Deming Zen Group

First of all: thank you for sitting at home!

Second of all: make a private commitment with yourself and keep it.  At the Zen group, we sit for half an hour; at home, you can commit to thirty minutes, twenty, ten, anything.  We suggest setting it low enough that you can keep your commitment, and then -- if you want to continue -- do extra. At the right time, you'll be thinking about upping your commitment -- then go for it, challenge yourself.  There will be da...

Last Saturday, we sat our second one-day retreat.

This time we convened at the Rancho de la Paz, a private residence a few miles south of Deming that is designed and operated as a retreat center for all faiths.  Six of us sat in a beautiful stone chapel on the property, and did our walking meditation outside.  We ate an informal lunch that included a vegetarian soup, salad, brown rice, and Korean-style corn tea. 

At the suggestion of our hos...

Our second day of retreat will take place on October 17.  Come and spend part of a Saturday with us in silence at the beautiful Rancho de la Paz, a few miles south of Deming near the mountains. 

Our first retreat took place in July with five participants.  We had a wonderful day sitting and walking together, with a couple of breaks and a delicious vegetarian lunch.  We will follow the same schedule at our retreat this month. 

In t...

Breaking news today: we are pleased to announce that Judy Roitman, JDPSN will visit Deming in January and lead a retreat.

JDPSN is the abbreviation for Ji Do Poep Sa Nim.  This is a title that was conferred by the late Zen Master Seung Sahn and now by his successors, when one receives "inka," the initial authorization as an independent Zen teacher.

Judy received inka from Zen Master Seung Sahn in 1998.  She is the Guiding Teacher of the Kansas Zen...

Meditation can help you develop ways to manage stress, but are you willing to examine where "stress" and "ease" come from in the first place?  The latter is the purpose of Zen meditation. What is stress?  What are the feelings and sensations you refer to as "stress?"  What are the thoughts that arise when you are feeling stressed?

Can you put your stress in a box and take it to the dumpster?  Why not?  Where is it?

...

Yesterday we hosted our first meditation retreat.  We are grateful to the St. Augustine Anglican Church here in Deming for letting us use their facility. 

There were five participants, three group regulars and two newcomers.  It was a very strong retreat, a day spent in silence as a group for several hours of walking and sitting meditation, a good vegetarian meal, working and resting together. 

Schedule and location for our fall retrea...

Last night, I was chatting with Tim, our neighbor across the street.  Among other things, he was curious about the meditation group.  At one point he narrowed his eyes and asked me in a voice wrought with suspicion, "What kind of meditation do you do?"

He did not need to hear much about the nuts and bolts of sitting meditation before he waved his hand and said, "Heck, I do that in front of the television every single night."  He was all done with the su...

[What is true independence?  Zen Master Seung Sahn presented Zen as a synthesis of the Confucian, Taoist, and Buddhist paths.  This excerpt from one of his talks is a clear example.]

In our world there are two styles of religion: depend-on-something religions, and become-independent religions. Western style religion has the idea of a God or something outside of us and tells us to believe in it 100%. We then follow something outside of ourselves. This is"oppo...

[Zen Master Seung Sahn]

In this world, cause and effect are very clear. Everything has a primary cause. If you understand it, and remove it, then the problem will also disappear. We can save money and send food over to Africa and India; that's okay. But many problems will remain. Taking away the primary cause is very important. It's like a game of pool. You hit the ball directly into the pocket, and that's one ball in the pocket. But the high-class technique is ...

[From a talk by Zen Master Seung Sahn]

True meditation comes from true cognition; true cognition comes from true meditation.

There are many schools of meditation in the United States. Some meditations use breathing awareness, some focus on sound, smell, vision, or body practices to build strong concentration. Very good feeling. This is "very good feeling" meditation, but it can miss the true way. Meditation can control anger and desire, and this feel...