The Palo Alto Swing Dance

Saturday, March 5, 2016 from 6:30 PM to 10:00 PM (PST)

Lucie Stern Community Center (Ballroom)
1305 Middlefield Road.
Lucie Stern Ballroom.
Palo Alto, CA 94301

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This is the inaugural Palo Alto Swing Dance hosted by the Gunn High School Music Department. The dance will have live music for the entire event provided by the Gunn Jazz Bands. All proceeds will go to the Gunn High School music program.

Each ticket includes group swing dance lessons with Nick Enge and Melissa Carvell, light food, and non-alcoholic drinks throughout the evening. Please print your ticket and bring it to the event.
No dancing experience necessary! Adults 21 and over please.

Cost: $40


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Fearless Relating: One-Day Intensive Workshop

Saturday, March 12, 2016 from 10:30 AM to 5:30 PM (PST)

Fruitopia
1080 23rd Avenue
Oakland, CA 94601

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Photo by Thomas Barbey

Come join us in Oakland as two top teachers in the fields of sexuality, vulnerability, and self-acceptance weave their diverse perspectives into a daylong intensive. Come and benefit from the blending of their unique experiences, approaches, and insights regarding skillful communication to get to your no without fear to uncover your yes, releasing your armor and becoming more vulnerable to discover an inner strength you did not know you have, and the ability to laugh in the face of your greatest fears.

If you could have anything, do anything, what would you choose? What do you really want? What is keeping you from having it? Is someone else better qualified? Better looking? More financially stable? Do you have “problems”? What if every limit you have, every chain that binds you, is only there because you believe it is? What if the limits disappear, the chains dissolve? Your life is alive with an abundance of possibilities, opportunities, and potential all you have to do is be willing to say "yes".

Come join us for a unique day of exploration around such topics as:
*How do we establish boundaries and create safe space for ourselves to explore with others?
*Shifting paradigms from blame, shame, guilt & judgement, to love, acceptance, understanding and presence.
*Factors that promote or inhibit intimacy:
*The power of no and boundary (understand why your “no” says more about you than your “yes”)

In this workshop you will learn, play, and practice:
* To ask for what you want, skillfully, without attachment to the response.
* To honor, respect, and be grateful for the answer “no”, and still be hopeful for the answer “yes”.
* To be honest and vulnerable about your wants and desires without shame, without deflection, without armor.
* To hold space for someone who has not yet learned these skills.
* To own your fears, instead of them owning you.
* To be not afraid to be the one who loves the most
* To learn to be even more vulnerable when you want to isolate or close down.
* Release shame and haunting memories
* Modalities of communication: verbal and non-verbal

Cost: $71.72 – $102.47


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Essential Oils 101 Foot Massage and Hug exchange

Saturday, March 5, 2016 at 7 PM - 11 PM

Intrahealth
21020 Homestead Rd # B,
Cupertino, CA

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What? Why? Well, why not. Aromatherapy coupled with massage and warm hugs. In one night!? We say, yes! Are we crazy? Of course we are, but we also want to share a few amazing things that we believe will benefit your wellness. You can thank us later!

Evening will start with a free Essential Oils presentation from 7-8:30 pm. We will try to reach gender balance as usual. Then, stay with us for a nice foot massage, using essential oil creams, of course and get ready to snuggle.

Cost: $15.


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Intimacy Magic Tantra - Featured Workshop

Saturday, March 5, 2016 from 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM (PST)

Los Gatos Acupuncture and Qigong Center
761 University Avenue
Los Gatos, CA 95032

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This is a second workshop on Tantra, arranged by Kailani and Matt in Los Gatos Acupuncture and Qigong Center. The first workshop has had a great success, and this event is highly recommended for all the people who would like to enhance their spiritual life, engage in funny, sensual, and rewarding activities, and connect with likely-minded individuals.

Intimacy Magic Tantra Workshop an experiential opportunity for you to experience deep connection with yourself and others for greater presence, pleasure and awareness while being in a safe container. You will let go of things that prevent you from being fully presence through active release practices, increase your vitality by moving the energy so you can drop deeper into your own body, heart and spirit. And from that place of contentment and peace in yourself, you will be guided into connection with others through a serious of playful exercises in conscious embodiment, communication, breath, sound and energetic connection.

There will be no nudity and all the exercises are only an invitation to explore. You are welcome to step aside and observe. Please know that even though I will do my best to gender balance the group, you might end up working with a person of your own gender. All the touch we are going to share is of non-sexual nature and you can always say No Thank You. But please know that you might be in a group with people of your gender or even paired up with someone of your own gender.

