New@ RMC: Live Streamed Talks with David on YOUTUBE

​RMC WEDNESDAY COMMUNITY NIGHTS!
7-9pm 3rd Wednesday every month next LIVE talk on YouTube: August 15th
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UPCOMING EVENTS A@ RMC - SAVE
THE DATE!

David's Next, One Day Urban Retreat
will be on Sept 29th: 9:30am-5pm:
​'In the Shit & Piss With Hakuin' (and) David Weinstein
Registration link is coming soon! Meanwhile contact Vickie Miller for more info on specifics. 

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​SUPPORT RMC PZI - DONATE 
​JOIN US as a  PZI MEMBER

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FALL EQUINOX DAY RETREAT: 
Walking in Beauty with Illana Berger
Sept. 16, 2018 1:00 - 5:00 @ RMC, OAKLAND, CA
Koan:
In beauty I walk
With beauty before me I walk
With beauty behind me I walk
With beauty above me I walk
With beauty around me I walk
It has become beauty again . . .

At the Fall Equinox there is a balance of light and darkness. The beauty way is walking in balance, just as the cycle of time shows us and teaches us.  I invite you to spend the afternoon with me as we practice walking in beauty, walking in harmony, walking in balance. It is to walk with life just as it is. Your life, just as it is and perhaps, to not turn away. 
The day will be devoted to meditation, sharing, ritual and conversations.  Join me.
The day will be devoted to meditation, sharing, ritual and conversations.  Join me.
More info and to REGISTER

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The Remarkable PZI KALPA IS FREE!  UNTIL Sept.1
What is it? The Koans & Liberation Project Archive​
PZI's own online library of teachings —Available after Sept 1 for a monthly subscription at no more than the cost of lunch. 
So try it out now FREE!

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AN INCREDIBLE ESSAY!
A SPECIAL ISSUE of UNCERTAINTY CLUB
The Myth We're In • June 2018. Joan Sutherland's remarkable 3-Part essay on our turbulent times. Read, savor and share!

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 All PZI RETREATS, RETREATS

Your Friend From the Beginning: A Meditation Retreat with John Tarrant and Friends
October 14-19, 2018  Mt. Madonna Center Watsonville, CA
Going or returning, we are in the right place, thinking thoughts without thought, singing and dancing are the voice of the Way –Hakuin Ekaku
​
Meet Hakuin Ekaku, teacher of fishermen and innkeepers, housewives, generals and governors, father of the Zen Koan, opener of closed doors, who makes it clear that awakening is happening now, something you already have, available right here.
This retreat offers an immersion in Hakuin’s teachings and koans. You don’t need to know anything about koans or even meditation to come. But if you’ve done a lot of practice this will give you a chance to deepen your connection with a great master who teaches how to rest in uncertainty. Hakuin was the master who gave us a curriculum of koans, to follow you around and help you whether you want them to or not. MORE INFO or REGISTER

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SAVE THESE RETREAT DATES:
WINTER SESSIN 2019 - Jan.14-20th @ Santa Sabina
OPEN MIND Retreats 2018 @ Commonweal Center, Bolinas, CA Winter – November 29–December 2

REGULAR RMC SITTINGS@ RMC:
This Week Aug. 6th -12th 2018
5463 College Avenue Oakland, Ca 94618

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WEDNESDAY, COMMUNITY NIGHT August 15th, 7-9PM 
Awakening Blowing in the Wind - A live streamed talk with David Weinstein

The Koan:  
What does awakening look like? -When the wind blows the willow seed floats away.

​I didn't know what willow seeds looked like when I first met this koan. I imagined something like a dandelion seed. 
It wasn't until many years later, while sitting in the backyard of our home in Oakland, where we had a willow tree, that I understood what a willow seed looks like. I noticed a swarm of tiny white insects above me.
When I looked more closely, I saw that they were not insects at all, but tiny little seeds. The seeds are so small that it takes no wind at all to move them. The barest breath of a breeze will send them sailing this way and that. I imagine that the disturbance of air caused by an insect's wings would be enough to send them off. So…that's what awakening looks like. It certainly does float off at the slightest provocation, like noticing that I'm awake.
Slippery as an avocado seed, the more firmly I grasp it, the further it squirts away. This will be the third installment of exploring Jiashan's descriptions of awakening, which can look like anything, the roundness of the lotus leaf, the sharpness of the chestnut burr and now the lightness of being of a willow seed in the wind. It can even look like you.
 David

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COMING UP: SATURDAY, August 18th Individual Conversations on Your Meditation Practice with David Weinstein
​8am-10:30 am 

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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.

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SUNDAY, Aug. 19th 9:30am-12pm Singing In Your Own Little Boat -
​with Karin Pfluger

Koan:
The great Sufi ancestor Kabir once said,
We are "singing inside our own little boat", surrounded by a world - even a universe - that is "shot through with a single sort of love". 
He also says, "How hard it is to feel that joy in all our bodies..."  
When confronted with my confusion, my most ardent hanging-on, my fear that I'm doing my life wrong -- then I don't much like my boat, let alone feel moved to sing. Where is the joy? The Zen ancestors keep saying, "It's Here! Now! This!" Those words are very refreshing! But soon, in times like these, I take up the old burden again with a strange refusal to let it go. Keep the pain you know...or exchange it for the unknown...?
A different life is beckoning, and I don't know what it is. I'm happier when I decide to sing my own weird song. I'd like to explore this with you - what is it like to sing? What gets in the way? What calls for our compassion, so you can stand in the new life?
Karin
POEM
"O beautiful 
was the werewolf   
in his evil forest.   
We took him 
to the carnival   
and he started   
   crying 
when he saw 
the Ferris wheel.   
Electric 
green and red tears   
flowed down 
his furry cheeks.   
He looked 
like a boat 
out on the dark   
water."
                      Richard Brautigan

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Intro. to Koan Meditation- FREE Class Aug. 26th 12:30 pm with David Weinstein ) one every month

Zen koan meditation is a tradition that has been held somewhat under wraps. Although koans, which are often the record of interchanges between teachers and students, are readily available, the sharing of similar interchanges between contemporary practitioners and their teachers have not been shared. It is ironic that Koan practice should generate a veil of mystery around it.
MORE on this Intro CLASS. Sign up

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PZI Community - Articles, Announcements, Talks & Blog Posts from our larger Community

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New PZI Zendo
Share the Moon Meditation Community
Taking a Summer break through August will resume on Sept. 9th - See you then.
Regular sittings on 2nd & 4th Sundays, 10:30am-12pm
640 Hillcrest Dr, Felton, CA.
Contact Illana Berger for more information.

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What's Coming Up @ PZI  RMC  - 2016-17 Calendar

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