DIVINE LITERACY FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
DIV/LIT
TO THE LIGHTHOUSE
Meditating with Virginia Woolf
An 8-Week Summer Reading & Kriya Meditation Course
May 26th - July 14th 2026
Tuesday Evenings 7:30-9pm EST on Zoom
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Weekly Kriya Meditation Labs (recorded)
Wednesdays at High Noon EST on Zoom
This course, open to all, is one part Summer Book Club and one part Kriya Meditation Initiation.
Over the daydreamy summer months we will carefully chart our way across the sensual and philosophical introspection of Virginia Woolf’s wondrous masterpiece of a novel, To the Lighthouse.
Alongside our literal reading practice (~45 pages/week) we will also endeavor to train ourselves how to regularly sit in our own endless interior musings (~45 minutes of meditation/week).
It is not always easy to catch Woolf’s ecstatic waves on the page… To reap the wonderful rewards of her luminous writing, the reader must first learn how to sit rapt and surrender to the constant flow of thoughts (citta vritti - waves of consciousness). Those willing to hold posture with her poetry for a sustained period of guided time will inevitably learn the art of meditation.
TOPICS WE WILL LIKELY TOUCH UPON
Absorption, samadhi, Vedic philosophy, utter simplicity, being and non-being, the Buddhist concept of bhavanga-citta, the Bardo, liminal states, thresholds, transparency, consciousness, creativity, death, writing, memory, sleep, dreaming, “extraordinary joy,” the art of cooking and hosting a dinner party, women, wives, mothers, painters, atheists, academics, artists, children… “love having a thousand shapes… “life stand still here…”
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“What is the meaning of life? That was all; a simple question — one that tended to close in on one with years. The great revelation had never come. The great revelation perhaps never did come. Instead there were little daily miracles, illuminations, matches struck unexpectedly in the dark.”
-Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse
CLASS RITUALS
TUESDAY SATSANG
Our intimate group will meet every Tuesday evening from 7:30-9pm EST in the monastery of Zoom for eight consecutive weeks, tuning ourselves a full octave toward the Lighthouse. In this regular refuge called satsang (a gathering for devotional instruction) we will discuss our reading of the text and practice basic Kriya meditation techniques (asana, pranayama, visualization, mantra).
KRIYA MEDITATION LAB
Additionally, students are invited to attend a weekly Kriya Meditation Lab to practice a fuller exploration of yogic concentration, either in real time on Zoom (alternating Wednesdays and Saturdays at 9am ET), or on their own time via a recording. In the first four labs we will practice sitting for 18 minutes. In the final three labs we will aim to sit for 45 minutes.
TEXT
Ahead of class, I ask that all students secure a physical tree-page copy of
To the Lighthouse with Eudora Welty’s introduction ($7 new)
Friday, August 28th to Monday, August 31st
*LIMITED TO 8 STUDENTS*
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CLASS & READING SCHEDULE
(1) TUESDAY 5/26 - INTRODUCTIONS & INTENTIONS
BEFORE CLASS: SECURE TEXT, READ EUDORA WELTY’S FORWARD (6p);
READ EXCERPTS FROM MOMENTS OF BEING PDF (10p).
(2) TUESDAY 6/2 - THE WINDOW
BEFORE CLASS: READ PAGES 1-40
“Yes, of course, if it’s fine tomorrow.” / “Going indoors, Mr. Carmichael?”
(3) TUESDAY 6/9 - THE WINDOW, continued
BEFORE CLASS: READ PAGES 40-82
“He said nothing.” / “…and assemble in the dining-room for dinner.”
(4) TUESDAY 6/16 - THE WINDOW, continued
BEFORE CLASS: READ PAGES 82-124
“But what have I done with my life?” / “She had not said it: yet he knew.”
(5) TUESDAY 6/23 - TIME PASSES
BEFORE CLASS: READ PAGES 125-145
“Well, we must wait for the future to show.” / “Here she was again, she thought, sitting bolt upright in bed. Awake.”
(6) TUESDAY 6/30 - TO THE LIGHTHOUSE
BEFORE CLASS: READ PAGES 145-182
“What does it mean then, what can it all mean?” / “The boat was in the middle of the bay.”
(7) TUESDAY 7/7 - TO THE LIGHTHOUSE, continued
BEFORE CLASS: READ PAGES 182-209
“They don’t feel a thing there…” / “Yes, she thought, laying down her brush in extreme fatigue, I have had my vision.”
(8) TUESDAY 7/14 - FINAL SHOW & TELL
CLASS TUITION
FREE for MONTAUK RETREAT-GOERS
$246 for ALUMS/PATRONS
$369 for NEW STUDENTS