Silent Illumination (Chinese: 黙照禅, pinyin: Mòzhào, Japanese: Shikantaza) is a principal meditation practice of the Cáodòng (曹洞, Soto) school of Chán (禪, Zen) Buddhism. It integrates both calming (śamatha) meditation and insight (vipaśyanā) meditation. Chan Master Sheng-yen described this as a practice that can take one the full way to enlightenment. Referred to as “the method of no method” or “just sitting”, it is extremely simple, natural and almost completely effortless, but amazingly rewarding and beneficial.

Chan (Zen) Chinese character

We will begin with “full awareness of breathing” Ānāpānasati (Pali; Sanskrit: ānāpānasmṛti), which provides an anchor, the rise and fall of the abdomen during natural breathing, on which to focus. Once the mind is settled and able to stay with the breath, we relax into a full awareness of sitting in our environment. This sets up the perfect condition for insight into the essential nature of our own awareness.

This initial offering will be over a four week period meeting on Thursday evenings at 6:00 PM Pacific. It will include brief instruction, short guided meditations, and discussion. It is suitable for people of all levels of experience, from beginners to advanced meditators. Please plan on practicing what is taught in this class for 20 - 30 minutes per day during the duration of the four weeks.

This is offered on a donation basis. To make a donation, please click the Donate button below.

IMPORTANT

• You need a Zoom account (free) because you will be required to login to Zoom to attend the meeting.

• You must first register to join these sessions. Register here:

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