Sound Meditation at the GRAM led by Susanne Werblow

Sound Meditation

Wed, November 13, 6:00-7:30 pm

Led by Susanne Werblow. This the third in the fall series of Art and Meditation sessions developed by Dharma Studio teacher Jill Eggers.

Most of us have been moved by music, entranced by rhythm and touched by sound. This session will introduce you to sound as meditation. We will explore different techniques to open our awareness to what’s happening inside using sound, and discern how different tones trigger different sensations, images and emotions.  You will experience a gong “bath”, singing bowls and our own voices joined in chanting, to experience the effects of sound as a meditative practice.  We’ll then turn towards the GRAM art collection, finding paintings that reflect your sound experiences, and listen to the art as we listened to ourselves. We’ll also discuss the science behind why sound, music and singing can enhance your wellbeing and even trigger experiences of awe across cultures. Bring your sense of daring to this session!

Note that this event is at the Grand Rapids Art Museum. Registration is through their site. A link will be provided here when registration opens.

Meditation at the GRAM, Session II

Session II

Flourishing with Meditation

Wed, October 9

With Jill Eggers

Taking a somewhat deeper dive into the nature and practice of meditation, we will look at what it is how it can improve our lives, emotions, and health, and at some of the different types of meditation.  We will practice some guided meditations, and introduce the Six Week Challenge, for those who want to bring the practice of meditation into their daily lives.   

Register for this session through the Grand Rapid Art Museum. Link will be added when registration for this sessions opens.

Introduction to Dharma Art

Introduction to Dharma Art

NOTE: This class is offered, with slight variations, in both July and September. Free free to take one or both if you like.

Dharma art is a way of exploring awareness through creativity. In studying art and awareness, we are studying something fundamental—the nature of self and reality. This workshop is an introduction to creative practice and meditative awareness, for anyone who wishes to develop their creative potential, or their Buddhist practice in new ways.

In this class, you will not be learning a specific art skill or practice, and no skill or art experience is required.   You will not learn how to ‘do’ any specific art thing at all.  Rather, we will turn our attention toward the creative process itself, and dropping all goals and ideas about what art is or how to ‘be’ an artist, we will practice opening our awareness to that silent and wide space that is the creative source— and begin to act, make, and express, from that place.   Join us for this playful exploration of meditation and creativity.

Art materials provided. Dress for comfort and a little messiness. Bring your lunch for a mid day break.

“One way that our spiritual power begins to manifest is through the emergence of the intuitive aspect of our consciousness. This is one of the reasons why Zen and creativity are so intimately linked. Creativity is…an expression of our intuitive aspect.  Getting in touch with our intuition helps us to enter the flow of life, of a universe that is in a constant state of becoming.  When we tap into our intuition, whether in our art or simply in the day to day activities of our lives, we feel a part of this creative continuum.…Single pointed concentration develops our intuition. We becomes more directly aware of the world. We notice in ways that are not clearly understood, but are very accurate.” ~John Daido Loori, The Zen of Creativity

To register, or if you have questions, email Lianghua Su Jill Eggers at: jilleggers9@gmail.com, with any questions, or to register. $15 suggested donation helps support the Dharma Studio and pay for supplies. Class size is limited so please register to hold a place!

Introduction to Meditation with Art at the GRAM

Art and Meditation at the GRAM  

 A new series of monthly sessions that offer an introduction to meditation practices, combined with new ways of looking at art.  Enhance your well-being and nourish your eyes, mind, and heart.   

 Meditation and arts engagement have a special relationship.  Science shows us that meditation practice can reduce stress, develop focus, help us feel calmer, and increase our sense of well-being.   Science also shows us similar results for health and well being with arts engagement.  Together, these practices have superpowers. In this series, experienced meditation teachers, who are also artists, combine meditation instruction with art engagement, with the goals to improve health, well being, and happiness. 

