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    Shinzen Young on Meditation and Psychotherapy Paid Member

    Posted by Philip Ryan on 18 Jun 2010
    Both meditation and therapy emphasize self-awareness. In meditation, however, one develops extraordinary states of concentration that allow for the examination of subjective experience at a microscopic level. Ordinarily, therapy doesn’t develop that kind of detailed awareness. Using the analogy of anatomy, therapy clarifies gross anatomical systems, but meditation gets you down to the cellular level. This quantitative difference in concentration leads to a qualitative difference in outcome. Meditation has the potential to place you in direct contact with the spiritual nature of experience—24/7! - Shinzen Young, "The Point of Contact" Fall 2005 Click here to read the complete article. More »
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    Martine Batchelor's Tricycle Retreat Week 2: Grasping and Listening Paid Member

    Posted by Philip Ryan on 14 Jun 2010
    Week 2 of Martine Batchelor's Tricycle Retreat Break Your Addictive Patterns is now live at tricycle.com. Her teachings focus on meditative techniques from the Korean Zen and Vipassana traditions designed to unlock the mind's ability to creatively respond to the situations we find ourselves in. This week's talk is called "Grasping and Listening." To get a sense of what this retreat is about, read the Q&A from Week 1 here. Below is a 2-minute video clip from this week's talk. More »
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    Don't forget: Susan Moon at the Tricycle Community Book Club Paid Member

    Posted by Sam Mowe on 14 Jun 2010
    Join us at the Tricycle Community Book Club for the discussion of Susan Moon's This is Getting Old: Zen Thoughts on Aging with Humor and Dignity. The book, a collection of essays, is broken down into three parts: Cracks in the Mind and Body, Changing Relationships, and In the Realm of the Spirit. Get a head start on reading before Susan joins us Monday, June 21! Starting next week we will spend two days discussing each section and have a final day to wrap things up. From Part One, Cracks in the Mind and Body: Zen Master Dogen, my favorite Zen master, wrote, "To study the Buddha way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. More »
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    Blogwatch: Wild Fox Zen Paid Member

    Posted by Philip Ryan on 09 Jun 2010
    There's an excellent blog called Wild Fox Zen that you really should be reading. It's written by Dosho Port, a Soto Zen priest and disciple of Katagiri Roshi, the legendary Zen teacher who helped bring Buddhism to the American midwest. More »
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    Watch Martine Batchelor: Meditation on the Breath Paid Member

    Posted by Philip Ryan on 08 Jun 2010
    This week Martine Batchelor begins her four-week Tricycle Retreat, "Break Your Addictive Patterns." In her Week 1 teaching—a clip of which is posted below—she emphasizes meditation on the breath as a way to help us deal with our difficult habits, which can cause grief to ourselves and others. She gives very clear meditation instructions in her 20-minute video, with an emphasis on freeing us from the well-worn channels of thought we normally inhabit, and moving on to a freer more creative space. You can read meditation instructions from her book Let Go: A Buddhist Guide to Breaking Free of Habits here. More »