • This studio brings together our creative energy in the service of our vow.

  • The purpose of the studio (i.e. “writing Appamada’s story”)

  • The value of multiple perspectives, imaginations, and creative energies

  • Guidelines for giving and receiving feedback

  • Confidentiality

  • Supportive generosity—dana

Eko/dedication at end of session: We offer the merit of our practice for the welfare of all beings, everywhere. May all be relieved of suffering, free from fear, longing, aversion and ignorance and may we together with all beings realize the Awakened Way.

Studios need: 

  • A method for gathering and sharing creative contributions. This does not necessarily mean via Zoom.

  • A way to provide access to ongoing work for feedback and discussion

  • A plan (at least) for presentation (sharing studio work publicly). There are a wide range of possibilities for this.

Each studio can determine its own methods, coordinated by the facilitator(s)

Proposals

Each studio starts with a proposal, reviewed and approved by the Council of Teachers. You must have experience at the Council member level or above to propose a studio.

Submit a proposal

Proposals should include:

  • Name(s) of facilitator(s) as well as contact information for whoever is proposing the studio

  • Purpose of the studio and its relation to Appamada, Zen, Buddha, Dharma, or Sangha

  • Studio structure:

    • Format

    • Methods (noted above)

    • Schedule and expected duration (i.e., monthly meetings for one year)

  • Names of at least 3 other people interested in joining the studio. Interest can be invited on the Appamada email list

  • Creative intention (i.e., this is not a study group, class, or special interest group, but a collaborative creative force in the sangha for the expression of the Dharma and our vows as “the creative intelligence of the universe.”)

Example:

Appamada Studio 1: Writing Appamada’s Story

Facilitator: Peg Syverson

Purpose:

This Studio is intended to support the ongoing project of putting Appamada’s story into book form. The plan is for a series of 6 small books, each one on a particular aspect of this story. Participants will have an opportunity to read and respond to drafts and to write their own reflections evoked by our shared reading and reflection. Participants’ writing and reflections may contribute to the unfolding story, with permission, of course, and may be incorporated into the final book publications. We welcome all forms of writing or images related to this project. Participants must register in order to receive communications about the project and have access to Studio materials. There is no registration cost; Studios are offered under Appamada’s Generosity Initiative, although we do welcome contributions, here. We appreciate your support and generosity.

Register for Studio 1: Participation is by invitation from Peg
Contact Peg for more information or invitation.

Interactive components for Studio 1:

  • Monthly Zoom meetings: one year or longer, second Saturday of the month, 10:00 AM-12:00 PM. This studio begins May 21, 2022

  • Google Drive folders

    • My folder for drafts, read privileges only

    • Other folders, read and write privileges for participants

  • Registration: necessary in order to receive materials, permissions, and notifications

  • Discussion Forum: Platform TBD. The point is to invite and encourage creative conversations

Format for meetings:

  • Opening meditation followed by metta phrases (10 min.)

  • Guidelines and reminders (5 min)

  • Book section draft: Read (silently) in session (20 min.)

  • Comments, questions, suggestions (15 min.)

  • Writing prompt: Reflections, personal path, memories, or freewriting based on topic in draft (30 min.)

  • Sharing and discussion (40 min. or time remaining)

  • Dedication of merit (eko)

Imagination links us to our origins—it summons us from nowhere and returns us there when it is done. A brightness fell out of heaven and we carry it everywhere in our breasts—each puddle holds the same moon, the Chinese poets said—each of us is a vial of primal light. When we make, when we imagine, we serve that source, we connect spirit and soul.

—John Tarrant, The Light Inside the Dark.

Current Studios