The Female Buddha

04/12/2025

I also saw the moon and so I say goodbye to this world Chiyo-ni In Japanese poetry the moon is often a reference to enlightenment. In this death poem by Buddhist nun Chiyo-ni, she expresses her final words to the world and her experience of awakening. Is it a glimpse? A continuous state of mind? As one of the great haiku poets of her time, Chiyo-ni expresses a sense of wakefulness in all her poems with sublime beauty and metaphor. ...

I also saw the moon and so I say goodbye to this world Chiyo-ni In Japanese poetry the moon is often a reference to enlightenment. In this death poem by Buddhist nun Chiyo-ni, she expresses her fi…

11/22/2024

Dear friends, healers and poetry lovers,
Many of you have reached out to support the creation of our book of nature inspired contemplative poetry, Tangled Thicket: Seasons of Haiku. We appreciate hearing from you and it’s great to know others have our backs.
The time to write haiku and working with my coauthor Melinda has been infinitely rewarding. Learning to get it out in the world is so challenging!
Many of you have been on a similar journey to bring your gifts into the world. It takes perseverance to work in arenas that are new and daunting. After a session learning to navigate the online world I can feel absolutely crazed. I often need meditation or a quiet walk to bring my heart rate down.
Going back to my roots I’ve decided to offer a bonus 1 hour class on haiku to anyone who chooses a book or mug on our Indigogo site. Yes, it’s online but I have someone to help with the tech! It will be available 1/5/25 and anytime in 2025.
Also, we’ve added deeper discounts on items for the holidays! Please click this link to check out the class, books or mugs, https://igg.me/at/tangled-haiku
I'll close with this haiku from our book about a meadowlark I encountered several years ago on New Year's day. It’s close to my heart as it reminds me that sometimes we must trust our instincts despite a cold wind or whatever anxiety we may feel about the future.

new year's day
windblown meadowlark
clings to a wire

May you find inspiration wherever you wander! Deborah

10/26/2024

Please check out my new blog!https://www.seasonsofhaiku.com/blog

10/21/2024

Our new book of hand-lettered haiku is now at the Boulder Bookstore on the main release shelves when you walk in. The perfect gift for friends or yourself!
Also my Female Buddha book of inspirational photos and quotes of women teachers is back on their shelves!

10/10/2024

Dear friends, Your interest in my teaching, writing and work over the years has been invaluable. I am now happy to invite you to enjoy the contemplative art of haiku. Calligrapher, Melinda Canino, joined me in the development of a new book, tangled thicket: seasons of haiku. In it we express our shared passion for poetry, nature and the human spirit....

Dear friends, Your interest in my teaching, writing and work over the years has been invaluable.  I am now happy to invite you to enjoy the contemplative art of haiku.   Calligrapher, Mel…

10/08/2024

New blog and link to my new book, Tangled Thicket: Seasons of Haiku.
Please check it out!

Deborah Bowman23 hours ago1 minhaiku heals Haiku invites us to explore and share what is funny, sad, lovely, absurd or fresh. 25 views0 commentsPost not marked as liked

02/13/2023

Frost on Grass: The Bardo of Living Saturdays, March 4 through March 25, 2023
10:00am to 12:00 pm

This class explores the bardo experience, or in other words, how to work with the fears and wonder that arise from our varied perceptions of fleeting forms. Utilizing readings from Pema Chodron’s most recent book, How We Live is How We Die, participants will be invited to examine their current lived experience through the lens of her wise words.

When we stay present with our transitory experience and all that its fleetingness evokes, we get in touch with our braver self, our deepest nature.
Pema Chodron

To support our “braver” selves we will experientially explore the “gap” of the bardo experience that can ease our journey as we encounter or prepare for old age, sickness and death. Since the bardo is conceived of as a transitional state it can be experienced as a spacious opening beyond all confusion and suffering.

As a counterpoint to Pema’s writing, we will reflect on impermanence by investigating the “death poems” of traditional Japanese and contemporary haiku practitioners. The way of haiku invites us to see directly into experience and offers a poetic opportunity to express the full spectrum of life’s pathos, humor and beauty.

Facilitator: Deborah Bowman, Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist and retired professor of Mindfulness-based Transpersonal Counseling at Naropa University. She choose her field of study inspired by working in respite services for Hospice over 40 years ago. She has begun to publish haiku in several journals including Modern Haiku, Frogpond and Kingfisher. She is the author of The Female Buddha: Discovering the Heart of Liberation and Love.

Full program – $60 / Individual class as drop in – $20.
The program is in-person at the Nalandabodhi Colorado Center, 2229 Broadway, Boulder CO

https://colorado.nalandabodhi.org/events/frost-on-grass-the-bardo-of-living-2023-03-04/

02/13/2023

At Nalandabodhi Colorado Saturdays, March 4 through March 25, 2023 10:00 am to 12:00 pm, Four Saturday mornings Frost on grass: a fleeting form that is, and is not! Zaishiki, 1719 This class explores the bardo experience, or in other words, how to work with the fears and wonder that arise from our varied perceptions of fleeting forms. Utilizing readings from Pema Chodron’s most recent book, How We Live is How We Die, participants will be invited to examine their current lived experience through the lens of her wise words....

At Nalandabodhi Colorado Saturdays, March 4 through March 25, 2023 10:00 am to 12:00 pm, Four Saturday mornings Frost on grass: a fleeting form that is, and is not! Zaishiki, 1719 This class explor…

02/12/2023

New class on the Bardo of Living... working with the Pema's book on How We Live is How We Die and the Japanese Death Poem. Come to learn, share, laugh, cry... all are welcome including you.

Frost on Grass: The Bardo of Living Saturdays, March 4 through March 25, 2023
10:00am to 12:00 pm

This class explores the bardo experience, or in other words, how to work with the fears and wonder that arise from our varied perceptions of fleeting forms. Utilizing readings from Pema Chodron’s most recent book, How We Live is How We Die, participants will be invited to examine their current lived experience through the lens of her wise words.

When we stay present with our transitory experience and all that its fleetingness evokes, we get in touch with our braver self, our deepest nature.
Pema Chodron

To support our “braver” selves we will experientially explore the “gap” of the bardo experience that can ease our journey as we encounter or prepare for old age, sickness and death. Since the bardo is conceived of as a transitional state it can be experienced as a spacious opening beyond all confusion and suffering.

As a counterpoint to Pema’s writing, we will reflect on impermanence by investigating the “death poems” of traditional Japanese and contemporary haiku practitioners. The way of haiku invites us to see directly into experience and offers a poetic opportunity to express the full spectrum of life’s pathos, humor and beauty.

Facilitator: Deborah Bowman, Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist and retired professor of Mindfulness-based Transpersonal Counseling at Naropa University. She choose her field of study inspired by working in respite services for Hospice over 40 years ago. She has begun to publish haiku in several journals including Modern Haiku, Frogpond and Kingfisher. She is the author of The Female Buddha: Discovering the Heart of Liberation and Love.

Full program – $60 / Individual class as drop in – $20.
The program is in-person at the Nalandabodhi Colorado Center, 2229 Broadway, Boulder CO

https://colorado.nalandabodhi.org/events/frost-on-grass-the-bardo-of-living-2023-03-04/