Winter 2023 Practice Period at City Center: Residential, 1/24 - 4/1

Practice Center
Date / Time
Jan 24, 2023 / 7:30pm - Apr 1, 2023 / 6:00pm
Event Type
Practice Periods
Description

To Study the Buddha Way Is to Study the Self

“To study the Buddha way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self.” —Eihei Dogen

In the turmoil of these times, it’s hard not to lose ourselves in preoccupation with the tragedies of the world and our personal struggles. To “sit in the middle” of all that life presents and experience what’s happening, is the essence of Zen practice. Yet to do so, we often need to discover how to pause, contact what’s being experienced, and study the thoughts and feelings of that being. Then we can pick up life’s issues again but with the insight that our dramas are not the whole story. That is, to realize it’s possible to relate to life’s challenges as a teaching on how to be more fully alive and engage all beings. Sustaining the intention to be present in this way awakens the Heart of the Buddha Way.

In many ways the emphasis of early Buddhist teachings is to discover, through experiential learning, how to cultivate the capacity for awareness. That awareness has both depth and breadth. The depth of concentration and the breadth of bringing awareness to internal and external expressions of being human. Awareness gives rise to virtuous behavior, insightful wisdom, and a yogic capacity to align the activity of body/mind with the attributes of virtue and wisdom.

Teachings such as the Seven Factors of Awakening describe how to cultivate awareness. Other early teachings describe the cultivation and practice of virtue and wisdom. In the practice period class, I plan to unpack some of these teachings and the process of addressing these teachings to point out how they are the basis of the Zen practice of experientially realizing the Buddha Way.

This is a traditional intensive training period common in the schools of Buddhism. Participants can engage in this training period in one of two ways; this page is for Residential participation:

Residential (this page): Move in and live at City Center and follow the daily schedule. Application deadline: December 16.
NOTE: Residential participants are expected to arrive on Monday, January 23, and depart on Sunday, April 2, unless other arrangements are made.


Visitor/Online: Visit City Center for practice period events, or participate online, as you choose. Registration deadline: January 22, 2023

Onsite participation is open to residential and visitor participation; Covid Health and Safety Guidelines for City Center's congregant living environment will apply.

About the Winter 2023 Practice Period

The practice period will begin with an orientation, available both onsite and livestreamed, at 7:30 pm PT on Tuesday, January 24.

Ryushin Paul Haller will teach a class on the practice period topic, both online and onsite, on Mondays, January 30 – March 20, 7:30 – 9 pm PT. The class on March 13 will be online only as City Center is closed on that Monday. The fee for the class is included in the practice period fees and does not require separate registration.

All practice offerings are included in the residential option. This includes two Saturday one-day sittings on January 28 and February 18, and a concluding seven-day sesshin beginning the evening of Saturday, March 25 and ending on Saturday, April 1. Also included are residential small discussion groups, and access to the Online Portal for curricula and recordings of all the classes and Dharma talks.

Fee Information


These fees include residency, meals, and all practice offerings.

Full Schedule Resident / WPA: Includes full-time work practice at City Center

  • $2,829

Limited Schedule Resident: Not working at City Center

  • $4,105

For payment of residential participation fees, information will be provided with notice of acceptance into the practice period.

Registration Information


Please review:

Deadline for residential applications is December 16.  The application will not be available after this date.