PLEASE NOTE: THE MONDAY NIGHT MEDITATION CLASSES ARE CURRENTLY ON A BREAK. CHECK BACK SOON AND WE WILL ALSO ANNOUNCE VIA NEWSLETTER WHEN WE START CLASSES AGAIN.

What: Senshi Meditation & Mindfulness Practice
When: 7-8pm Monday nights. starting Nov. 9th (please be in the meditation hall a few minutes before 7pm)*
Cost: Free
Where: Meditation Room at Boulder Integral (2805 Broadway Street, Boulder)
Facilitator: Keith Martin-Smith

“Senshi” means “warrior” in Japanese, and this is warrior training for your body, your mind, and your spirit. Becoming an accomplished athlete, artist, businessperson, or author requires discipline of practice. Our spiritual practice is no different.

Senshi Meditation takes seriously the idea that there is nothing more important in your life right now then waking up. Every minute spent asleep is another minute spent in bondage, in contraction, in ignorance, in servitude to old stories, patterns, and obsessions. This is a life and death practice, and we will take our seats as warriors dedicated to our path.

OVERVIEW

• This meditation class will begin informally at 6:45pm, where any questions can be answered, we can talk, warm up, and drop in.
• Meditation will go from precisely 7pm until 8pm.
• We will sometimes engage in one or all of the following as part of our practice: mindful physical embodiment, energy work, and/or discussion of the Dharma.
• The sit ends at 8pm, but there will be another optional 15 minutes of post-sit discussion for anyone interested in staying and discussing anything that might have come up.

DETAIL

• Meditation practice will follow the Rinai Zen tradition, which is derived directly from the Japanese Samurai. Rinzai, more than any other meditative discipline, embodies the energy of spiritual practice as warrior practice. When you take your seat in a Rinzai Zen sit, you take your seat as a warrior, and you resolve to face whatever arises during the sit — emotional, physical, or spiritual — without movement of any kind. No scratching, no shifting in your seat, no adjusting your posture, no eye wandering. The body remains utterly, completely still, as a service to yourself and to those around you. We will use concentration meditation as a way to Clear Deep Heart/Mind and Samadhi (unreasonable joy).
• Physical Embodiment Practice will follow the stretching, breathing, and strength-building used in Northern Shaolin Kung Fu. The focus will be on mindful execution and mindfulness practice, no matter what discomfort the body is experiencing.
• Energy Work will include qi gong movements and sitting qi gong practice.
• Discussion of spiritual classics and other suggested books will fine tune our philosophical understanding of our practice.
• Mondo Zen Protocols (deconstruction and reconstruction of the ego) will occur by appointment only, outside of class time.

PROTOCOL

Will be explained before we seal the container of our group. Instruction will be provided for other activities at the appropriate time. No unnecessary speaking or eye contact during the hour of formal practice — this is a sacred space dedicated to our Awakening!

METHOD

Boulder, CO has many strengths, but a sharp and clear lineage of spiritual discipline, taught in an uncompromising way, is not one of them. While emotional processing, the honoring of all perspectives, and go-at-your-own pace models all serve our emerging, post-conventional selves, they can be toxic to the spiritual path. “There is a way between voice and presence where information flows. In disciplined silence it opens. With wondering talk it closes.” —Rumi

ABOUT THE FACILITATOR

Keith Martin-Smith began studying the Dharma in 1996, and took Red Tara Empowerment and Bodhisattva Vows with Lama Tsering Everest in 2001. In 2007 he met Jun Po Roshi and became a formal student of his, and was given the Dharma name “Ko Gen” (“Tiger Eye”). Keith/Kogen has been authorized by Jun Po Roshi to teach the Mondo Zen deconstruction/reconstruction protocol and meditation.

