Exploring Impermanence (Shinzen Young)

AgainstTheStream.org; Seth Auberon, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly 

Former Buddhist monk and (possibly) enlightened teacher Shinzen Young is set to lead a workshop on impermanence (anicca), a pivotal meditation subject with the power to release us from our bonds in an instant -- given sufficient concentration (jhana): Absorption first, insight later.

  

There are two sides to impermanence -- the sobering reality and the blissful energy. The sobering reality is that everything passes. [It is not important that it will eventually fade away so much as its radical moment-by-moment transformation and instability.] So to pin your happiness on any person, object, or situation is to set yourself up to suffer sooner or later. 

   

From this perspective anicca (flux) is linked to dukkha (the unsatisfactory nature of life). But from another point of view, impermanence is movement, and movement reflects an underlying Force. By focusing on the way consciousness changes, we can come in contact its wave nature.

   

From this perspective, flux is linked to prana (chi, life force, breath, spiritus, the "holy spirit") -- the ebullient energy of life.

The emphasis in this workshop will be experiential, centering around Shinzen's “Focus on Flow” technique. Themes we will explore include:

• impermanence as a purifying energy
• impermanence as an integrating force
• impermanence as a link between form and formlessness
• impermanence as a source of life vitality.

In preparation for this program, please read or review the following from Shinzen Young’s manual “Five Ways to Know Yourself,” Introduction to Basic Mindfulness (pp. 7-17) and The Way of Flow (Chp. 4, pp. 51-64).

  

Also skim the Posture-pedia article regarding options for posture (if you haven’t done so already).

 

Exploring Impermanence: A Workshop with Shinzen Young

Sunday, Sept. 23rd, 9:30 am-5:30 pm, Santa Monica

• Sliding Scale: $35 -$65 plus dana to the teacher. Please pay at the highest level you can afford.
• Scholarships and work-study available (contact for info).
  • NO ONE IS EVER TURNED AWAY FOR LACK OF FUNDS.
  • REGISTER
  • 1001a Colorado Ave, Santa Monica, 90401
  • Please bring a brown bag lunch.

Shinzen Young became fascinated with Asian culture while a teenager in Los Angeles. Later he enrolled in the Ph.D. program in Buddhist Studies at the University of Wisconsin. Eventually, he went to Asia and did extensive monastic training in each of the three major Buddhist meditative traditions: Theravada (vipassana), Vajrayana (Tibetan Mahayana), and Zen. His specialty is linking Eastern internal science and Western experiential/technological science. More information can be found at shinzen.org and basicmindfulness.org.