www.loversoftruth.net
MEDITATION for SELF-CARE, a daily Zen Zoom class
Learn how to establish a daily sitting meditation practice in one week, then renew if you wish. This class is for anyone seeking stress relief support.
Learn how to begin using meditation for stress management or improve your meditation practice to become more skillful at self-sourcing more ease. Give meditation a try for common mind-made suffering and for situation-generated stress of these times.
We will practice compassion for the mind, heart and body while learning to soften and shift internal states.
Begin with a week of sitting meditation for 30 minutes each morning at 10 AM. We will practice a few minutes of posture support exercises before starting the guided meditation.
To register:
1 Send a donation of $5 to $35 for the 7 day series using your Venmo or Paypal account. My Venmo name is, @christie-close-1 for Paypal use Pitaka Christie Close
2 Email me, [email protected] to be confirmed
3 You will promptly receive your Zoom link and password for the class.
4 Use the Zoom link to enter the classroom at 10 AM daily.
5. Renew using these same steps for the next 7 day series and password.
You will:
Hear a welcome bell at 10 AM.
See and hear Pitaka giving step by step guidance for posture support
Hear the meditation bell at 10:05 with guidance and silence, for 25 minutes.
Hear the closing Bell with a brief inspirational message at 10:30 AM.
Email questions to Pitaka. You will receive a prompt response.
Equipment needed...
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 the various posture tips will apply.) Email for a recommendation to purchase the most supportive floor cushions.
All participants will automatically be muted for silence and off video for privacy while the whole group receives video guidance from Pitaka.
The first class in each 7 day series will include information about creating a non-distracting meditation space. Every class will begin with posture support exercises for ease of sitting upright. This ease will gradually develop or deepen so I hope you continue sitting with me each morning.
Bowing warmly, Pitaka [email protected]
Zen and the ART of INQUIRY is an annual intensive with Pitaka
Easter Weekend, Fri. April 16th through Mon. April 19th, 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, April 16-19 2021
Cost, $600 includes your room, vegetarian meals and instruction
Use the registration link on this page to sign up now or email Pitaka to learn
more. [email protected]
Private rooms are first-come first-served and choice of rooms becomes limited as this intensive fills, so it is best to register well in advance. Airport pick up and return is free by advance arrangement if requested with registration.
No teaching of belief systems is an important non-teaching on this intensive.
You will 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 her 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 intensive purpose, theme and process... a note from Pitaka...
Attending this intensive is a choice each individual 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.
This 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
