VIU Meditation Sittings
Fridays, Building 200, Room 324; 12 - 1 pm
The VIU Meditation sit is presented as a cooperatively organized and lead Student/Faculty activity. It is intended as an opportunity for those who have a meditation practice founded in a range of traditions and for those who have a curiosity about mediation to come together for meditation and discussion. We’ll probably start at around 12:05, sit for 20 minutes or so and finish with discussion.
There are a couple of meditation zafus (cushions) available. Please bring any cushions, blankets, benches or mats you may wish to use to the session you attend.
Hosted by Dion Pepper-Smith and Craig McGuigan
Dion Pepper-Smith is a VIU Psychology student. He was trained in the Soto Zen school of mindfulness meditation as thought by Suzuki Roshi. He has been practicing regularly for nearly ten years with four years of intensive residential practice at Tassajara Zen Mountain monastery, and Green Gulch Farm Zen Centre in California from 2003 to 2007. In 2007 he received the sixteen lay bodhisattva precepts from his teacher Eijun Linda Ruth Cutts.
Craig McGuigan has been a member of the counseling department at VIU since 2001. He has been practicing Meditation for 7 years. Craig has had a longstanding interest in the role of Mindfulness in Mental Health and in 2005 attended training in the use of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction with Jon Kabat Zinn. Craig has attended a 10 day silent Vipassana Mediation Retreat.
Over the last five years Dion and Craig have collaborated in offering a place and time where faculty and students can come together to meditate.
The Basics of Meditation
Meditation is about opening and relaxing with whatever arises, without picking and choosing. It’s definitely not meant to repress anything and it’s not intended to encourage grasping either.
Pema Chodron, When Things Fall Apart
Meditation is really a non-doing. It is the only human endeavour I know of that does not involve trying to get somewhere else but, rather, emphasizes being where you already are.
John Kabat Zinn, Full Catastrophe Living
When we take the one seat on our meditation cushion we become our own monastery. We create the compassionate space that allows for the arising of all things: sorrow, loneliness, shame, desire regret, frustration, happiness.
Jack Kornfield, A Path with Heart
For the purposes of this meditation, the most basic and universal practice of silent “mindfulness” sitting meditation will be practiced. Typically, sitting on the ground is preferred but if that is difficult, you can sit in a chair. Take whichever position permits you to sit relatively comfortably and still for the duration of the meditation period. Generally speaking, your posture should be erect and dignified. Your eyes can be closed, or fixed on the floor or on the wall in front of you.
Meditating is acknowledging and observing whatever is happening – whether pleasant or unpleasant – in a relaxed way. Meditation is being in the very present moment. As a beginning practice, many traditions promote the notion of being aware of one’s breathing. The purpose is merely to observe, notice, be aware of the breath as it enters and leaves your body. Thus, each time your attention wanders to thoughts, sensations or feeling, you can simply, gently, bring your attention back to your breathing.
Meditating is watching and waiting patiently with awareness and understanding. Meditation is not trying to experience something you have read or heard about. It is just paying attention to the present moment. Avoid getting lost in thoughts about the past. Avoid getting carried away by thoughts about the future.
Trying to create something is greed. Rejecting what is happening is aversion. Not knowing if something is happening or has stopped happening is delusion. You are not trying to make things turn out the way you want them to happen. You are trying to know what is happening as it is. Notice what your mind is doing and give your attention to being aware, rather than thinking. A light and free mind enables you to meditate well.
You don’t need to focus hard when you meditate. You don’t need to seek anything. You’re not waiting for “something to happen.” Neither are you waiting for something to stop happening. The meditating mind should be relaxed and at peace. Don’t focus too hard, don’t control. Neither force nor restrict yourself. Don’t try to create anything, and don’t reject what is happening. Just be aware.
If you’re interested in attending, please drop Craig an e-mail message at, craig.mcguigan@viu.ca