Kogen is also the most senior disciple and only lineage holder of Grandmaster Jeon Hoon Jeon, 3rd Generation White Tiger Master, and has been given the title of “Co-Master” in the instruction of Northern Shaolin Kung Fu and Qi Gong. He has been training since 1994 and teaching since 2003. His training in Kung Fu and Qi Gong is ongoing on the way to becoming a Master. He has also studied Jin Woo, Hung Gar, Wing Chun, and Jinqui Qi Gong.

“What is better, satisfying 1,000 desires or conquering one?”

INTEGRAL FRAME FOR THOSE INTERESTED

An absolutistic (Amber) frame for teaching has been used for millennia in spiritual and physical disciplines, but has been increasingly abandoned as we moved into modernity (Orange) and postmodernity (Green). But we are seeing in places like Boulder, CO, some of the problems when one throws out the Amber, hierarchical frame for teaching: namely, it is the most effective way to create change. Amber is wonderful at helping to break the body and the mind into a difficult discipline. Orange interpretations of these disciplines can focus too much on the status and ranking of the student, while Green interpretations are, among other problems, reluctant to force one kind of training and philosophy onto students. The result of the loss of Amber teaching methods applied to marital arts and spiritual practice has been a reduction in the quality of students and of their overall competency.

We can add Orange and Green emergent truths and understandings into pre-and-post practice structures, to honor the insights of those worldviews. But putting those structures into the Amber frame destroys the pressure that Amber has been so carefully formatted to create, and lengthens the entire process when it doesn’t destroy it utterly.

Boulder Integral regular and author Keith Martin-Smith recently sat down with our good friend Jun Po Denis Kelly for a talk about Mondo Zen, the influence of integral theory, and Jun Po’s vast experiences with state altering substances. You can also view the videos in HD here. Like these videos and want to see more? Support Boulder Integral by becoming a regular donating member or making a one-time donation!

Friday, May 22, 2009 (Open to all)
6:30pm – 8:00pm
$15 ($10 for members)

Saturday, May 23 & Sunday, May 24
9am – 5pm both days (although we prefer participation in full weekend, you may, if you wish, be there only for one of the days)
$189 ($149 for members)  Payment by check and cash only at the door.

There is no pre-registration, but RSVP is REQUIRED to ensure your seat. Please send your RSVP by noon, 5/20 to nomali@boulderintegral.org with “RSVP: Mondo Zen” on the subject line.

Mondo Zen: Revealing the True Nature of Mind through Integral Zen Dialogue

Dear Friends,

Coming up soon is a rare opportunity to work closely with two of our favourite integral teachers, Jun Po Denis Kelly, Roshi and doshin mj nelson, Sensei over a whole weekend! Every so occasionally, we all need to get our lazy butts kicked by a hardcore Zen session. Please read more event details below, and we hope you will dare yourself to join!

On Friday 5/22, there will be an Integral Panel Discussion that is Open to All.  Each panelist will share their own perspective and integral view of Mondo Zen.   Join Jeff Salzman, Robert Richards, doshin nelson sensei and JunPo Denis Kelly, Roshi for an enlightening, entertaining and liberating evening. For the main dish, we highly encourage attending the full weekend.

Event Description

Rinzai Zen is known for its rigorous practice in attaining penetrating insights into our own True Nature. Even for those who live in monasteries, it can take years to integrate these insights. Come experience a taste of the True Nature of Mind in a single evening! Enter into a group Zen dialogue with JunPo Roshi and experience Ego Deconstruction which opens you to more creative and fearless perspectives. Taste what Ken Wilber in Integral Spirituality calls Turiya – the Freedom of Radical Emptiness. Learn how “your angst is your liberation” – and embody in your life what Ken calls Turiyatita and Radical Fullness.

The penetrating and enlightening Integral protocols of Mondo Zen will be led by Jun Po Denis Kelly, Roshi, first dharma heir of Eido Shimano Roshi. Jun Po is Abbot of Hollow Bones Zen. He has returned to the roots of Rinzai Zen and revitalized the Koan practice in a way that is truly Integral, unique and graspable for western minds like ours. Spend a fruitful and humorous evening with Jun Po Roshi and experience Mondo Zen. Join us to learn more about Jun Po’s innovative, Integrally Informed and Integrally Embodied approach to Zen that enriches and deepens any spiritual practice. Come – and One Taste!

