Sitting in Stillness

Meditation Workshop

Saturday, March 15

9:00 am to 12:00 pm

Quiet Sitting 静坐: A Return to Simplicity

This year marks the arrival of the Yin Wood Snake in the hexagenary cycle of the Chinese calendar. Coiled at rest, Snakes thrive in stillness. Of the 12 zodiac animals, they are often seen as the most innately spiritual. With that serpentine wisdom abundantly available, it is an ideal time to establish a solid and consistent meditation practice. 
This workshop will focus on the fundamentals of Quiet Sitting (Jingzuo 靜坐). Together, we will explore the three preliminaries: regulating the structure, the heart-mind, and the breath (tiao shen, tiao xin, tiao xi 調身，調心，調息). By the end of the workshop, you will have the know-how to establish your own consistent, fulfilling meditation practice—one without all the fitful starts and stops. We will also explore the fundamental cosmology of the Daoist tradition, discovering it as something beyond and before the intellect, something directly experiential and unfolding within our very experience.
Meditation is the heart of the lineage, and a practice that bolsters all others, from boxing to Bagua. Introducing students to a meditation practice with a millennia-spanning pedigree, this workshop is not about clever methods which promise to “optimize” your life or make you more productive in service of the myth of perpetual “progress.” Instead, it is an invitation to take a different view: a return to the basic sanity of human being in a world obsessed with human doing. By learning to properly rest in our experience, we effortlessly reconnect with the serene wilds of our untainted original nature.

Details

The workshop will be held on Saturday, March 15 from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM. 
Bring a cushion (or several) as well as some warm clothes/blanket to start out the class with. 
Be sure to show up on time—i.e. at least 10 minutes before the workshop begins. To preserve the continuity of the class, late comers will not be admitted. 
This workshop is open to the public. 
The cost is $99 per person.