TEACHER: Jeff Warren
THEME: Perspective and Trance
MEDITATION: DreamSpace and Visual Rest
INTERACTIVE:  Pluralistic Pizza Making

Jeff: Life is a dance between perspective and trance. The world sucks us in – we get absorbed in our dramas and pleasures, as we should, as we should. Trance is beautiful – it shows us one way to be so in love with life that we forget ourselves. But we can forget ourselves in another direction too: by panning the camera out, and dis-embedding from the narrow stories of the self. This is the essence of mindfulness, and after 13 years of serious practice I can say it is quite helpful for general sanity. What we are optimally after here is flexibility; the capacity to choose between the open expanse of awareness and the lush interiors of our commitments. This Monday, for part one’s meditation, we’ll play with this embedding and dis-embedding. And then in part two, we’ll get out the art supplies, and each person will get a chance to create their own pluralistic pizza. We’ll identify our various commitments, and explore what “practice” may mean in each context. Think of it as the ultimate existential art practice.