Couples and singles are welcome. Couples can stay together if they choose to, though it can be beneficial to connect with others at least for some portion of the workshop.

We highly recommend preregistering as the event is likely to sell out.

Cost: $28-$35


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Symbiosis Gathering 2016

September 22 - 25, 2016 (Thursday – Sunday)

Woodward Reservoir Regional Park,
Oakdale, California, United States

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When it comes to the alternative-reality, anything-goes festival circuit, Burning Man tends to get all the attention. But Symbiosis, which was “born from Burner culture,” positions itself as a purer, more curated version of the bohemia-fest.

Different Every Year

Founded in 2005 with its first event, taking place in Santa Cruz, California, the gathering has changed locations several times in its decade-long history, though it took a two-year hiatus from 2010 to 2011 with a year off in 2014 as well. Through this process, it’s embraced its migratory nature, having moved from its origin in the Santa Cruz mountains to Angels Camp, then to Yosemite National Park, after that to Pyramid Lake and finally to its current location at Woodward Reservoir. The festival has also been held during different months of the year, giving it even more variety. While each installation is connected in spirit and ethos, each year always has its own distinct identity.

For fest-goers who want to have an eco-conscious experience and meet like-minded people rooted in a sustainable ethos, Symbiosis is an ideal hub. In addition to art, performance, creativity, and music, there’s a heavy emphasis on earth-consciousness. While other festivals may have a green aspect as an afterthought or sideshow, the organizers of Symbiosis describe their mission as seeking to “provide a space for the fusion of aesthetics, sound, and natural living, in an atmosphere of interactive co-creation.”

The environmental consciousness goes way beyond just food (which of course is all organic) and recycling—attendees can get involved in many eco-initiatives, and organizers invite Native American people who live nearby to make sure that traditions and ecological heritage are respected.

Not Just another Burning Man

So how is Symbiosis different from Burning Man? Well, while Burning Man is the ultimate destination at which to try all the things society might shun—radical exuberance, substances, unfettered creativity, youthfulness, and just plain weirdness—Symbiosis, though it also embraces those things, aims to create an atmosphere that weeds out some of the riffraff that a festival the scale of Burning Man inevitably attracts. With just several thousand attendees as opposed to Burning Man’s tens of thousands, Symbiosis is far more intimate and mindful. But similar to Burning Man, there are no sponsorships, for-profit commerce, or brands in sight, which means attendees can take a rare break from capitalism. Instead, there's an alternative marketplace where sharing, cooperation, and collaboration are key and people of all stripes feel welcome.

A Quirkier Lineup

The latest installation of Symbiosis (its 10-year reunion) was held at the same location as its 2013 event. It featured more than 200 acts on four main stages, with musical genres veering away from mainstream EDM, instead favoring more experimental, alternative acts including Nicholas Jaar, Shpongle, Emancipator Ensemble, and Griz. Add in the Fungineers , the Vau de Vire Society , and Bubble Gutter  foran even quicker, entertaining time.

Without any major, big-name acts, the ticket price (around $300) can feel steep for the five-day festival. However, in addition to the music, there are many workshops, art projects, lectures, yoga classes, and alternative performances and experiences. And the Woodward Reservoir itself presents a popular activity—take a fresh dip in the lake between sets and activities to take in nature’s beauty.

While there are a few complaints about less-than-efficient organization, veteran attendees most frequently rave about the stages at Symbiosis Gathering, which, in addition to serving as the performances' backdrop, are art installations in and of themselves. With music going into the night, there’s nothing better than dancing until the sun comes up amid stunning manmade and natural scenery. This is a truly a place to let your spirit run free.

Cost: $245 (early bird pricing)





Pilgrim: An evening of entertainment through time, space and the heart

Sunday, February 28, 2016 at 7 PM - 11 PM

The Jewel Box,
2509 Myrtle St.,
West Oakland, CA

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Pilgrim is an experiential evening blending performances of David Whyte’s poetry, music, dance, and transformational travel stories told by you and your peers. Spanish tapas will be served to accompany your vicarious voyage of self-discovery. We will finish off the evening with a dance party to music with a world beat.

Pilgrim:
1: one who journeys in foreign lands
2: one who travels to a shrine or holy place as a devotee
3: one who takes a metaphorical journey into their own beliefs

::: Schedule for the Evening :::
7:00pm: Doors open and tapas are served until they are gone (hint: get there on time!)
7:30pm: First set of readings, stories and music
8:30pm: Intermission
9:00pm: Second set of readings, stories and music
10:00pm: Dance Party

Cost: $12 in advance; $17 at the door


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Working with Trauma: an exploration with Clinical Herbalist, Sarah Holmes

Sunday, February 28, 2016 from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM (PST)

Five Flavors Herbs
344 40th Street
Oakland, CA 94609

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In this class, we will explore how trauma impacts a person physically, emotionally and spiritually. What are some short and long-term issues? How do we identify and unwind these patterns? How do we get the root of the pattern? Treatment approaches and herbs for addressing these issues will be covered.

