Three-Month Zen Practice Period
An invitation to shift your paradigm
Hello everyone,
Greetings to all the new subscribers, free and paid, over the last week. I got a lot of positive feedback — here on Substack, LinkedIn and directly in email — for my post last week on intuition.
I suspect that the rationalist mindframe that has become an unconscious norm in many parts of the world (aka “Western civ”) is beginning to show some fractures. These days may even be echoing the early 17th century in Europe, when the new heliocentric worldview began to take hold among young “natural philosophers” as the old earth-centric, Church-mediated paradigm began to lose credibility.
Some commentators predict that all manner of what we now call “anomalous phenomena,” from UFO/UAPs to non-corporeal entities to near-death/past life experiences to non-local phenomena (synchronicities, atemporal effects) will soon flip into some kind of mass acceptance. At least that what we now, or recently, called “fringe” or conspiracy theories may become more respected as subjects worthy of study.
I don’t know for sure, but I hope so. I don’t have any definitive beliefs about any of it, preferring my teacher Maezumi Roshi’s attitude of “…. could be ….” — but from my studies of paradigm change I understand that dominant worldviews, along with their reality claims and accepted evidentiary procedures, are upheld by generational authority figures who ultimately age out of their positions, leaving the field for younger, more open-minded thought leaders to seriously explore controversial topics.
So time is on the side of those with active curiosity.
Well, I had not intended to start this newsletter with those words, but I am going to trust it!
Today I have a special invitation to my newsletter readers who may have an interest in exploring real Zen practice. (The intro was perhaps apropros in that the Zen worldview, indeed the Zen experience, belies the materialistic, “inert” cosmos we are taught to believe in.)
As some of you are aware, my main vocation is as leader of the Eon Zen Center in Boulder, CO. Our regular practice community numbers over 50 people and we run a wide variety of programs in person and online.
This month we begin a three-month practice period, with daily opportunities to sit meditation with a group, weekly talks, monthly retreats, and several class series. As I have done on a few occasions over the last ten years, this year we are offering a special three-month Membership for a one-time fee of $99 that covers all our regular programs, discounts on classes and retreats, and full access to our 12-module Zen Foundations Course, a one-year curriculum of self-study with over 15 hours of video content. (We normally charge $180 for the Foundations Course alone.)
There are more details below on the many practice and study opportunities available through this three-month group membership. If you have any interest in exploring Zen practice-study, or if you have a current practice and want to connect with a welcoming group for the next three months, please read on, check out the main page on the Eon Zen website, and sign up for the Ango Membership online if it looks supportive. My staff will be in touch with you.
We call this practice period “Ango”, which translates as “peaceful dwelling.” The tradition dates back millennia to monsoon season in India, when the monks and nuns hunkered down in their communities and lived simply and intensified their self-study.
I like to practice with this spirit, feeling like the modern world is a non-stop monsoon! When I have a connection to community with a shared intention to deepen my experience of life, I am encouraged and inspired.
To circle back to my intro at the top of this newsletter …… Zen meditation and teachings reveal a reality that is infinitely subtle and ineffably limitless. It cannot be grasped or conceived of by our intellectual faculties, but it can be experienced in consciousness.
If our dominant paradigm is changing, you can be ahead of the curve.
2024 Eon Zen Ango Programs
Practice with Sangha
Daily Zazen (online)
Morning meditation offered online over zoom.
6:20-7:30am MT Mon-Fri (two periods)
(online zendo opens at 6:00am)
8:00-9:00am MT Sat-Sun (two periods)
Weekly Sangha Practice and Dharma Talk
Monday Evening talks exploring the theme of Appreciating Your Life, with Zazen and Sangha Discussion afterward.
Monthly Retreats
Join in extended meditation retreats:
September 20-22 Ango Entering Retreat
October 12: Dancing Zen (Half day)
November 2: Enter Here Retreat
November 16: One Day Retreat (Zazenkai) with Jukai Ceremony
December 6-8: Ango Ending Retreat
Interview with Teachers
During Morning Zazen:
Dokusan: face-to-face teaching with Gyodo Sensei M/W/F 6:50-7:30am MT
Daisan: Personal Interview with Dharma Holder Geoff Shōun T/Th 6:50-7:30am MT
Study
Precept Study Series (3 sessions):
Sept 25, Oct 29, Nov 26
Zen Life Path Series (5 sessions)
Oct 2 and 16, Nov 6 and 20, Dec 4
Zen Foundations Course (12 online modules)
A self-paced online curriculum that gives a comprehensive and practical grounding in the experience and principles of Zen Buddhism.