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Lawrence Graziose - Australia, 2010 |
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events in 2010
Lawrence Graziose
returns to Australia
The wandering Zen monk known as Kwan Shi (or Lawrence Graziose) is coming to Australia to present workshops in Canberra, Brisbane, Sydney and Adelaide. See details below.
About Lawrence Graziose
Lawrence Graziose has over 30 years experience with Zen and Tibetan Buddhist practices, and became a Dharma Teacher in the Kwan Um Zen School in 1983. In the course of his spiritual unfolding, he has worked with teachers from many traditions, and was adopted as a son by a Cheyenne healer.
Relationship: Beauty & Flow
Dates: Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 April
Time: 10 am to 5 pm
Venue: The Mezzanine (P&F Room), Australian National University Sport and Recreation building, North Rd, Acton
Cost:
$235 (if you register before Friday 19 March)
$275 (if you register after Friday 19 March)
Payment methods:credit card or cash paid in advance
How to register: call Olivia on 0403 290 932 or email
Zen weekend
Dates: Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 April
Time: 10 am to 5 pm
Venue: The Mezzanine (P&F Room), Australian National University Sport and Recreation building, North Rd, Acton
Cost:
$235 (if you register before Friday 26 March)
$275 (if you register after Friday 26 March)
Payment methods:credit card or cash paid in advance
How to register: call Olivia on 0403 290 932 or email
Download Canberra workshops details as flier (pdf, 182kb)
Advanced Enneagram
Dates: Saturday 20 and Sunday 21 March
Time: 10 am to 5 pm
Venue:
Cost: $200 for the weekend
Bookings: (07) 3252 5540, info@zenzenzo.com
Relationship: Beauty & Flow
Dates: Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 March
Times: 10 am to 5 pm
Venue:
Cost: $200 weekend / $125 day
Bookings: (07) 3252 5540, info@zenzenzo.com
Enneagram & the Nature of Mind
Dates: Saturday 1 (Nature of Mind and Enneagram) and
Sunday 2 May (Advanced Enneagram) **
Times: 10 am to 6 pm
Venue:Sydney Stretch Therapy, Suite 13, Level 3, 88 Pitt Street, Sydney
Cost: $200 for full weekend, $125 for one day (in cash only, please)
To register: please contact Bek Wermut 0408 865 309, bwermut@hotmail.com or Cherie Seeto 0410 595 789, www.sydneystretchtherapy.com
** Unless you already have knowledge about the Enneagram, it is strongly suggested that you do not sign up for Sunday unless you also sign up for Saturday.
Download Sydney workshop details as flier (pdf, 110kb)
Zen weekend
Dates: Saturday 8 and Sunday 9 May
Times: 10 am to 5 pm
Venue: Theosophical Society, 310 South Terrace, Adelaide
Cost: $200 for the whole weekend if paid by April 15th: after that $250
Bookings: Cathie McGill catemcgill@bigpond.com
Download Adelaide workshop details as flier (pdf, 64kb)
With illuminating talks, simple exercises, and direct experiences, all attendees (individuals and couples) will learn how to create more ‘flow’ in relationship, which means less sticking and fewer encounters of ‘roadblocks’ or ‘speed-bumps’.
How to utilize relationships for transformation, bringing forth beauty, and experiencing unconditional love (or, seeing what things inside your own consciousness prevent the experience of unconditional love) will be the main focus. However, any aspect of your relationship that creates upset can be addressed, as abstract or as detailed and specific as you’d like.
Native American ‘teaching wheels’ about relationship and balance, and Hawaiian heart-opening practices and ceremony will be among the specific tools and techniques utilized to transform ‘issues’ into understanding, openness and love.
Overview
Zen Buddhism is one of the least understood paths of spiritual practice used to reveal our true nature or reality, or to uncover the peacefulness which cannot be disturbed by any event (the peacefulness which is already who we are).
It is a path of non-attachment, even to the path itself. One Zen Master has said: ‘If you truely know Zen, you understand that you cannot even call yourself a Zen Buddhist’.
The spiritual practices or techniques have been called: ‘no-path’, ‘no-mind’, ‘just be yourself’ (which can immediately bring up the question: ‘Aren’t I already just being myself?)’ and others.
It is a path of questions much more than answers. The questions serve to stop the mind in its tracks, and you yourself become the answer.
