Retreat Overview

Guided meditation will be the main focus of the program. There will be ample opportunity to ask questions and share whatever you feel comfortable with. There will be no pressure to do so; passive participation is perfectly fine.

We’ll learn to rest into open awareness. We’ll start with basic concentration practice to settle the mind. Then we’ll do the “what is rest?” practice. The “what is rest” inquiry is similar to Shikantaza, “Do Nothing”, Mahamudra, and Dzogchen. Pointing out type instructions will be given through out the meditation sessions. This will punctuate the restful open awareness practice with moments of investigation.

Practice Technique

The suggested practice is the inquiry “What is rest?”. But other practice options will be given as well.

Second Lecture plus guided meditation

Lecture on emptiness with further discussion of practice.

Walking Meditation

Brief walking meditation instruction will be offered. Most hours will consist of a 20 minute walking meditation session and a 40 minute seated meditation session. Also self-guided yoga can be done in lieu of walking meditation during those 20 minute periods. It’s also fine to take a break during the walking periods.

Yoga (optional)

Cedric will guide an hour long Yoga session. The Yoga routine will be made up of two sequences. The first is based on the “how to grow a lotus” sequence which is specifically designed to help with long meditation sitting. The second sequence is Tibetan Sun Moon Yoga. This Yoga routine is from the Mahamudra lineage. This was taught to me by a Mahamudra master. This practice supports deep meditative experience.

This retreat is suitable for beginners.

Inquiry can be weird at first. People get it more quickly once they have a background of meditation. So for that reason it is better suited for intermediate meditators with at least 100 hours of meditation.

Partial attendance, coming and going, etc.

You can come and go whenever you like based on your availability and interest. The Europeans likely can’t attend the full retreat. Full participation will yield the most powerful result, however.

Misc:

The schedule is similar to a Zen retreat schedule.

We’ll chant the Hakuin’s Song of Zazen at the beginning and end of the day. https://www.thezensite.com/ZenTeachings/Translations/Song_of_Zazen.htm

We’ll do a guided forgiveness meditation at the beginning of the retreat to soften the mind.

At the beginning of each sit we’ll chant the Mantra “gate gate para gate para sam gate bodhi svaha!”. This means “Gone, gone, gone totally gone, enlightenment, svaha!” Chanting is very powerful and strongly recommended. It’s helps us drop into the subtle mind more quickly.