To achieve this effect, lust must be subsumed within something much larger and greater than itself. Most people experience lust in one direction only: instead of subsuming lust within themselves, they find themselves subsumed within a compulsive craving that seems beyond management or escape. Higher manifestations of love are unattainable from such a place. Minnows cannot through imagination make themselves bigger than the sea. They must find extraordinary means to expand far past their usual limits.

The surest means for growth of human consciousness is the creation of the habit of pure Witnessing of all that is. Despite lust’s intensity, Witnessing is no less effective in transformation of it than with other phenomena.  As the Witnessing function of Self-Observation (and other meditative techniques) strengthens with practice over time, consciousness unfurls in a gentle, radiative expansion. If extended far enough, for long enough, then the tender embrace of love cultivated through Witnessing  inexorably loosens the white-knuckle grip of lust. But this work demands a dedication that few are able or willing to make. 

Those who persevere, and refuse to settle for false coin, surely experience the loosening of the grip of lust.  When the shift happens, the practitioner may redirect the tenacious energies of lust to further intensify the clear Witnessing of the inexpressible beauty of the beloved. The context thus created retains lust as an element during sex, but one that has been relegated to a more becoming status, because the practitioner can see every facet of the partner, and not simply a delusional fantasy generated by desire.  The beloved is perfect, without need of amendment or reform.  In that place of true Witnessing, no judgment clouds vision, and all that is, is as it should be. The practitioner sees both “virtues” and “flaws” of the beloved alike as exquisite adornments inherent in the being of the beloved.

In that eternal moment, lover and beloved partake of a mutual Presence enabled by grace. Thus ecstatic union shreds the dark of night.

-Rob Schmidt

© 2009 Tayu Order, Inc.

But what are we afraid of?  What is the nature of love?  Genuine love is infinitely variable and unique in each of its manifestations.  Love shows a different face to every blade of grass. It has no ultimate peak, except in full union with God.  Genuine love has no post-orgasmic let-down after its expression, although love can be experienced as manifesting as pulses or waves, as well as an inexorable radiation.  That’s why resistance to love is futile, because love keeps moving. Love is like the water in a dam that naturally seeks out even the slightest flaw in the obstacle that opposes it.  Wherever  there’s a chink in the armor of resistance, eventually love will find and exploit that weakness, because love never stops.  All resistance to love has such flaws.

Even death does not stop love.  My mother and my teacher have both been dead for more than a decade, yet the love I share with each of them still flowers abundantly in my heart.  Amazingly, that love feeds me as much, if not more now than when these two beloveds still walked the garden path in their bodies. Self-delusion, your mind may mutter.  But try and see if it doesn’t work that way for you too, by putting your resistance to love aside.  Open your heart without qualification and see what happens.  Build a chamber in your heart where the commotions of the mind do not penetrate, and test the quality of love.

-Rob Schmidt

_____________________________________________________________________

Attraction between bodies is natural, and is neither good nor bad. When attraction becomes entwined with ego/android habit energies, we can call that lust. Lust too is neither good nor bad. But when sexual energies are captured by the ego/android, then those energies are diverted from manifesting as love.

-Rob Schmidt

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Love is giving and receiving. Love is process. Love is flow. Arriving in a human body, we begin as net receivers of love from caregivers (even if much or most of that love arises from mechanical sources). With the attainment of responsible age, the natural tendency is to strive to give love in turn, in order to balance what has been received. Although most people bestow what they have to give upon a limited number of objects, at the human level the purest form of giving love – the generosity of the saints – is like the pollen of a tree: unconstrained  by direction, it travels as the wind takes it, and extravagantly spreads itself widely.  There’s no place it doesn’t go. But ultimately love is circulation, and thus encompasses all directions, all comings and goings.

Cultivating open-hearted, unreserved love has been the focus of my spiritual practice for over three decades. Such cultivation proceeds not through mushy affirmations, or through invocation of “good” intentions without grit, sweat and tears behind them. Real love sees clearly with hard-edged discernment, and must be sought after by discarding lies and illusions.  The intensity of real love is not for the faint-hearted. The flames of genuine spiritual practice heat an alchemical retort filled with body, mind and heart, in which the true nature of love is revealed as distortions are discarded. Following are some recently refreshed, as well as new observations on this most crucial topic:

_____________________________________________________________

Love is strong and supple, not weak and inflexible. In the powerful tides of life, love bends without breaking to accommodate any shape necessary to sustain it. If it breaks, if it ends, it wasn’t love to start with, but the disguise of infatuation or compulsive attraction.

____________________________________________________________

Misunderstandings about love fill people’s minds. The greatest misunderstanding manifests as the impulse to grasp after love compulsively.  Spasmodic clutching actually pushes love away. Even worse, the process of grasping actually harms that which it seeks to possess. Strangulation of the so-called object of love does not qualify as love.

____________________________________________________________

The purest, most volatile and brilliant love fills us, surrounds us, and sustains us, but most of us only recognize flashes of it from time to time. The obstacles to love lodged in our minds and hearts cannot simply be dismissed or wished away, prayed away, or meditated into oblivion. The intermediary step to embodying love in a human body is non-identified witnessing of all phenomena. That means witnessing life purely, without judgment. The radiance of love emerges as the purification of witnessing dissolves the ego-driven obstacles that obscure it.