Zen Buddhism extracts the core of what the Buddha taught, leaving all thought and concept behind. It is a path with nowhere to step. In fact, as soon as you land on solid ground, if your own Zen practice is working, it will take the ground out from under you. It is like a free-fall through time and space, and when you hit the ground, reality appears.
Even though it can be difficult to grasp, it is, at the same time, one of the most grounded, pragmatic and simple of spiritual paths. Even if it can seem much different to this before you begin. (Reading about Zen is NOTHING like practicing Zen!)
Zen is VERY different from other Buddhist paths. Almost no trace of what is known as ‘Buddhism’ can actually be found, other than the core of what the Buddha was pointing to, which can be called ‘reality’ or ‘existence itself’. The main focus of Zen is to experience this ‘true nature’ or ‘reality’ or ‘true self’ directly, in this lifetime, for your self.
Zen literature is filled with stories about ‘enlightment’. In Zen practice, this word is almost never used. If you want it, you can’t have it. However, if you don’t pursue it, you are missing the deepest part of life. Without the impulse to ‘wake up’, you will remain lost in samsara. Zen is not the only path to this ‘waking up’, but it is one of the most direct (and quickest) ones.
Specific practices
Sitting
The basic practice of Zen is a meditation form called ‘zazen’. We will learn 3 different inner-methods, all with the same outer meditation posture or form. In Zen, the most important aspect of meditation practice is your posture. There are 6 different sitting forms, depending on your current level of ability: full-lotus, half-lotus, Burmese, Japanese-style, simple cross-legged and in a chair. All of these will work. There is also a standing form.
The meditation periods will be 20 minutes, so physical pain should not be a problem. As mentioned above, there will be one of several postures, so that every attendee can find one that works for them, without any great difficulty. We may do some stretching exercises to make sitting meditation practice easier, if there are attendees who would benefit from this.
Energy practices
Two different ‘special energy’ forms, no longer traditionally practiced, will be taught. These practises are very old, very special, and only known to a handful of modern people. These will be optional practices, which people can choose to do during one of the zazen periods. They are like the chi-kung practices which are primarily designed to build up raw energy (as opposed to create energetic flow).
There will be set periods where people can choose between the zazen sitting practice or one of the 2 energy practices. Lawrence will check and give feedback on the forms during the practice sessions individually, if requested beforehand. There will (most likely) be somewhere between 2 (x20 min) and 4 (x20 min) practice-times per day.
Interview
Each attendee will be given the opportunity for what, in many Zen traditions, is called ‘an interview’. This is one-on-one time with the Zen Teacher, who will point out energetic or conceptual blocks, sticky points in the mind, and/or make suggestions that will be helpful to your own spiritual growth and unfolding. This will be optional - a person can choose to opt out. There will be time for 1 ‘interview period’ per day, for each person. These times will overlap the group meditation times. It is during these times that the deepest ‘transmission’ can occur.
Discussions, throughout the weekend
Any questions about Zen can be addressed: What is Zen? How does it differ from other Buddhist paths? What are koans (or kong-ans), and how do they work? How did the teachings of the Buddha become ‘Zen’, many years after the Buddha’s death? What is the Diamond Sutra? What is the Heart Sutra? What place do the written teachings (sutras) have in Zen?
Enlightenment’ or ‘Awakening’ or ‘Self-Realization’ experiences can be described, explained and talked about.
Lastly
We will learn and practice some other Zen forms, including: prostrations (brief, just an introduction), mantras and/or chanting. One of the meditation periods WILL be chanting, instead of silent (where everyone chants the same, simple word).
This will be a ZEN weekend.
Get ready for anything ...
The Enneagram looks at an anceint Sufi teaching of nine ego-fixations or personality types. This system examines how these patterns create and sustain behaviours, reactions and limited perspectives that often lead to dissatisfaction or suffering in our everyday lives.
This workshop will look at how was can counteract the tendency to follow these ego-habits. Knowing how they operate can be extremely useful, and can assist in increasing the understanding and love in our relationships, learning how to extricate ourselves from conditioned reactions and how to return to a natural state of inner peace.
As this workshop is starting at an advanced level, participants need to either have attended previous workshops with Lawrence or have read at least 2 books on the Enneagram.