Mondo Zen is not just American Zen, it is integrally informed and integrally embodied Zen.

Mondo Zen catalyzes high level, Upper Left Quadrant cognitive, emotional and spiritual stages and states of awareness. These high levels are reinforced through Upper Right Quadrant neuro-linguistic training. Because of this Integral UL/UR strategy, the possibility emerges for your stage development to evolve as you practice taking the perspective of freedom-vast, pure awakened heart/mind rather than the old hysterical/historical perspective of your constricted egocentric view.

Mondo Zen further encourages the embodiment and enactment of UR speech and behaviors – as well as inter-subjective and environmental enactments (LL/LR Quadrants). The ultimate Mondo Zen realization is non-dual awareness (Turiyatita), spontaneously enacted through all aspects of your being.

Mondo Zen transcends and includes all levels. It is not a religion, but a practice for living an integrally Transformative Life. Mondo Zen engages body, mind, shadow and spirit. If your spirituality is Christianity, Mondo Zen will enrich and deepen your love. Whether you’re a Christian or a Hindu, warrior in men’s work, a woman of power creating a new world, a contemplative individual, a social or environmental activist, an executive, or an Integral scholar, Mondo Zen will enhance your awareness, clarity, energy and humor – with more penetrating insight and effectiveness.

Imagine you as this, abiding as this, being in the world as this, evolving and involving as this.

This is FREEDOM. This is Mondo Zen.

And here is an alternative description with less “integral jargon,” because we welcome those who are new to Integral Theory!

At long last, we are finally awakening and translating Zen into American culture. Mondo Zen is one of these developments, these awakenings.

Zen is not just living anthropology, just some Japanese cultural concentration practice, robes and Buddha statues. Zen is the awakened state of mind represented by the marriage of compassion (unconditional caring, respect and regard) and wisdom (great fearless clarity) expressed in the ordinary actions of our daily life. Mondo Zen’s Five Element training allows us to realize – and exist continually – in deep clear mind and in heartfelt, fearless psychological stability.

Through concentration/meditation practices and philosophical dialectic dialog conversations, we experience who we truly are spiritually. We experience the freedom of realization of our ordinary deep clear mind. We learn the real nature and function of our emotions. We find our exit strategy from unnecessary suffering – and finally an end to psychotherapy. We clarify and reorganize our understanding of our minds – and through expression of this new understanding in thought and action, we liberate ourselves from many confusions.

Mondo Zen practice begins with a two hour provocative, humorous, dialectic dialog adventure – your investigation into – and sharing of – new, transformational states of mind of exquisite quality. Buddha taught that the first thing we must do to awaken to the truth is change our mind. This dialog practice gives us a change in mind. Then, when you’re tested by the continuous and exciting challenges in the normal events and actions of your daily life, your new heart and mind is spontaneously expressed and enacted – and experienced as being vastly preferable to your old self. Through this training, your center shifts from ego contraction and suffering into spirit openness. Through this training you learn that what you thought was your angst is in fact is your liberation.

Imagine waking up each and every morning, looking out through the eyes of your soul filled with gratitude and excitement for the gift of another day. Imagine feeling deep caring, respect and regard – with the great fearless clarity of a Samurai. Imagine living as the source of infinite creativity – with the Power to enact it.

Imagine being FREE. This is Mondo Zen!
Check out www.hollowbones.org and www.mondozen.org and locally in Denver: www.integralzen.org.

Boulder Integral Center
www.boulderintegral.org

2805 Broadway (NW corner of Broadway and Balsam)
(Limited parking – carpooling is encouraged)
Boulder, CO, 80304
303.541.1540

Check out pictures from our other events with JunPo Roshi here