Rabbit Hole

In this meditation, we make powerful resolutions to improve ourselves, from new dietary and exercise regimens, to important practice protocols and virtuous personal intentions, to say nothing of ….er… and … uh … That sounds like a lot of work. Fuck it. Let’s flop out in the middle of our lives and ride out the clock exactly as we are.

TEACHER: Jeff and Scott THEME: Devotion 2: Kung-Fu Self-Hugging or Loving the Entire Vibrating Body Backwards in Stillness and in Motion MEDITATION: I Love the Feeling of Having a Body GROUP PRACTICE: Yoga Magic OG’s Scott Davis will work his yoga magic as we move very slowly and deliberately into accessible and archetypally-charged postures, feeling the wonder and grace of each pose. Man […]

TEACHER: Jeff Warren THEME: Breakthrough MEDITATION: Moving Ever-closer to The Now GROUP PRACTICE:  Time bandits So as I said, breakthrough is gonna look different depending on the person. For some, it might be a glimpse into the constructed nature of sensory reality, for others an energizing kundalini shock, for others still a sudden insight into […]

TEACHER: Jeff Warren THEME: Upwelling MEDITATION: Transverberation INTERACTIVE PRACTICE: Gratitude Letter In the autobiography of 16th century Saint Teresa of Avila, a cherub flies through the window of her convent and jabs a blazing spear into her heart. This  “transverberation” – a superb word that must be resuscitated – apparently ushered in a new state of mystical consciousness for Teresa, and went on […]

TEACHER: Jeff Warren THEME: The Practice of Perspective MEDITATION: Layers of Our Discontent INTERACTIVE: The Art of Moving Out This week, we explore perspective from two directions: in sitting practice, where we’ll tease out some of the understated and not-so understated ways we find our moments lacking (and in the seeing, a subtle freeing), and, for part two, a […]

TEACHER: Jeff Warren THEME: Compassion MEDITATION: Turning into a little kid GROUP PRACTICE: Eye-gazing (touchy-feely night!)

You can just sit and do “Nothing,” you know (that is a meditation) or you can choose to do “Something.” Which do you choose? Good choice! The category of Something has much to recommend it, in particular its vast … particularity. The next choice is form. Some options: “Stillness” (the obvious candidate), “Movement,” or “Relational,” “Expressive” (for the artists), or any “Life Activity” for that matter. Which do you choose? This Monday night, we ask: how might a practice address our needs of the moment?

When I feel I’m losing my centre, I step back to ground. Presence is ground, awareness is ground. Ground of my Being, and very likely the  ground of yours too. It’s Waking Up month at the CEC. For me, today, waking up is our human capacity to live in, and from, ground. Let’s explore.

TEACHER: Jeff Warren THEME: Devotion 3: Giving Up MEDITATION: Stop Trying GROUP PRACTICE: Let’s All Surrender So much to explore on the interconnected themes of devotion, love and surrender. For the group practice, we’ll go inside using a form of contemplative inquiry designed to activate our intuition-rich anti-search engines. As the cliche goes, this one is about accessing your […]

TEACHER: Jeff Warren THEME: Challenge MEDITATION: Into the Underworld! GROUP PRACTICE:  These are all the ways I suck, and this is what it feels like to talk about my suckage with you. This week we take our medicine. We learn how, in TS Elliot’s words, “to be restored, our sickness must grow worse.” It’s arguably […]

TEACHER: Jeff Warren THEME: The Body, The View MEDITATION: Our Somatic Unconscious GROUP PRACTICE: Metaphors We Live By Some Buddhists believe our body is the repository of all our conditioning, that as we move our consciousness into its dark spaces we facilitate a process of expression and catharsis. Let’s investigate. Then for the Group Practice, we’ll […]

TEACHER: Jeff Warren THEME: Not Knowing MEDITATION: The Beautiful Bogglement of the Beginner INTERACTIVE: Embracing the Alien Meditation is an interplay between knowing and not knowing. Sometimes we know exactly what’s going on: inhale, distraction, butt-itch, eureka! But sometimes – just as importantly – we have no idea. We are genuinely out in the open, without even […]

TEACHER: Jeff Warren THEME: Impermanence MEDITATION: Flow GROUP PRACTICE: Discussion: Soulful in the City – How to Find Big Mind in the Big Smoke

This is a classic meditation drawing on the ideas of equanimity, concentration, and ending with loving-kindness.

This meditation is inspired by an old dog friend named Socrates, who completely embodied dignity. We’re invited to channel our own inspirations for qualities we’d like to cultivate, becoming them in the space of our imagination.

TEACHER: Jeff and James THEME: The Beat that my Heart Remixed MEDITATION:  Your body is a tuning fork for cosmic symphonies. GROUP PRACTICE: We’ve done this before, and it is always good. After focusing your sensitive little heart, we’ll pull out the blankets and bolsters and spill onto the floor as James and Jeff guide you through […]

TEACHER: Jeff Warren and Christine Pountney THEME: Inhibition MEDITATION: Saying Yes INTERACTIVE: “All Pathology Starts with Inhibition” “All pathology starts with inhibition.” Dr. Henri Laborit said that. I don’t know who he is either, although Wikipedia tells me he’s a dead French guy who experimented on rats. But let’s run with his idea. My friend Christine believes […]

TEACHER: Jeff Warren THEME: The Challenge of Feeling MEDITATION: Sensitized INTERACTIVE PRACTICE: The Shadow The inner tracking gets juicier this week, more embodied, into the primordial soup of our emotions. Once we see and feel some tough pattern, what then? One way out is through: we open, we accept. In contemplative lingo, we trickle equanimity down into the interstices […]

TEACHER: Jeff Warren THEME: We Live in the Space Age MEDITATION: Sound and Space GROUP PRACTICE: The Space Between Us OK so first we stabilize the body, then we’ll send our minds out into the audioscape of College street, past the traffic and the streetcars to the boundary-tingling outer limits. For group practice we’ll continue last week’s […]

TEACHER: Jeff Warren THEME: Attention MEDITATION: Non-attachment GROUP PRACTICE: Yoga Nidra and Deep Relaxation