Zen in the City

I'm hoping that therapists and healthcare professionals who work in downtown Chicago will be interested in a group for mindfulness meditation.  On Wednesday afternoons, starting May 2, I'll be leading a Zen meditation group that's open to all, but especially geared toward therapists, MDs, nurses, PTs - people who are engaged in the bodhisattva activity of helping others.  We are a group who really need a way to restore and center ourselves so we can be available to our patients and clients.

The Zen Buddhist tradition has a lot to offer mindfulness practitioners.  The instruction for our style of meditation, called zazen, is beautiful in its simplicity: just sit.  Wouldn't it be interesting to just do one thing, whatever it might me, without being preoccupied with our typical fog of thought?  This is the art of zazen, and in the Zen tradition, we feel that our meditation doesn't end when we stand up.  As my teacher is fond of saying, "the world is your monastery."  The real impact of meditation is that it reminds us of what it is like to be truly present, and encourages us to find that presence in all of our activities.

Zen has a 2500 year tradition of encouraging zazen, and I'm happy to share it as best I can in group practice and discussion.  Email me if you are interested in sitting with the group sometime: thomson AT integrativehealthpartners DOT org.  You can also reach me through my Blogger profile and my website, www.integrativehealthpartners.org.  I'll be happy to give you the details and talk to you about your interests.

Deep bows,
Roger Thomson