Sarah's work focuses on the interconnectedness of mind, and spirit as well as the dynamic interchange between people and plants. She enjoys working with clients and students to open them to these concepts on both obvious and subtle levels. Sarah also runs, in partnership with Karyn Sanders, the Blue Otter School of Herbal Medicine and a weekly radio program on KPFA, The Herbal Highway.

Cost: $45 - $60


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Free Unconditional Love Picnic at Dolores Park!

Sunday, February 28, 2016 at 1 PM - 4 PM

Dolores Park
19-th & Dolores Street,
San Francisco, California 94114

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Free Food -Meditation - Drum Circle - Yoga - Healing
What better way,
To Spend this Day,
Than finding many lovers, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers,
Celebrating UNCONDITIONAL LOVE!

We'll have Teachers Leading Yoga
We'll have sound healers a'healin
We'll have Drums and Instruments Galore!
We'll Have Free Organic Food.
We'll bring the ViiiiBBeeess

Cost: Free


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Yoga and Nutrition for Spring Workshop in San Francisco

Saturday, February 27, 2016 at 1:30 PM - 4:00 PM

Yoga Garden SF
286 Divisadero St.
San Francisco, CA 94117

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Are the winter months leaving you feeling dull and dense? Are you determined to stick with your New Year’s Resolution to eat healthier and stay active?

Join certified nutrition consultant and yoga instructor, Elaine Oyang, to break free from winter hibernation, shed old layers, and welcome a new cycle of life - in nature and in yourself. In this workshop, we will explore seasonal nutrition and yoga sequences for Spring that decongest and re-energize the body.


You will learn:
- Why diet and lifestyle should be adjusted seasonally
- How nature provides the appropriate foods for detoxification and decongestion in the Spring
- Specific yoga poses suitable for Spring to increase blood and lymphatic circulation
- Meal plan and goal-setting tools to incorporate new habits into your lifestyle

We will practice gentle asana so please bring a mat and wear comfortable clothes. Complete the workshop with a customized yoga sequence, a sample meal plan for the Spring, and a deeper connection with Nature.

Cost: $45

Special Meditation Class in Palo Alto

Saturday, February 27, 2016 from 1:30 PM to 2:30 PM (PST)

Cubberley Community Center,
Room A6 - 4000
Middlefield Road,
Palo Alto, CA

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Learn to meditate. Live in joy. Live in love. Beginners Welcome.

The Benefits of Meditation Can Include:
• Focus on the present
• Build skills to manage your stress
• Increase self-awareness
• Reduce negative emotion
• Increase productivity
• Encourage creative problem solving

What Will the Class Consist of?

Each class is different depending on whether there are new students and/or returning students. For new students, you will learn a few simple and powerful meditation techniques that you can start using them right away after this class. We will also practice these meditation techniques in class. For returning students, you will learn a new topic in each class related to meditation and mindfulness practice. There will also be time for questions and answers.

Cost: General: $10; Students: $5.

Love Laugh Yoga

Saturday, February 27, 2016 from 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM (PST)

236 East Campbell Avenue
Campbell, CA 95008

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End the most romantic month of the year by stepping into the doorway to possibly the most romantic year of your life! Meet and bond with a partner through breathe, touch and posture; guiding and supporting each other in a creative and playful journey. Socialize throughout the evening with drinks, treats, and music (DJ Steve Mostly)

Cost: $20

Donations and a portion of the profits will be given to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society


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Free Services at Annual Wellness Day in San Jose

Saturday, February 27, 2016 from 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM

Eternal Health & Wellness
1066 Saratoga Avenue. #100.
San Jose, CA 95129

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You are invited to celebrate the Annual Wellness Day, marking a Chinese New Year. Start the year Off with Good Health. Join Us and Enjoy for FREE:   
* Delicious Chinese Food and Tea Tasting
* LED Fine Line Mask Facial, Lipo Light Body Contouring
* Meet and network with like-minded people
* Learn natural way to Relieve Stress, Pain, Increase Energy
* Zero Gravity Massage & ZyTo Nutrition Test
* Acugraph Energy Balance Testing
* Infrared Sauna Detox
* Enter to win a wellness spa package (Valued: $1500)

Cost: Free


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No Pants Party in San Francisco

Thursday, February 25, 2016 at 9:00 PM - Friday, February 26, 2016 at 2:00 AM (PST)

Harlot
46 Minna Street
San Francisco, CA 94105

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No Pants Party welcomes Sabo for a spectacle of pantless wonder. Well known on the festival circuit as a choice selector, Sabo brings a deep love for dance music that permeates the floor and transports one and all into a lush jungle of sound. His legendary sets with fellow mood setter Goldcap have earned him the reputation as a DJ who can play from sundown to sunrise and far beyond.