Session I

Creative Awareness Practice

Wed, September 11

With Jill Eggers

A unique introduction to meditation, what it is, and how it can enrich our lives.  This session also will introduce a new way of looking deeply at art.   We will familiarize ourselves with comfortable sitting on meditation cushions, (or on chairs), and in a guided meditation, find the still point within, bringing body and mind together.  Then, engaging with art in the GRAM collection, we will look deeply into our experiences with a work of art.   We’ll conclude with a discussion of our experiences, and some ways to build on these practices in your own life.  Please see GRAM website to register for this class.

https://www.artmuseumgr.org/events/the-art-of-meditation-creative-awareness-practice

Creative Feedback/Art Meditation session

How do we look at art with a mind free of concepts and ideas? How do we look to see? This session begins in a still point guided meditation, and turns into an experience of looking. Looking without judgement or preconception, we connect intimately with the visual experience. This practice is a good tool for developing skills in empathy and communication, as well as a powerful practice for developing community with and giving feedback to other artists or Dharma Art practitioners.

To register, or with any questions, please email Lianghua Su Jill Eggers at jilleggers9@gmail.com. Suggested donation $10 in support of the Dharma Studio.

Introduction to Dharma Art  

An introduction, or for some, a re-introduction to Dharma Art. What is this creative practice about, and how is it linked to Buddhist practice?

Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chogyam Trungpa taught that art is powerful and sacred, that genuine art has the power to awaken and liberate. He called this type of art "dharma art"—any creative work that springs from an awakened state of mind, characterized by directness, unselfconsciousness, and nonaggression. Dharma art provides a vehicle to appreciate the nature of things as they are and express it without any struggle or desire to achieve. A work of dharma art brings out the goodness and dignity of the situation it reflects—dignity that comes from the artist’s interest in the details of life and sense of appreciation for experience. Trungpa shows how the principles of dharma art extend to everyday life: any activity can provide an opportunity to relax and open our senses to the phenomenal world. 

Please join us Saturday for an introduction to Dharma Art Practice. Guided meditation and art practice, no artistic skill required. All materials and supplies provided. Bring your lunch, and dress comfortably for meditation and working with potentially messy art materials. Suggested donation $20. Class size is limited, so please register in advance by emailing Lianghua Su at jilleggers9@gmail.com.

To study Buddhism is to study the mind. An ancient Buddhist master said, “to study the self is to study the mind.” Everything begins with the  mind. What is mind and how to we come to know it? In this half day session we will explore the nature of mind, what is awareness, what is consciousness, and how to practice mindfulness. We will explore these four fundamental concepts from the Buddhist point of view together with scientific and psychological approaches. No prior knowledge of Buddhism is required, although it might be helpful.  This teaching session is open to anyone who wants to know how the mind influences what we do and how we do it. The session include teachings and individual and group activities.

Guest teacher Ven. Deok Wun (Russ Pitts) is visiting from New York to teach this half day class. Class is limited to 15 participants.

Please email Jill Eggers at jilleggers9@gmail.com to register. There is a suggested donation of $20 for this class. All donations go in support of the Dharma Studio; no teacher takes any pay for teachings.

Saturday, January 21

10:00 am to 3:00 pm

This is the second session of working with our emotions as a path to the enlightened nature of mind. We will revisit some of the material of the earlier session and will take our understanding and practice a bit further, exploring relations between the emotions and the elements, colors, and the Five Buddha Families. Class will include meditation and art practice.  All materials and supplies are provided. No art background or experience required. Participation in prior Dharma Art classes is helpful but not required.

Suggested donation of $30 for the class. Class size is limited to 14 participants. Register by emailing jilleggers9@gmail.com.

Emotions as Path

Dharma Art Practice, Session I

How does it feel to be utterly emotionally alive? This is the first class in a series that begins to look at how our emotions— the very tenderness, messiness, and complexity of our feelings—are a doorway to our enlightened nature. In this introductory workshop, we will look at the Five Buddhist Wisdom Emotions, and identify some of the emotion patterns that come up in our own lives. We will play with these experiences in art making. (This class will make the most sense to you if you have taken the Introduction to Dharma Art, but that is not required.). All materials provided, no art background or experience required.

Details:  Suggested donation of $20 for the class.    Bring your lunch for a mid session lunch break.  Dress comfortably for sitting on the floor and getting messy. 

Creative Feedback Session

Saturday, October 8

10:00-12:00

How can we really see what is before us?   How can we train ourselves to look without judgement, but rather with curiosity and awareness?  We will engage in a guided meditation in looking and responding to art with an open eye and mind.   This practice has implications for our Buddhist practice and our daily lives as well as our creativity.  Participants are invited to bring art they have made since the last session (or at another time), to use in this practice.   This practice is especially geared to anyone who wishes to use creative practice as a way to discover their true nature. 

