Zen & Beyond
Delighting your Life Force
Booking Open - Limited to 10 Places
Eight Weeks
4th January to 22nd February 2025.
The Practical Zen course and Meditation & Beyond will run again in 2025/2026.
If you would like to reserve a place, please contact us. You can also join our mailing list to learn about upcoming courses.
Kensho is "a blissful realisation where a person's inner nature, the originally pure mind, is directly known as illuminating emptiness, a thusness..." – Peter Harvey
The practice of meditation and mindfulness is not only good for you. It could also lead you to find your true self and live your most powerful and authentic life.
Carrying the Zen Torch
Zen knowledge and practice has been carried and passed on like an Olympic torch through the centuries. Many generations of Zen Masters have devoted their lives to this way. This course is designed to help those who wish to explore the Rinzai Zen way to find out who you really are and live this true life for the benefit of all.
This eight-week course introduces Zen meditation and mindfulness practices. The ultimate focus is on kensho—literally seeing or experiencing your true nature without depending on beliefs or notions.
Give yourself time and space to focus on what really matters. And when you need to, get more done with less stress.
‘The strange thing about meditation practice in the morning is that it carves out yet more of your day. But because it’s a space where nothing happens, actually it provides you with space, and you see that space in your day at other points. The day feels very different as a consequence.’
– Jonathan, Shaolin Arts student with Fully Alive
“When the cloud of ignorance disappears, the infinity of the heavens is manifested, where we see for the first time into the nature of our own being. "
Course Contents
- Zen Approach to Meditation and Mindfulness
- Zen Way of Dealing with Unavoidable Stress
- Mental Effects on Meditation
- The physical effects of meditation and mindfulness
- Elevated Function - Cultivating the Hara
- Road Map to the 10 Stages of Spiritual Insight
- Energy Transformation Meditation
- Transforming Your Life - Bringing it All Together.
Common misconceptions and beliefs around meditation and mindfulness
I am no good at emptying my mind, so there is no point in practicing.
Zen meditation isn’t about having no thoughts or emptying your mind. You are not trying to get rid of anything. Rather you will learn how to increase your awareness, and be more comfortable with and accepting of whatever arises in the process.
I can’t sit cross legged, so I will be no good at meditation.
I also couldn’t sit cross legged at first. But the practice can be done standing, laying down, walking, sitting in a chair, on a cushion, and cross legged if you are able. A chair works just fine.
Meditation is weird and spiritual, and I am not into that!
This course is about a grounded everyday mind, body, breath practice. While meditation has its roots in Buddhist teachings, this course is non-religious and practical, not spiritual.
It will interfere with my other practices.
Zen meditation and mindfulness enhances our ability to be and stay focused with more ease, while increasing awareness. The practice works well alongside other practices such as yoga, qigong, martial arts and movement-based arts.
Enhance your existing practice
Meditation and mindfulness are often quoted and sometimes misunderstood. Yet they are essential, especially if you want to reach the heights and depths of your qigong practice.
Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit’s teacher said:
If you want to soar to the heights and reach the depth of kung fu, you must practise chi kung; if you want to soar to the heights and reach the depth of chi kung, you must practise meditation.
The patriarch of Taijiquan, Zhang San Feng, emphasised in his treatise ‘Focusing Spirit Accumulating Energy Treatise in Grand Ultimate Practice’ “Not miss hit sitting”, meaning not to miss sitting meditation.
Zhang San Feng
‘I love the meditation practice. It’s helping me consolidate this into a daily practice for me which is super useful.
It's also strengthening my back and posture. Knowing how to sit correctly has been a revelation to me.’
– Kate, Shaolin Arts student
These two short videos will provide a helpful insight into meditation.
Tim has practised Shaolin Cosmos Qigong in the Zen tradition under instruction from Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit for over 20 years and later with Zen Yoga and Meditation teacher with Master Daizan Skinner and Zenways and is now a Zenways student Meditation/Mindfulness teacher. This course shares the teachings of the ZenWays tradition and will be taught by Tim Franklin.
Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit in sitting meditation
Daizan Skinner with his teacher Shinzan Roshi
Tim Franklin
For a long time, I avoided a sitting meditation practice, believing all I needed was the standing meditation we practice in Qigong.
During my Zen Yoga teacher training with Zen Master Daizan Skinner I realised some of the depths that could only be achieved through seated meditation.
It is true that standing meditation can lead a practitioner into deep states of relaxation, expansion and bliss. For some, this type of practice can feel like a holiday, which admittedly is a very nice experience, and there is nothing wrong with it. However, sometimes this practice can feel like an escape, and then we come back to reality of dealing with everyday life.
In contrast, the seated meditation in the Zen Mindfulness practice is not an escape. It encourages us to be with all the thoughts, emotions, feelings and sensations that arise, helping us deal with everyday challenges as they happen.
The practice also helps strengthen your body, supporting your structure and posture. Many people wrongly think meditation is all about blissing out and mindfulness is about deep thinking and moving slowly. I part joke here, but there is truth in this.
Suggesting that through your zen meditation practice you will become fitter and stronger may come as a surprise.
A daily meditation practice requires remaining upright and relaxed for 25 minutes. During this time the body is making thousands of micro-adjustments to keep you from slumping.
If you remain upright for the duration of the practice, you will have not only trained your body but increased your focus and awareness too.
The Practical Zen guidebook
My teacher, Julian Daizan Skinner, has written a book to go alongside this 8-week course called Meditation and Beyond. This can be bought on Amazon here. While it is not essential you buy this book you may find it helpful, as well as have access to recorded practices by Daizan Skinner. It is available on Audiobook and Paperback.
Can I just buy the book instead of doing the course?
Many people have benefited from the book alone. However, if you want a guided, more immersive, and supported learning experience with other practitioners, as well as time to ask questions and share experiences along the way, the online course will better serve you alongside the book.
In-person Online and Recorded
We encourage you to attend all eight classes live online. If this is not possible, a recording will be available. You must attend at least six of the eight live classes. The main thing is you have a daily practice.
If now presents a challenging time and you cannot commit to daily practice or the eight sessions, we recommend that you return to this course when it feels right.
Practical Zen for Health, Wealth and Mindfulness
Dates and Times
The course will run each Saturday for eight weeks, from 4th January to 22nd February 2025.
8.30 - 10 am.
Limited to 10 Places plus Organisers
Online Via Zoom
Cost
£240
Discount of 20% to Fully Alive Platinum members (Apply usual code).
Payment and booking on or before 31st December 2024
Why not take this opportunity to start a regular meditation practice?
Discover better focus, increased clarity and a deeper sense of wellbeing, with the guidance and support you need to learn and maintain a meditation practice.
Stay in Touch
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