As you are preparing yourself mentally and physically for this rare occasion, remember that No Pants Party is a feeling. Bare your heart as well as your legs. Embrace your inner child as well as your sparkly sex god(dess).

Where there is a will there is a way and there are a lot of ways to do it right! Kilts, kaftans, and kimonos are all wonderful options to celebrate the glory of No Pants. Release yourself from the oppression of trousers. Let go your zippers, seams, and rigid jeans. Embrace the freedom and make it your own.

No Pants are the best pants!

Cost: $10 without pants, $20 if you insist on wearing pants


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Free Family Constellations Workshop in San Jose!

Saturday, February 27, 2016 @ 4:45 PM to 7:00 PM

Community of Infinite Spirit
1540 Hicks Avenue,
San Jose, CA (edit map)

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When we have tried to change something and have not been successful, it is often because it is serving a purpose for our Family System. It is impossible to understand and heal this unless we are able to “see the entanglements” in our Family System. We are able to do this through the Family Constellation.

Doing a Family Constellation can help you in many ways! For example, it can help you with:
* Your personal relationships
* Your professional life
* Your health
* To take an important decision
* To understand a specific situation
* To be successful and have abundance

Come and join us in the meeting of the New Family Constellations! You do not need prior experience with Family Constellations to join.

In this meeting, we will first have a small introduction and then we will continue with an exercise where everyone will be able to participate, learn and benefit. Then we will do one or two constellations. It is not necessary for your family to be present to do a Family Constellation. The other participants will represent the members of your family needed to do a constellation. The less they know about your family, the better.

Family Constellations is a therapeutic method that brings out hidden dynamics in a family or group so that they can be healed. Once the root causes of present-day difficulties are brought out in the open, they can be put back in order. This method can help people "unblock" unseen reasons that have been keeping them from finding a partner, starting a family, getting or keeping a good job, illness, addictions and more. It can also help break personal or family patterns have restricted people from having the kind of life they want.

Cost: Free


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Body & Soul - Movement / Music / Ritual

Sunday, February 28, 2016 from 7:30 PM to 9:30 PM (PST)

The Center SF
548 Fillmore St
San Francisco, CA 94117

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"Elevate your vibe. Meet your tribe."

You belong here.

Women are craving a place to feel free and connect to our bodies, souls... and a community of like-minded women.

Body & Soul is an inclusive and enlivening experience for you if you want to:
* live a healthier, more holistic or conscious lifestyle
* feel comfortable and confident in your body
* feel free to express yourself
* feel more connected to your femininity
* connect to a group of women who will raise you up.

In this class, you will learn how to exude a magnetic feminine presence through yoga, meditation, sensual dance and women's circle elements.
 
You will get a chance to explore your body from the inside-out.  This is about feeling good... damn good.
The modern, sensual and enlivening music will help to wake up the part of you that is craving to feel expressed and alive in your body and spirit.  You will learn new ways of moving to help you embody confidence and trust your intuition. 

We will open and close with an intimate women's circle, group discussion and time for connection. The guided conversation will give you a safe space to be yourself and be heard. You will leave feeling liberated, fulfilled, and empowered with a new friends you can call sisters.

Note: You do not need prior yoga/dance/circle experience to attend. Women only!

Cost: $22 - $28


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Creative Music Therapy and Clinical Improvisation

February 27-28, 2016 (Saturday – Sunday)

California Institute of Integral Studies
1453 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94103

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An intimate connection exists in music between composition and improvisation. Both use similar structural resources, such as formal procedures of harmonic progression, melodic construction, and rhythmic order. Composition, however, is free from any demands of immediacy, whereas improvisation is the creation of music in the moment and from moment to moment-composed in the living now.

To practice "creative music therapy" is to live at the threshold of artistic and developmental potential. It invites therapists to trust music-making-"music-ing"-as a means of reaching out and searching within, and as an instrument of clinical research. Learn how intuition determines the clinical approach and inspiration for using music in therapy, the significance of the quality of expression achieved, and the importance of order in its form.