Enneagram & The Nature of Mind
The Enneagram is an ancient teaching system, a tool used to facilitate expanded awareness of the Self. Whether you are very familiar with the Enneagram, or you've never heard about it, the information presented during this weekend will be new.
The ego-mind has certain aspects which tend to lead us towards upset and suffering, while telling us that these are pathways to happiness. It will attempt to divide our experiences of life in half, desiring or clinging to some aspects, while repressing or avoiding others. This sets up a dualistic pattern of relating to life where the ego 'leads the show'. These ego patterns never lead to a lasting satisfaction, happiness, or peace. They tend to lead us into repetitive patterns that we identify as 'who we are'.
Saturday: the reactionary ego-habits will be described. Teachings re. 'Nature of Mind' will lay a solid foundation for Sunday.
Sunday: the 'ways back' to our simple inherent peace or happiness, beyond the ego-mind, will be illuminated.
'The Nature of Happiness' (which is directly related to the 'Nature of Mind')
Ramana Maharshi, a well-known and much-respected Indian Guru/Saint, once said:
'A human being's true nature is happiness itself'. If this is true, why isn't it our experience? If happiness is our true nature, then why do we suffer? During this weekend, we will explore what obscures and hides our innate happiness or peacefulness.
'The Enneagram'
The Enneagram is an ancient teaching system, a tool used to facilitate expanded awareness and self-inquiry. One aspect of this system is the detailed description of nine ego-fixations or personality types, commonly known as the Enneagram of Personality. Each of the nine types have very specific patterns of thinking and feeling. These patterns or fixations create and sustain behaviors, reactions and limited perspectives that often create upset, dissatisfaction or suffering for ourselves in our everyday lives. Human 'free will' is usually most apparent when we perceive that we can change the experience of our lives.
On a deeper level, they blind us to who we really are. The Enneagram of Personality gives us a clear picture of the ego's inner workings, as well as the underlying energy patterns that tend to keep the dysfunctional aspects of ego in control. As a spiritual tool, it shows us where we get stuck, and also how we can free ourselves from these habitual patterns. The nine ego types have very definite conceptual frameworks under which they operate. What one type might see as valuable, another type sees as useless. What one sees as a negative quality or attribute, another might see as a positive personality trait or gift.
This is also true for the 'medicines' or 'antidotes' for a particular ego fixation. What is useful for one type can be detrimental to another. For example, it might be very helpful for one person to get in touch with and express their sadness, while for another this might be the path of an infinite ego-trap (simply: an attachment to sadness, which then creates a 'woe is me').
These habitual patterns will continue to create dysfunction and suffering as long as they remain in control of the Being. They have no true power, other than that which we give them. When we can see the patterns and choose not to feed them, their illusionary control will vanish. With awareness, we can become free from the useless suffering created by the ego fixation.
All human beings want happiness and want to avoid suffering. Our ego patterns will tell us that satisfaction can be found in particular circumstances, behaviors or ways of being, and point us in the wrong direction. A trick of the ego is to lead us towards things that will distract us, taking us further away from our True Self, while telling us that these distractions are the very things we should be looking for. This ego trickery comes in nine flavors, and we all have one favorite. Essence, our True Self, is that which exists underneath the layer of ego, beyond the habitual patterns of thinking and feeling that pretend to be in charge. Ego obscures Essence and creates suffering. Essence is here and now, never separate. When we clearly see our patterns and recognize them for what they are, we can wake up.
From Kit Laughlin
My teacher, the wandering Zen monk known as Kwan Shi (or Lawrence Graziose) is coming to Canberra to present two workshops. I urge you to attend one or both, in order to have the opportunity of interacting with this extraordinary person.
In all of the self-development work I have been involved in over the last 25 years, Lawrence's work has had the major impact, by far. I cannot recommend his workshop too highly. Meeting LG (as he is also known) literally changed my life. I have continued to work with him over the last ten years and will continue as long as I can. I have attended over 90 workshops with him around the world and here in Australia in this time and have seen the effect his presence/wisdom/understanding has had on many, many people.
If you really want to make changes in your own life at the deepest level, please reserve your place. There will be plenty of time in both workshops to interact with LG personally; the atmosphere is open and completely supportive, and you can talk about anything at all with him.
Kit Laughlin
February 2010
