Zazen
Learn proper meditation techniques and meditate in a group setting with a very experienced Zen monastic. Each of the sessions involves about an hour of meditation (both seated and walking) and about a half hour of discussion. Usually I provide some sort of starter issue for the discussion, but once underway, each session takes on a life of it’s own. Questions, responses, various kinds of sharing; all conspire to generate a friendly, accepting atmosphere which can help a lot for each person to develop a meaningful and useful meditation practice. It is practical, applied spirituality that interests me and perfumes my teaching and presentation.
Where: Victoria West Community Centre, 521 Craigflower Rd, Victoria.
Cost: There will be no charge, but a donation is requested.
Time: 6:45-7:45 pm Wednesday evenings.
Contact: To obtain further information, please contact Wayne Codling at upaya@madhyama.ca. Or phone 598-9945.
Who will benefit:
The primary benefit of a meditation practice is to help one establish and sustain a certain fidelity with one’s own deepest desires. It is this sense of fidelity which permits some stress, which many people harbour, to dissipate. It is an article of faith that only the meditating mind is a venue vast enough to permit the fullest, most refined expression of true you. Those who might feel somewhat disoriented with respect to any aspect of their lives will hopefully find new potential for stability, security and control. This is the function of the Middle Way – it is the mind of many possibilities. There’s an engaging irony at work here that I noticed often during my monastic training. It is the fact that individuality, especially as influenced by novel thoughts or insights, is most fully expressed in a collective setting with a higher level of conformity at work than we normally experience. It’s also an intrinsically pleasureable and satisfying social event.
Legacy of sustained practice of Zen Meditation:
-The correct techniques, both physical and mental, of the Zen style of meditation; with enough personal attention from a qualified instructor that each participant will be equipped to continue to meditate on their own.
-An experience of the Middle Way as a functioning, practical view point
-An enhanced sense of how to bring a Middle Way sensibility to everyday life.
The instructor: To the left is a photo of Wayne Codling, taken outside his cabin at Crestone, Colorado. Wayne will be the leader and facilitator of these meditation/discussion sessions. He is 77 years old and has spent the previous three decades deeply immersed in Zen practice as a student of the Beginner’s Mind teachings of the late Zen Master Shunryu Suzuki-roshi. Wayne’s monastic training took place at the San Francisco Zen Center in California with further experience in New Mexico and Colorado. Today he lives in Victoria, teaching zazen, illustrating its usefullness in a real world setting and serving individuals who want spiritual coaching. These sessions are not about Zen or Buddhism per se, but are certainly influenced thereby.
Soto Zen Victoria 