Monthly Mindfulness Practice Group
Our most popular regular offering
Offered monthly on 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.
Dharma Talk Saturdays
One Saturday a month, 8:30-9:45am CT. (Please check the calendar for the schedule.)
Join us
one Saturday a month for a public talk on a meditation-adjacent topic.
Come at 9:00 just for the talk, or come at 8:30 and join us for the sitting, too.
Here's our format:
8:30-9:00 Open, shared silent meditation
9:00 Non-boring Dharma talk
9:25 Questions and Discussion
9:45 End
Online via Zoom, free and open to the public, freewill offering by donation.
Drop-in, no registration required; all are welcome:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84846144748
Introduction to Zen Meditation class
Are you new to meditation or Zen Buddhism?
FCZ offers an Intro to Zen Meditation class by registration bimonthly on Saturday mornings,
from 9:45 – 10:45 a.m. CT via Zoom.
This beginner-friendly class focuses on the instructions for Zen meditation (zazen) and also includes some basic Buddhist principles to help us connect our meditation practice to our daily lives.
You are welcome to attend this Intro class as often you like, as the teaching parts vary from class to class.
This is an ongoing, drop-in class that is open to the public.
There is a suggested donation of $10-20.
Please see the website calendar for the upcoming dates.
NOTE: Registration at least three days in advance is required for this class so you have time to review some helpful material ahead of time.
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!
Check the calendar for the current schedule.
For registration, the Zoom link, and more information, just click the button to email the facilitator:
Fall/Winter Class
All Are Welcome Here
Fukanzazengi: Zen’s Original Meditation Instructions
Four Tuesdays, February 3-24, 6:00-7:30pm CST, via Zoom, $99
The Back Story
The great master Dogen famously wrote the following at the beginning of his essay Fukanzazengi (Universal Recommendations for Zen meditation):
“Reality is already perfect just as it is. How could it be accessed by or influenced through your meditation practice? Why waste your valuable time? Do you really believe that meditation is a way to clean your mind? How could it? For crying out loud, enlightenment is never apart from you, already, right where you are! What is the point of practicing meditation at all?”
(Okay, I paraphrased him a bit, but you get the gist, right?)
He then went on to answer his own question in the little essay that’s so beloved that it’s still chanted daily by Zen practitioners at temples and centers worldwide.
In other words, his question is a very good one.
His answer is even better, and his essay is a classic for a reason.
The Class
We’ll spend four weeks exploring this two-page text, and becoming familiar with all it has to offer us. It’s a love letter to Zen meditation, and its assertions about the necessity and power of zazen is striking. It’s both very detailed and very practical (i.e., posture instructions, what to wear), and also grand and lofty in the landscape of its inspiration (“Honored followers of Zen, do not be suspicious of the true dragon! Open your treasure store and use it at will!”).
Wow.
Fukanzazengi is a fun piece to explore, and you’ll have a much better understanding of how the Zen tradition sees meditation, and how you will see your own practice, when this class is finished.
Plus, it’s only two pages. How bad could it be?
PLEASE NOTE: As always, all are welcome to this friendly exploration. No deep knowledge of the Buddhist tradition is required. All of our explorations will be curious and thorough, and we’ll be able to speak to all levels of experience.
The Details
Class is six Tuesdays, 6:00-7:30pmCST, via Zoom. The fee is $149. Scholarships available upon request. No required text; all readings will be provided.
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.
It’s also absolutely okay to register the class only for the recordings.
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!
Half-day Retreats
Regularly on a Saturday, 9am-3pm,
in person in Eagan (formerly Aslan Institute) or at Episcopal House of Prayer, Collegeville
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.