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:
8:30-8:55 Open, shared silent meditation
8:55 Break
9:00 Opening chant and 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.
Please use the button:
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:
Summer Class
The Noble Eightfold Path:
Buddha’s Prescription for Awakening
Six Tuesdays, July 8 – August 12, 6:00-7:30pm CT, via Zoom, $189
The Back Story
Back to the very beginnings!
At the core of all expressions of the Buddhist tradition, we can always find the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path.
We’ve explored the Four Truths here at FCZ, but we have yet to do a deeper dive into the Eightfold Path.
The Eightfold Path is a summary of the path of practices leading to liberation from suffering.
It consists of eight components: right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right samadhi (equanimous meditative awareness).
Its structured invitation to thorough self-examination has been helping people evolve and awaken for 2500 years, and it’s as relevant and useful now as ever.
The Class
Okay, this description sounds kind of dry, I admit it.
Some folks really go in for this kind of thing, but others think it sounds like it’s about rules and being good instead of having fun, and it’ll be boring and judgmental and churchy.
So, I promise that this class will indeed have boring moments, but it won’t be about rules, and it won’t be judgmental or churchy. Instead, it’s actually a very cool tool to aid us in living a fully human life with fully awakened intent.
So, this class will be a dynamic dive into the adventure that is the Eightfold Path, and it’ll be interesting because it’s about your favorite subject: YOU.
As always, the 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 time together, participants will be encouraged to ask questions, share insights, and connect the class material to the experience of everyday life.
Together, we’ll feel our way into meeting the Noble Eightfold Path; 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 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.
This class would be a great jumping-on place for newer folks!
The Details
Class is six Tuesdays, July 8 – August 12, 6:00-7:30pmCT, via Zoom.
The fee is $189. 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 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!
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.