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MEDITATION for SELF-CARE, and perhaps Liberation. Personal and private Zen Zoom meetings.
Learn how to establish a daily sitting meditation practice, for anyone seeking stress relief support or preparation for true awakening in the classic sense.
Learn how to begin using meditation for self care. We will practice compassion for the mind, heart and body while learning to sit through shifting states.
To establish a practice, I recommend to begin with a week of sitting meditation for 30 minutes each day. Then move at your own pace to longer times.
Email [email protected] to set up a Zoom date and time.
You will promptly receive your Zoom link. Simply use the Zoom link to enter the meeting at the appointed time.
Then send a donation of any amount, using your Paypal or Venmo account.
Your private meeting with Pitaka includes time for your questions, step by step guidance for posture support, guidance for simply sitting and for sitting with a question, support for dealing with challenges in your personal meditation experience.
After our discussion, we will sit together with a bit of guidance before silence, for 25 minutes, with a closing bell and time for questions or comments before closing our meeting. Email to arrange another session anytime, offering your donation as suggested above.
Equipment and sitting environment
For chair-sitting, a straight-back chair and a firm pillow are needed and a blanket or shawl for warmth if you wish.
Floor cushions can be used as well. (for those experienced with floor sitting) Posture tips will be given, including three basic Zen postures and how to choose those most supportive for your body and unfolding experience.
If requested, Pitaka will offer information about creating a non-distracting meditation space in your home or office. Sessions begin with posture support exercises for ease of sitting upright. This ease will gradually develop as you continue to sit daily. You may request more meetings by repeating these steps.
THE ANNUAL POINT REYES EASTER ENLIGHTENMENT INTENSIVE
Is residential, with Pitaka, Friday April 15th thru Monday April 18th, 2022
Pitaka's annual Enlightenment Intensive is open to all seekers. there will be support offered via Zoom for preparation during the weeks before the intensive. All participants and staff will be required to show proof of both vaccinations on arrival.
Visit the registration page to apply.
Zen and the ART of INQUIRY is an annual intensive with Pitaka
Easter Weekend, Fri. April 2nd through Mon. April 5th, 2021
No belief is required...
No religion is required...and all faiths are welcome
No experience is required, only sincere aspiration is required.
Come join us for these blessed three nights and days at Point Reyes National Seashore, Commonweal Center, Bolinas, California
Easter weekend, Friday April 15th thru Monday April 18th, 2022.
Cost, $600 includes your accommodation, vegetarian meals and instruction.
Use the registration link on this page to apply now by filling out the application or email [email protected] to learn more. Space is limited and this intensive fills, so it is best to register well in advance.
No teaching of any belief system is an important feature of the enlightenment intensive. Instead, you will be supported to learn how to inquire using core Koans, so you can authentically, as the Buddha recommended, "find out yourself."
Your guide Pitaka is no stranger to life's challenges and has many years of experience with Zen and other meditation practices.
During Pitaka's Zen monastic life, before receiving priest ordination, Pitaka attended many one day to three month long meditation retreats and sesshins with both Soto and Rinzai Zen teachers as well as Tibetan Buddhist and Vipassana practice leaders.
Prior to entering residential Zen practice Pitaka spent time with teachers of Advaita Vedanta, Native American shamans, and Sufi and Christian mystics. This broad view helps assure that all seekers are supported when responding to questions.
About The Enlightenment Intensive purpose, theme and process... a note from Pitaka...
Attending the Enlightenment Intensive is a choice each individual participant makes, to learn how to inquire, to participate in focused inquiry for three days and nights, within a structured schedule of activities. This structure is essential for the best outcome for all participants in just three days and nights. We do this together in order to authentically discover Reality... ultimately, what is always so? What is this called self, life, another?
It is essential to understand the main idea when entering the intensive... No belief is required to encounter Reality. Sometime during the weekend you may notice many previously held ideas, concepts and established beliefs arising for re-examination, dissolving, giving you space for direct experience of what is unknown. Whatever we think may be so, we must, in the words of the Buddha, "find out for ourselves."
Inquiry requires full attention, is not knowing, questioning, wondering, like a child wonders, truly being open. This is the spirit of true inquiry, the foundation of the intensive. Setting aside other interests and intentions, focusing as guided, and just for awhile not filling the space with our knowing.
The Enlightenment Intensive does not require any previous experience of meditation. There are guidelines for the support of all present, such as no intoxicants, following the schedule of activities including silent periods, and non-interference with others during the intensive. Our commitment is also to arrive on time and stay with the group for three days and nights through the closing.
To sign up now, apply on the intensive registration page. It's easy to simply fill in the form, then click submit at the bottom or copy and email it. When your application is confirmed you can pay using the Paypal link or email request to use Venmo. Full payment is required to reserve your space.
"This journey of transformation begins when we say yes. Now is the only time we can experience Reality or Truth directly. I hope you will join us." Pitaka
