Saturday, July 31, from 10-3:30, Wind-in-Grass is hosting a full day koan seminar in San Fransisco.  The website has more information, but here is a little more.  We realllllllllyyyy hope you can come.  This things are sort of viral and the more the merrier.  In the You Tube way, not the tuberculosis way. 

Saturday July 31, 2010:  Full Day Koan Seminar in San Fransisco
Koan Seminar
Koans are short stories, phrases, observations, or statements that stimulate awareness and awakening and free the mind.  At a koan seminar, we sit with a koan, and explore, live, how we are working with that koan, how it is expanding our consciousness and what walls it is breaking down.  Hearing how other people work with a koan can be revelatory and transforming. 

No experience is needed at all.  Koan seminars are extremely user friendly.  They are a great way to try mediation of koan practice for the first time, or to deepen your own practice.  For those of you new to Pacific Zen Institute, we are limited in the traditional formalities of Zen practice, translating it into modern San Francisco context, and making it approachable and welcoming to new practitioners.  That said, we are dedicated to our practice, and to freeing our minds from suffering. 

The theme for this koan seminar is vacations.  How we vacation.  What we vacate.  How we set aside the rest of our life.  How we balance work and life. 
David Weinstein
David Weinstein Roshi David Weinstein is a Zen teacher for the Pacific Zen institute.  He is the senior teacher at Wind-in-Grass in San Francisco, as well as leading the Oakland and San Jose Pacific Zen Institute zen groups.  He is  a gentle and progressive zen teacher, pushing the boundaries of traditional koan practice, and opening Zen up to a wider audience in the United States. 

If you want a sample, here are some of David's previous talks given at Wind-in-Grass and in Oakland.
Program: 10-10:15: A welcome to the retreat, followed by an introduction to seated meditation and koan practice. 

10:15:-12:00: Koan practice.  Intervals of 25 minute periods of seated meditation, followed by group discussion of the koan.

12:00-1:00: A vegetarian lunch and a chance to get to know each other better and enjoy the Potrero Hill sunshine. 

1:00-1:30-  Tai Chi

1:30-3:30:  Koan practice and discussion. 
Sign up!
Signing up is easy.  Just follow this link to the PZI main site to register there.  In the alternative, send an email to Michael Kallus at warnerkallus@hotmail.com and express your interest.  Even if you cannot commit 100%, just knowing you are thinking about it will allow us to prepare for the lunch and know approximately how many cushions to put out. 

There are scholarships available, both from PZI and from Wind-in-Grass.  Interest, not money, is the only limitation you should face- so just drop a note and we will make sure you can attend.