Cost: $240/$260/$280


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Kind Awareness: Listening with the Body

Saturdays, February 27, 2016 @ 10am to 4pm

The San Francisco Buddhist Center
37 Bartlett Street
San Francisco, CA  94110

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How much do we really pay attention to what is happening, rather than our thoughts about what is happening? Thoughts and stories are useful for all kinds of things, but if we mistake them for reality, we will feel disconnected from our experience, from the world around us, and from other people.

Listening to, and with, the body we can reconnect with our actual experience and free ourselves from much of the craving, aversion and delusion that prevents us from being satisfied with our lives. On this day retreat, we explore ways to stay in contact with the body's wisdom and expand our capacity to turn towards what arises with kindness.

These monthly day retreats offer an opportunity to experience a retreat without leaving the city. Topics vary but usually include meditation and discussion around a particular topic. April 30 workshop will be led by a visiting teacher, Nagapriya, who has is specialized on the karma related topics.

Cost: $75 ($35 low income), or whatever you can afford.

Women's Full Moon Ceremony: Empowering Intentions

Sunday, February 21, 2016 at 6 PM - 9:30 PM

Hidden Villa
26870 Moody Rd,
Los Altos Hills, California 94022

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Join us as we come together monthly as women to heal, rest, share, learn, replenish, be nourished and nurtured. We will gather to share wisdom and inspiration, to explore nurturing feminine energy and creativity. We will create a safe and warm space where we can share, learn, open and renew. Please bring a warm blanket, lots of layers of clothing for part of the evening we are outside, a journal, flashlight, and some homemade food to share. We will share a feast, fire ceremony (if it is not a spare the air day), sharing circle, healing rituals and ceremonies, sometimes dancing and lots more.

Women only!

Cost: $25


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RELEASE - Tending To Our Dancing Bodies

Sunday, February 21, 2016 from 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM (PST)

Presidio Performing Arts Center
386 Moraga Ave @ Arguello Blvd.
Presidio.
San Francisco, CA 94129

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We dance for joy and well-being, yet the physicality of our movements can stress the body in harmful ways. Dancers often mention trouble with their hips, knees, feet, back, neck and shoulders.

This afternoon is devoted to developing skillful ways to keep our bodies in motion with support and fluidity. We will use balls, rollers, power and stretch with our dancing practice to make real changes in muscle and fascia. Instead of pushing through pain, we will tend to our bodies both before and as we dance. These skills offer long-term health on and off the dance floor.

A Gabrielle Roth 5Rhythms Waves workshop is the foundation of the entire body of 5Rhythms work in which we expand our class work with a deepened physical expression and knowledge of the essential 5Rhythms and their polarities.

No prerequisites required.

Cost: $59


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Movement Medicine: "Chaste" Full Moon Dance ~ Celebrating Simplicity, Innocence & Joy

Friday, February 19, 2016 at 7:30 PM - 10 PM

Menlo Pilates & Yoga
1011 El Camino Real,
Menlo Park, California 94025

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A Movement to get Silicon Valley Women & Men moving into REAL LIVE COMMUNITY through Movement, MetaSkills Workshops (integrating Right Brain with Left), Women's Collective circles & feminine spirituality practices - as well as mindful self-care.

Dancing w/o the drugs, alcohol and groping... oh and shoes.

Parking in rear is limited - ONLY park in spots labeled "Menlo Pilates". Watch street signs. Plenty of parking in Downtown Menlo Park parking lots.

Cost: $12-$20 (sliding scale)


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Free One-day Chinese Zen Meditation Retreat (All Levels, Lunch Provided)

Saturday, February 20, 2016 @ 8:45 AM to 5:00 PM

Dharma Drum Mountain Chan/Zen Meditation Center
255 H Street,
Fremont, CA

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This is the first of the three hands-on Chan Meditation Learning Series in 2016, Practicing Chan with the Essential Fundamentals, which sets a solid foundation for Gilbert’s subsequent teachings for you to become introduced to more advanced methods of Chan practice, such as Silent Illumination (2 of 3 on 4/22 & 4/23) and Huatou (3 of 3 on 9/16 & 9/17.) With these Learning Series, you will discover which of the methods you have the greatest affinity with, and it can become your core practice in daily life.

For this first not-to-be missed weekend, Gilbert will discuss the essential points of the Chan Meditation practice. You will learn the fundamental methods of relaxation and concentration, and fully settle your body and mind. You will come away with a better understanding of what the proper meditation practice is and why it works. We will practice meditation throughout the one-day retreat under Gilbert’s guidance.

Cost: Free ($50 suggested donation)