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REGULAR RMC SITTINGS THIS WEEK Aug 21-27
5463 College Avenue Oakland, Ca 94618 
THIS WEEK REGULAR RMC SITTINGS:
WEDNESDAY Community Night! Aug. 23rd 7-9pm What Is a Mistake, Anyway? - with David Weinstein The Koan: 'You don't make mistakes, mistakes make you.' Ruth Wakefield is said to have been making chocolate cookies and on running out of regular baker’s chocolate, substituted broken pieces of semi-sweet chocolate from Nestlé thinking that they would melt into the batter and produce chocolate cookies. Upon taking the cookies out of the oven, she was surprised to discover that the chocolate bits hadn't melted into the dough making chocolate cookies, instead she had mistakenly invented chocolate chip cookies. It is estimated that 7 billion chocolate chip cookies are consumed annually and half of the cookies baked in American homes are chocolate chip cookies. A pretty good mistake. People often come in for a conversation about their koan practice and start off by apologizing about not remembering the koan exactly. I'm always interested in how they misremember the koan. It usually leads to something revealing about the person and not a mistake at all. To be able to have the freedom to make a mistake leads to a sense of freedom of expression that can lead to us surprising even ourselves. David WHAT IS RMC COMMUNITY NIGHT? Community Night is a chance to practice meditation in action, in the midst of our lives. Eating and drinking and conversing together is a unique opportunity to notice the way the practice of paying attention is present, or not, where the 'rubber' of our practice meets the 'road' of our life. Becoming intimate with the workings of our heart/mind while sitting quietly is helpful, but, if it isn't present in our day to day lives, what's the point? Community Night is a chance to do that in a safe environment. It is also a time to discover and strengthen connections between each other and the community that is the container of our practice. Each time we gather to practice together is a time that we can do that, not just once a month on Community Night. We purposely place a break between quietly sitting together and the group conversation about the koan, as a way to provide that opportunity during each of our gatherings, whether on Wednesday nights or Sunday mornings. On Community Night we save that for after the meditation and group discussion and are able to luxuriate in each other's company for a bit longer than usual. David 
A Wonderful Gift- Support PZI
Pacific Zen Institute presents an exclusive DVD offer Scenes from an extraordinary retreat with two Zen masters, and a chance to support our ongoing work. In Autumn 2012, Zen koan masters John Tarrant and Joan Sutherland came together to converse about The Blue Cliff Record, the first great collection of koans, now almost 1,000 years old. It’s a text filled with stories that change you.We are thrilled to be able to offer this DVD record of the event—a chance to witness their collaboration in a set of live conversations about Zen, koans, and enlightenment. |
 David Weinstein, Roshi
SATURDAY, August 26th, 8am - 10:30am Individual Conversations with David Weinstein, Roshi on your meditation practice. No experience necessary. People will be invited in for a conversation in the order in which they arrive. For those who can't make it on Saturdays, it is possible to schedule appointments with David at other times of the week. Contact David Dana gratefully accepted. 
SUNDAY Aug. 27th - 9:30am-12pm What is it Like to Be You? - A talk, meditation & exploration with John Tarrant. Who are you? is the great ancient question, perhaps the one we came here to ask. It is a meditation method, when you ask who are you a space opens in which you are free. That freedom is inside everything that happens, it's inside your own heart. When you meditate you see the light underneath all things, the light the universe came from. What is it like to be you? Is a way of going deeper into that question, feeling your way into your own deepest request and desire—and feeling and finding empathy for every creature with the courage to live. John 
John Tarrant, Roshi
UNCERTAINTY.CLUB - A Great Read from Pacific Zen Institute 
Creating a Culture at PZI
NEW ISSUE • WINTER 2017 DOUBLE ISSUE - 'More Everything: Having & Wanting' A magazine of Zen and the arts from the Pacific Zen Institute Fresh from the Pacific Zen Institute’s long-running project on Zen, koans, consciousness, and the arts, comes the second issue of our online magazine: Uncertainty Club. 
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