Suggested donation of $10 for this class. 

Introduction to Dharma Art

Saturday, Sept 24. 10:00 am until 2:00 pm. 

Art Practice, or Dharma Art, is a means of connecting to natural creativity through Buddhist awareness practices.  In this class we will practice art making and meditation, and look at the relationships between them.  How do we open to our natural creativity?  How does the practice of meditation facilitate this?  How do these practices impact our daily lives?  This class is for those who want to develop their innate creativity, free artistic blocks or fears, and deepen their meditation practice.  No art experience or skill required. The session will conclude with a creative challenge for you to take into your home practice, and an invitation to bring your work back for the next class in the series, a session in Creative Feedback.

 All materials and supplies are provided.  Suggested donation of $20 for the class.  We will take a lunch break in the middle and ask that you bring your lunch.

 “Imagination relies on empty perception. Painting relies on empty planes. Sculpture relies on empty space. Music relies on empty time. Literature relies on empty concepts. If we are to realize the art of freedom, if we are to discover our creative potential, we need to rely on the experience of our intrinsic vibrant emptiness—the beginningless ground of what we are.” —-Ngakppa Chogyam, Roaring Silence

What does it mean to be utterly emotionally alive?  The theme for the upcoming practice year in the Dharma Studio is “Emotions as Path”. In Tibetan Buddhist traditions, the emotions are embraced as a rich and profound opportunity for awakening.  They are the very rich ground that invite us to grow and develop in understanding our own enlightened nature.  This fall and winter we will work with these ideas, culminating in a four day retreat in March.  Through art making, meditation, and teachings, in the coming practice year we will explore the power of emotions on the Buddhist path, to open to our full human experience, and our naturally powerful capacity for compassion.  We will learn to “dance in the vastness of the open dimension of experience.”*.

Each class in the schedule can be taken as a stand-alone class—you can jump in to any of them and be able to connect to some value in the practice.  But they also interrelate and build on one another, so they will be more meaningful if taken as a series.  For those who plan to attend the Oxbow retreat in March, these classes will provide depth and background that will deepen the retreat experience.  I strongly recommend participation in 1-2 workshops prior to the retreat. 

 In addition to the classes listed on the site, there will regular postings of related readings, art practice challenges, and journal prompts, to sustain and deepen your practice in between sessions.  These will be posted on the Dharmastudio.org website, as well as the Unadorned Lotus Dharma Studio Facebook page.   

Registration and other details:
To register for any class, workshop, or retreat, please email jilleggers9@gmail.com.  Preregistration is accepted at this time for all of the classes below.  (Pre-registration holds your space; a few weeks before each session you will be asked to confirm or pass your space on to another person on the waiting list.). There is a suggested donation for each class, payable at the start of each class unless otherwise specified.  (The retreat will require a deposit in January.)  If money is tight please ask; don’t let finances prevent you from attending classes.

·      All proceeds go in support of the Dharma Studio; the teachers at the Dharma Studio receive no pay for their teaching. 

·      All Dharma Studio classes are limited to 14 participants. 

·      All participants are required to be fully vaccinated and boosted.  Current COVID recommendations for health and safety will be followed. 

The Dharma Studio is offering a series of workshops/retreats, taught by Buddhist monk Deok Wun, who will be traveling from New York to lead these retreats. This series of teachings is an opportunity to begin or refresh your practice, and familiarize yourself with the foundational teachings and the underlying view of reality that drives them.

Cost for the series is $60. To register, please contact Ven Lianghua Su Jill Eggers at jilleggers9@gmail.com. Registration is limited to 15 participants. (UPDATE: This retreat series is full.)

BEYOND THE BASICS: Once you are acquainted with the Basics of Buddhism—the Four Noble Truths, Noble Eightfold Path, Impermanence, Suffering) it is time to encounter the next level of Buddhist Teachings.  These teachings point us towards the truth of reality.  This series of one-day retreats will revisit the foundational Buddhist teachings and focus specifically on those teachings that demonstrate the Buddhist view of reality.  Topics to be covered are: Buddhist view of personhood and personality (no-self and the skandhas), Interdependence, Dependent Origination, Karma, and Merit.

