TEACHER: Jeff Warren
THEME: Solid Ground
MEDITATION: Vase Breathing
GROUP PRACTICE: The Silent Partner

Yeah, space is fun, but sometimes you need to double-down with your feet on the ground. In the main meditation we’ll explore a Tibetan practice called “Vase Breathing” that will turn you into an immovable object. For the group practice, we’ll continue the theme of body trust. By way of context, sometimes I watch little kids hang out and it blows my mind. They hardly say anything, but they manage to communicate all kinds of weird 3-year old shit about the chunks of reality that fascinate them. How do they do it? For this group practice we’ll explore conversing without words. No furious rumination – just initiate a random strategy and see what happens. Obviously you are encouraged to make low-frequency keening noises and undulate on the floor like a worm should the urge express itself. Thanks to Malcolm for the idea.

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 theme of social edges and explore the space between us. Our bodies are wrapped in a tingling layer of awareness, a different radius for everyone. When do you sense the Other? How close is too close, and how do those limits change?

TEACHER: Jeff Warren
THEME: Hey Bag Head! What’s my Body’s Language?
MEDITATION: Feel flow
GROUP PRACTICE: Most of us walk around with no sense whatsoever of the chemical energetic signature we’ve giving off.

So let’s find out. What do people notice about you, and you about them? Can you play with that signal? Maybe there are clues in the body. For this one I would like people to put bags over their heads so no one can tell who is who. Then we’ll walk around without speaking and see what our bodies say to each other. It will be fun. I’ll play a waltz. Bring a bag, with air holes. Seriously.

TEACHER: Jeff Warren and James
THEME: The Beat that My Heart Skipped
MEDITATION: Feelings and Sounds
GROUP PRACTICE: James is putting together a mini-DJ set for this one

We’ll work with different sounds and tones and tunes and see if we can notice how they impact our inner-verse, how we are played by the music even as we play the music. Shinzen calls this “trigger practice.” We call it listening to a good mixed tape with a bunch of neurotically observant meditator pals.

TEACHER: Jeff Warren
THEME: The Arrow and the River
MEDITATION: Old School Vipassana Noting, with two main flavors: contentment and agitation;
GROUP PRACTICE: Pop Noting

Been meaning to bring back this popular social technique for a while. Partner noting ping-pong style, we’ll scour our insides and afterward have a group powwow about the possible differences between stressful agitation and healthy motivation.