Classes and Groups
Upcoming offerings to connect you to practice and community
Classes on meditation, Zen, and contemplative spirituality are offered throughout the year.
Monthly Mindfulness Practice Group
Our most popular regular offering!
Offered every month on a Saturday, 9:00-11:30am, via Zoom
Check the calendar for the current schedule.
Appropriate for beginners and experienced meditators alike, our monthly drop-in group features meditation, teaching, experiential, and group discussion. It's an informal gathering that explores basic mindfulness and self-awareness practices in a "lightly-Zen" (mostly secular/spiritual) sense. There's usually around a dozen of us, and it's usually a combo of more experienced folks and pretty new folks. We usually start and end with a short, silent sitting. We have a theme/teaching portion, and an exercise or two designed to help us see something we might not otherwise. Bring a journal or notebook.
Each group is recorded, and the link sent to all participants as a resource to revisit later if desired.
A relaxed a friendly atmosphere, perfect for exploration.
Suggested donation $30-40.
No registration required; all are welcome!
For the Zoom link, click here.
Upcoming Spring Class
ZEN X: The Power of the Question
Six Tuesdays, April 15 – May 20, 6:00-7:30pm CT, via Zoom, $149
The Back Story
It’s been said that at its heart, genuine spiritual practice is a search for Truth.
The tradition of Buddhism started with a single question: “What is this?”
Via self-inquiry and self-exploration, Zen explores the nature of human life, human suffering, and Reality itself. Before its institutionalization, Zen existed outside of monasteries, temples, and liturgical expression. It was a practice that centered around self-examination and deep questioning. There was no established structure for training, only the questions that arose from the students’ hearts, minds, and lives. My own teacher said many times, “No question, no awareness.” From its creation, Zen has embraced the questions, and applauded the insight, courage, and receptivity that it takes to ask them.
Simply put, to become aware, we must ask.
The Class
So, here’s your chance embrace your curious student, remember your Beginner’s Mind, and ask those questions!
In this class, your questions will decide what we explore together.
We’ll start each class with a short period of meditation, then open it up to whomever has a question and go from there. None of us will know what will arise and be discussed, so it’s a blind date with Zen, an open forum, no net.
Practical everyday life applications for all the teachings will be discussed in class and sent out afterward via email, along with any resources or references that might be useful to you.
During our six weeks together, participants will be encouraged to ask their questions about meditation and Zen Buddhism, but also about their experience of life, including their pains and fears.
Importantly, we'll also explore the relationship between asking questions and discernment; what questions are; finding the question under the question; and discovering how and why we ask the questions that we ask.
Together, we’ll feel our way into meeting our questions; sometimes with discussion, sometimes with teachings, sometimes with exercises… but always with acceptance and empathy.
PLEASE NOTE: All are welcome to this friendly exploration.
No deep knowledge of the Zen tradition is required. Because there are no bad questions, all of our explorations will be curious and thorough, and we’ll be able to speak to all levels of experience.
This class would be a great jumping-on place for newer folks!
The Details
Class is six Tuesdays, April 15 – May 20, 6:00-7:30pmCT, via Zoom.
The fee is $149. Scholarships available upon request.
A commitment to a daily meditation practice is requested.
No required text; all readings will be provided.
NOTE: All classes and course content will be recorded, so non-sequential learning and distance attendance are both possible and encouraged.
You won’t miss anything!
The Reminder
People care about this beautiful and suffering world. They do it most powerfully and most directly by caring for their own precious inner lives. Walking the spiritual path is still a choice people make; a loving response to the human condition that people still choose. This will be a gentle, sincere, unique, and collective inquiry, and will help us develop creative day-to-day mindfulness practices so that we more deeply experience and appreciate our precious and fleeting lives.
Please join us and spread the ripple by bringing a friend!
Monthly Book Study Group
The FCZ Book Study Group meets once a month on a Saturday, 9:30-10:30amCT, immediately after the Saturday Meditation Community. A welcoming and curious atmosphere, perfect for newcomers and experienced folks alike.
Co-lead by our own Leah and Joan. Please join us!
For registration, the Zoom link, and more information, just click the button to email the facilitator.
Retreats
Deepen your practice with these immersions in silence.
Half-day Retreats
Regularly on a Saturday, 9am-3pm,
in person at Aslan Institute
Our silent Half-day Meditation Retreats are six hours in length and feature sitting meditation, walking meditation, a short dharma teaching talk, and the option of meeting one-to-one with the teacher.
Appropriate for beginners and experienced contemplatives alike, these simple retreats are user-friendly, restorative, and often profound.
$40/person
Check the calendar for the next one and join us to discover what a big difference a few short hours of silence can make.