This is a series of two events: a three-day retreat in March, followed by a day long session June 4. In between the retreat sessions there will be individual contact with the teacher on topics related to what was discussed in the prior retreat.

RETREAT I: March 11, 12, and 13

Overview of the Program. The Basics: Four Noble Truths, The Eightfold Path, The Three Universal Truths. The Universal Truth of Suffering. Introduction to Mind: The Obstructive States of Mind; the Eight Winds.

The Universal Truth regarding ‘self’; the Six Sense Gates; the Five Skandhas.

RETREAT 3: Saturday, June 4, 9am to 4 pm

The Universal Truth of Impermanence; Dependent Origination; Putting it all Together

Retreat teacher: The Venerable Deokwun is an ordained Bhikkhu (Buddhist Monk) in the Korean Zen Tradition. He has also trained in the Tibetan Dzogchen practice. He is the founding teacher of the Grand Rapids Buddhist Temple and Zen Center. In addition, he is a certified Enneagram teacher. Prior to becoming a monk he was a college professor, high school teacher, lawyer, and Naval Officer. He holds degrees from Bodang University (Thailand) in Buddhist studies, Rowan University (New Jersey) and the Marshall-Wythe School of Law of the College of William and Mary (Virginia). He is the author of two books on Buddhist subjects: Is it Buddhism---12 Questions Every Seeker Should Ask; and The Circle of Wonder: Reflections on The Silent Illumination. He is one of only a handful of Western monks to receive the highest level of ordination in the Korean Zen tradition. His primary area of focus as a teacher is making the teachings of the Buddha accessible and relevant to our everyday lives with an emphasis on mindfulness, compassionate living, selfless giving.

Program Description:

There are three universal truths in Buddhism: there is no such thing as a permanent self, everything is in a constant state of change and impermanent, and we suffer because we fail to take into account the first two universal truths. Each of these universal truths has specific teachings associated with them. In this series of retreats and teachings we will explore each of these truths and examine how they impact our daily lives.

The truth of self asks us to understand that, while there is a relative, impermanent self, no single thing has any permanent existence that we call a self. To appreciate this truth, we must come to an understanding of how this notion of a permanent self arises. How does it give ground to the ego? When we understand this truth, then how does it affect what we think, feel, and do? As we explore this first truth we will consider the ayatanas---the six sense gates through which all of our experiences pass.  Appreciating how the six sense gates are passed through, we can appreciate that what we call self is nothing more than ego. We will explore the process of how the relative self emerges through the Five Skandhas.

The ego is driven by illusion because the ego itself is an illusion. The ego grasps at the things that pleases it and rejects those it doesn’t. It craves. It judges. What it grasps for, clings to, rejects are those things and experiences it wants to gather to itself and hold on to forever. The ego fights against all notions of impermanence. Yet. It always seems to win. Once of Buddhism’s most difficult teachings is that of Dependent Origination. This teaching explains in detail how everything of ever nature is always in transition. It is always rising and passing away. No thing lats more than a fraction of a second before it changes. We will explore Dependent Origination and consider how taking this teaching to heart may affect how we think, feel, and act.

The third universal truth is that of suffering: it affects us all, it has distinct causes, yet there is a way to alleviate it. This teaching asks us to examine the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. The Four Noble truths set out the general teachings on suffering. The Eightfold Path is a prescription for the alleviation of suffering.  However, before one can fully understand this teaching one must have come to terms with the first two universal truths: self and impermanence. They are the ground from which suffering springs.

Over the course of the three retreats, we will examine each of these universal truths, how they affect us, and what we can do to incorporate them into our daily lives. The retreats will be a combination of teachings, meditations, discussions, meetings with the teacher. This is not a solitary retreat but a group retreat where each participant will be asked to contribute their own insights and observations. While prior knowledge of these truths is helpful, it is not required.

Morning of Meditation

A morning of meditation practices geared to reconnecting us with our sitting practice and compassion.

9:00-9:50: : Body meditation. A deeply grounding, settling guided meditation, to bring us back to ourselves, our immediate awareness, our body.

10:00-11:50 : Some simple instruction in sitting meditation. A sitting meditation, a short break, and then an introduction to Tonglen meditation, or ‘sending and receiving’, a Tibetan Buddhist practice of exchanging self with other. This is a wonderful compassion practice to engage during times of collective pain and grief.