Rita, our friend and registrar, recently completed her second 10-day silent retreat (“sesshin”) at Great Vow Zen Monastery in Oregon. She writes: “Last year, midway through the first one, I became so distracted, all I could do was sit on the cushion and let my ‘monkey mind’ take full flight. I found myself ‘enduring’ the…
BEGINNER’S MIND Friday evening to Sunday noon December 14 to 16, 2012 $150 ($120 members) plus dana. Includes dormitory accommodation, all meals, and instruction. A reduced rate is available to anyone in need. For details and to register. From the monastery website: “Zen Buddhism offers tools to harmonize the body and mind, allowing us to…
Rita, Ben, and Peter have returned from “sesshin” at Great Vow Zen Monastery. A sesshin is a week-long silent meditation retreat, comprising 45 hours of sitting and walking meditation (indoors and out), a daily talk and group meetings with the teacher, shared meals, work practice (garden, grounds, kitchen, sewing, housekeeping) and, lest we forget, a few hours of…
There are still spaces available in this year’s Great Vow Zen Monastery summer program. Each lasts a month and the usual training fee of $500 is waived. Anyone may apply, regardless of age or meditation experience. The time periods are July 5 to August 5 and August 2 to September 2, 2012. As a summer “resident practitioner”…
“The type of sitting meditation described here is simply following the breath. This is meditation without a lot of moving parts. The only object it uses is breath itself. We must first learn to calm our minds and to find some stability. Simplicity is essential in meditation. But simple does not mean easy. It’s much easier…
Sitting on a cushion, chair, or bench is the common way to meditate, certainly in Buddhist circles. But that may not be the only, or even the best, way for you on any given day. From personal experience and from watching others, I’ve come to realize that our bodies are not identical. Such an obvious thing to notice, yet many books and…
Jizo statue Time and space restraints, family and work commitments, moods and preferences, plus a hundred ‘good reasons’ get in the way of our intention to meditate. Seasoned meditators say that regular practice — even for 10 minutes each day — is likely to be more effective than occasional longer sits. In that spirit, I offer…
For many of us, sitting in any lotus configuration is uncomfortable and downright impossible. Children can do it naturally, women seem to be able to do it easier than men, and yoga aficionados learn to do it. It’s not a natural way for Westerners to sit and, unless you’re planning to become a monastic, not a prerequisite…
Fernwood Zendo 