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 Winter Class
Disappearing Into Joy:
The Graceful Teachings of the Zen Liturgy
Six Tuesdays, January 14 – February 18, 6:00-7:30pm CT, via Zoom.
$139 (early registration, before January 1) or $159 (standard rate)
The Back Story
Soon after China’s cultural acceptance and embrace of Zen Buddhism, the solo-meditation-focused tradition began developing into a proper religion, including monasteries, temples, and liturgical expression.
But unlike most other religious services, the liturgy in Zen is not primarily focused on specific beliefs, morals, ethical guidelines, or the afterlife. Instead, it’s a series of teachings about the nature of human life and Reality itself, as well as expressing our loftiest aspirations for how to life a life of non-violence, compassion, and wisdom for the sake of all living things.
It's gorgeous! And because it’s not intended for one specific culture, gender, faith, or even belief system, it’s open to all, and all are welcome to participate in expressing it.
The Class
Although there are many variations on the liturgy in the Soto Zen tradition, there is a standard core that most all of them include and express in some way. This is the service that Flying Cloud Zen does as a community on Saturdays. Because the meaning and implications of these ancient liturgical verses aren’t immediately clear, this class will explore the many reference points, intentions, and depths of teachings that they contain.
Our six weeks together will be arranged in the progression of the service, all of which center around expressing our shared devotion to living as embodied enlightenment and love:
1. Intro to Zen liturgy; the teaching of Karma
2. The Three Refuges
3. The Four Bodhisattva Vows
4. The Heart Sutra, pt. I
5. The Heart Sutra, pt. II
6. Dedication and Aspiration
PLEASE NOTE: All are welcome to this friendly exploration. No knowledge of the service or of Zen is required. Because the material the service explores is foundational to mediation and Zen practice, this class would be a great jumping on place for newer folks.
The Details
Class is six Tuesdays, January 14 – February 18, 6:00-7:00pmCT, via Zoom.
The fee is $139 (registering with a friend, or early registration before January 1) or $159 (standard rate). 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. And after more than 2,500 years, 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 bring 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.