Want to Intensify Your Practice?

Exciting news for those of you interested in intensive practice!

For two decades, people have been asking me if there is a place to do a really long retreat using Basic Mindfulness techniques.

Those of you who have done extended retreats appreciate that one week of unbroken practice is incomparably more impactful than one day, and one month is incomparably more impactful than one week. So imagine the life-changing effects that you would likely experience as the result of nine months of Basic Mindfulness practice offered at an intensity level comparable to Asian monastic training!

Although I have run a few one-month programs, my schedule has not allowed for me to organize more extended, monastic-style intensive training. It gives a lot of very pleasant “Feel In” to be able to tell you all that plans are underway to create the world’s first Basic Mindfulness monastery here in Burlington, Vermont. The prime mover for this project is my colleague Soryu Forall.

To be able to pull it off, we need two things:

1. People who wish to utilize the program; and
2. Enough funding to support the program.

 So spread the word! For more details, see the message and links below.

Looking forward to seeing some of you in my town. J

All the best,

Shinzen

A Message from The Center for Mindful Learning

The Center for Mindful Learning (CML) is excited to announce a nine-month intensive Residential Mindfulness Training Center (RMTC) based on Shinzen Young’s Basic Mindfulness System.

The format will follow the Asian monastic systems in which Shinzen Young and Soryu Forall were ordained, with modern-day improvements that integrate science and leadership training with these contemplative traditions. The nine-month program will be as rigorous on a daily basis as a typical Shinzen retreat (if you were to attend every sit at the Shinzen retreat). One week per month it will be more demanding, like a monthly “sesshin.” We will happily make accommodations for those with disabilities or similar needs.

The RMTC will be located in Burlington, Vermont. We are hoping to begin as early as July 2013, (although the start date is dependent upon securing funding). Soryu Forall will lead the training, with guest appearances by Shinzen Young.

We’re specifically looking for two groups of people: participants and donors. If you are interested in possibly being a resident and/or donor for this groundbreaking project, please email Harrison Heyl (harrison@cml.me) or follow this link to our website: http://www.cml.me/class/residential-mindfulness-training.

This RMTC may be a real first in world history. It’s an incredible opportunity to develop the next generation of deeply committed modern mindfulness teachers by integrating deep practice with science and leadership skills. We look forward to making history with your support!

With gratitude and warm regards,
The Center for Mindful Learning
 

Direct Transmission

Update 3/13/13: Please note that Dharma Heritage has removed from their site the video that this post was written about. I hope you'll still find the other materials useful.


Great souls communicate their gifts to humanity in three ways:

• Through their concepts.

• Through their conduct.

• Through their contour.

Their concepts are powerful ideas expressed in words. Their conduct is how they deal with real-life situations and challenges. Their contour is their energy—how they are able to express the flow of nature/spirit/space/no self/true self through their movements, gestures, gaze and voice quality.

Powerful concepts inform us but can also inspire us. Admirable conduct inspires us but can also inform us. Likewise for the contour of energy that envelops that content—you can be both energized and educated by it.

The concepts and conduct of great souls can be passed down through the written word. But what about their contour? Learning from the teacher’s energy is highly valued in some traditions (most conspicuously Zen and certain forms of Hinduism). In the Japanese language, this is referred to as ishindenshin (transmission of consciousness by consciousness).

In pre-modern times, there was little one could do to preserve the energy contour of an enlightened being. The closest one might come would be realistic portraits or statues that capture some of those dynamic qualities. Indeed, I have heard it said (but I can’t remember by whom; maybe one of you knows) that the first appearance of realistic portrayal of human form in East Asia was driven by the desire to preserve the essence of meditation masters. (Another way was to mummify.)

But now things are completely different because you can get videos of great souls and learn directly from their dynamic essence. Below you’ll find a link to one such video. It’s actually a sizzle reel to promote a longer feature length movie that I sincerely hope eventually gets made. The video is short but it still packs a punch. It contains several vignettes with Joshu Sasaki Roshi, the Zen master who has so profoundly influenced the way I teach. Interspersed with these are interviews with Leonard Cohen and others talking about Roshi. If you’re sensitive to such things, you should be able to “cop a vibe” from how Roshi effortlessly rides on the flow of expansion and contraction. In the video Roshi mostly talks about “where things go to when they vanish.” Two of Leonard Cohen’s songs are played in the background: “Ballad of the Absent Mare,” and “Love Itself.”

Here’s the link: http://www.dharmaheritage.org/dharmaheritage/Projects.html: (3/13/13: link no longer works; please see the update at the top of this post)

And here are some resources that might help enhance your appreciation of it.

I talk about “where things go” here and here.

I talk about expansion and contraction here and here.

Leonard's "Love Itself" is a description of dissolving into “Flow and Gone.” I talk about it and play it (with Leonard’s personal permission!) here:

• Leonard Cohen, Sasaki Roshi, & "Love Itself" - Part 1 of 2 
• Leonard Cohen's "Love Itself" - Part 2 of 2

The lyrics can be found here.

The Ballad of the Absent Mare is Leonard’s contemporary reworking of the Ten Ox Herding pictures. (Ox is replaced by mare; herding boy is replaced by cowboy.) Check out my talk about the Ox Herding pictures here: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 (sorry about the technical quality on these videos. They were the first Youtube videos we shot ☺).

You may have heard about how blows from sticks are used to spur Zen students forward. You’ll see that briefly in the Dharma Heritage video. The stick is called a keisaku. For fun, check out this hilarious clip of my colleague Soryu using a keisaku to whack the crap out of me. ☺

Roshi is, at this writing, 105 years old. Here are some photos of me interviewing him for CBS on his 100th birthday. (Thanks to Dan B. Wood of the Christian Science Monitor and Stephanie Nash for these photos, and as always to Har-Prakash Khalsa for the Expand-Contract Youtube channel and videos.)

Seeking Honest Descriptions of Personal Meditation Experience...

You may be familiar with Philip Kapleau's 1965 classic Three Pillars of Zen. At the request of Kapleau's Japanese teacher, Hakuun Yasutani,  the book included a series of frank accounts of regular people achieving life-changing experiences. This was a real first, and motivated many Westerners to pursue rigorous Zen practice.

Now a student of mine, the writer and journalist Jeff Warren (author of The Head Trip) is doing something similar with mindfulness. I think it's a worthwhile project. If you have experiences to share (see below), I encourage you to send Jeff an email. He can be reached at jeffre.warren@gmail.com.

All the best,
Shinzen

From Jeff Warren:

I'm looking for people's honest descriptions of personal meditation experience.  I'm very grateful for whatever people would like to send me. I have yet to decide with my publisher whether I will use people's first names, initials only (as in Three Pillars), or keep the anecdotes anonymous. Please indicate your personal preference in this regard and I will of course comply.

Some possible themes:

• Experiences of both sudden and gradual changes and your thoughts on this general topic
• Experiences of dramatically increased sensory clarity + insights into mind and body
• Initial breakthrough experiences
• Kundalini /energy experiences
• The experience of no self, unsatisfactoriness or impermanence in each sensory moment
• Self-dissolution and / or "Dark Night" experiences
• Experiences of equanimity or reduction in sensory fixedness
• Decrease in self-rumination
• Increases in sensitivity and vulnerability and openness
• Changes in creativity
• Experiences of emotional / mood cycling associated with meditation
• Experiences of unusual phenomena/ hallucinations / "makyo" / powers, etc.
• Cessations / fruitions
• Stream-entry, and how this changes one's perspective
• Post stream-entry changes, integrations, unexpected challenges, unexpected insights, further paths
• General thoughts on how meditation has changed your consciousness