COURSE OUTLINES
Zen meditation is a like a journey – an inner adventure. It cannot be ‘learned’ in a weekend course or a few days. So, courses at the Meditation Sanctuaries have been developed to take the myth out of meditation and to be completely beneficial and relevant to people of today. The courses are designed to guide meditators, over time, to whatever stage of their Path they choose to travel, whether it be to relieve stress or journeying to deeper levels of their spirituality.
Each course requires attendance once a week as well as daily home practice. Introductory courses are run over 10 weeks. Intermediate courses are conducted over 18 weeks with two, one-week breaks. All sessions are run for 90 minutes. The advanced course being re-introduced in 2021 will run for eight weeks.
You are invited to contact us for discussion or for any further information you would like on any of the courses or venues. It is recommended that you book as early as possible because all courses are in increasing demand and tend to be booked out. Note that there is no casual attendance available.
Introductory Course – Zen Meditation and Mindfulness
The course is designed to guide you in the core aspects of Zen so that on completion, you can genuinely meditate in an accomplished manner with resulting benefits. They are conducted at most of the Meditation Sanctuaries up to four times a year. Courses teach:
The Introductory Course will be held at the Glebe studio.
ONLINE COURSES
Intermediate Course – Taking Your Meditation into Life
The Intermediate course is for people who have completed an Introductory course and wish to take their practice, understanding and enjoyment of meditation deeper and further. The course places emphasis on practices and meditations that help us to really see, understand and ‘let go’ all that stuff that may be hindering our enjoyment of life.
To do so, the Intermediate teachings have four ‘threads’ or ‘streams’ that are woven together through the course.
The first is furthering and mastering classic and highly effective techniques of ‘letting go’ issues and stresses of the past and present to enhance the experiencing of mindful wellbeing in life. We then practise applying these skills in everyday life.
The second is deepening zazen (the sitting, liberating meditations) with new techniques that take us to the heart of Zen or, one might say, the most advanced of the classic sitting meditation techniques (shickantaza) as used by the masters.
We also practise new, very beautiful and exquisitely peaceful meditations (Tonglen and Metta Bhavana) that help us reach into our natural compassion and kindness and enable us to take these lovely qualities with us ‘into the village’.
Thirdly, there are Teisho, instructions or teachings on taking a deeper and meditative approach and understanding into the various aspects of our lives, such as relationships, work, honesty, beliefs, behaviour, nature etc.
The overall aspiration is to take this higher Path to open and free enjoyment of our life as a meditative (or enlightened) being. This course just may be the most valuable time one can spend to practise sinking into the enjoyment of this lifetime.
Finally, the practice of mindfulness (living awake) is underlined by the relating of classic Zen stories and the historical development of understanding of the ‘Zen Path’.
URL data will be sent to everyone prior to course commencement for easy login access.
Advanced Course
Only for people who have completed an Intermediate course.
The transition stage. The pursuit of becoming your meditation. Embedding practice and ‘mindfulness’ as a daily requirement. Exploring non-duality and genuine transformation, deepening the meaning of love and compassion as the core Zen meditative principles. Discussing the hard issues such as life and death. Note that it is not a magic-carpet ride giving you the ‘secret answers’. You already have those.
URL data will be sent to everyone prior to course commencement for easy login access.
You are invited to contact us for discussion or for any further information you would like on any of the courses or venues. It is recommended that you book as early as possible because all courses are in increasing demand and tend to be booked out. Note that there is no casual attendance available.