Appreciate Your Life: 3-month Practice Period

This 3-month Mindfulness and Meditation Practice Period is for anyone looking to begin, renew, or intensify a meditation practice.

All experience levels are welcome, from those beginning to those with a lifetime of meditation experience. Together, we will form a community of listening and support, and will bring attention and commitment to regular meditation practice and to how we “show up” in all parts of our lives.

The theme for this practice period is Appreciating Your Life. Our focus will be on how Zen practice can be integrated into daily life to help us:

– cultivate greater wellbeing
– navigate change and challenges
– discover more meaning and purpose in work and relationship

DATES, SCHEDULE, AND COST

We’ll meet every Wednesday from January 18 – April 5, 2023

Schedule:
6:00 – 6:30: meditation
6:30 – 7:00: teaching
7:00 – 7:30: group discussion w/breakout groups

SESSION BREAKDOWN

January 18: What’s Zen Got To Do With It?
In our opening Practice Period session, we will talk about Zen practice and its application to our modern world. Marc will introduce the book Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind and the teachings of Shunryu Suzuki.

January 25: Beginner’s Mind
A discussion of “beginner’s mind” – the art and practice of seeing and experiencing everything as fresh and new. We will explore the meaning and power of Zen as a non-dualistic practice, and developing a mind that is ready for anything.

February 1: Precise Forms for A Flexible Mind
A discussion of the first talk from Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind on “Posture.”

February 8: Exploring the Breath
A deep dive into the practice of meditation – the practice of fully being ourselves.

February 15: Control
A discussion of the paradox of intention and letting go.

February 22: Thinking Mind
Finding equanimity in the midst of a turbulent world.

March 1: The Power of Attention
The contrasting practices of effort and effortlessness, in meditation and all parts of our lives.

March 8: You Are Not Your Problems
Shifting our relationship with challenges and difficulties.

March 15: Living Beyond Duality
How to not feel limited by ideas of success and failure, effort and effortlessness. We explore what is meant by “no gaining ideas.”

March 22: Humility and Confidence
An exploration of the concept of Big Mind in Zen practice and how it supports greater humility and greater confidence.

March 29: Everyday Mind Is the Way
How to drop into our ordinary, extraordinary minds and hearts.

April 5: The Practice of Focus
The practice of focus as the practice of appreciating our lives.

Scholarships available (no one turned away for lack of funds). Request more info.