--Rob Schmidt

One afternoon at the store I was brewing an Assam.  A customer came in and I naturally put aside the tea and assisted the customer.  I returned to the Assam about 40 minutes later.  Needless to say the tea was ruined, bitter beyond salvaging.
 
So the next time I was inclined to an afternoon black tea I decided to brew it at a lower temperature, the temperature we use for brewing green teas, about 175 degrees.  Nothing interrupted the brewing this time, so after about three minutes I poured out the tea.  To my surprise I found the tea to be sweeter and more flavorful than I had previously tasted.
 
This started a series of experiments in brewing black teas.  The standard wisdom regarding black teas is that they are more resilient than green or oolong teas, meaning that one can use a full boil to brew black teas, whereas greens and oolongs require a lower temperature.  The idea is that if one uses a full boil on green teas they will turn bitter; which is certainly true.  The same applies to most oolongs.  While it is true that black teas can take a full boil without ruining them, what I have discovered is that a richer, more complex, flavor is produced when one brews black teas at a lower temperature.
 
After my first sip of black tea brewed at a low temperature I began to systematically experiment with black teas.  I discovered that black tea blends in particular benefit from low temperature brewing.  This applies to such favorites as English Breakfast, Irish Breakfast, and the numerous blends available today.  What I discovered is that low temperature brewing allows me to taste the individual ingredients.  For example, if the blend includes Keemun and Darjeeling, with low temperature brewing I can taste these two teas as distinct flavors.  In high temperature brewing, usually at a full boil, the individual teas become indistinguishable.
 
If one thinks of tea as a vegetable, this makes sense.  If one is cooking a soup and one boils the vegetables at a full boil for a while, the individual components lose their distinctiveness.  Similarly, with a black tea blend brewed at a high temperature, the individual ingredients lose their distinctiveness.
 
In contrast, when I brewed black tea blends at a low temperature the individual flavors of the varieties used were clearly distinguishable.  I found this to yield a complex, rich, and savory tea.  The complexity in particular appeals to me because it makes each sip a kind of adventure in the realm of taste.

I first began appreciating tea when I was studying Buddhism in Korea and Japan.  In both of these countries green tea is what is served and appreciated.  In Korea there is also a fondness for roasted barley tea.  When I was back in the U.S. and heading a Temple in New York City I studied Urasenke Tea Ceremony, briefly, and learned about the wonders of matcha and the beauty of the ceremony itself.  I had also studied the Korean Tea Ceremony, which doesn’t use powdered tea, while in Korea.
 
To my mind refined tea, really good tea, was green tea.  I think part of the reason I felt that way was that, like most Americans, my experience with black tea was based exclusively on bag tea; such well-known brands as Lipton, Rose, Stash, and Constant Comment were what I knew about black tea.  Bag tea is, with very few exceptions, the leavings, tea dust, and low grade tea.  It can be, and often is, pleasant enough and in summer makes a good iced tea to take the edge off hot days and nights.  But, it must be said, bag tea lacks any kind of subtlety or complexity and doesn’t offer the full range of flavor that full leaf tea does. 
 
It wasn’t until I started working at Many Rivers, six years ago now, that I became exposed to full leaf black tea on a regular basis.  I think it was in the second year of operation that I encountered a really fine Second Flush Darjeeling.  What a treat!  The aroma, the complexity of the taste, the way the cleanliness of the flavor lingered for a long time after drinking the warm cup, all of this was a kind of revelation to me.  I also want to add the attractive color of black tea; a rich, warm, red, it seemed to me a kind of “royal” color which I found very attractive.
 
With this auspicious introduction I became a black tea convert.  Not over night, but  gradually green tea faded from my menu.  Not entirely; I still enjoy a fine cup of Dragon Well or a robust hit of Gun Powder, and every now and then the ever dependable Genmaicha is just what I need.  On the whole, though, I’ve become a black tea drinker.  I’d say at least 80% of my tea drinking is now black tea.
 
So this blog will be dedicated to black tea in its many varieties, methods of brewing, serving, and enjoying this delightful type of tea.
 
A closing word on the name of the blog:  Red River refers to the fact that the Chinese, who invented black tea, refer to this kind of Tea as “Red Tea” (hence an excellent Chinese Black Tea is called “Imperial Red”).  This is because when the tea is brewed and served in a white cup this kind of tea has that ruby red warm glow that is so distinctive.  I like that association so I decided to use it for the name of this blog – Red River Blog.

One recurring theme in this process is for students to open the third eye as a key means to take to an entirely different level the quality in the sound that the organism can produce. Physiologically, this action is in part achieved by relaxing and opening the muscles of the forehead. In addition, this direction of attention induces an expansive action whereby the head remains upright and the mind keeps an upward or soaring trend of attention. Practically this action allows for a more expressive sound and the holding of a continuous tone, even when the breath pressure reduces and the sound softens. This approach also has the technical benefit of allowing the pitch of even difficult-to-achieve notes to remain true.

But although the approach of opening the third eye and "looking to the sky" can be analyzed physiologically and practically, experientially it is an integrative approach. By opening the third eye and connecting attention with something higher outside ourselves, we don't have to be concerned with controlling the details of the micro-movements of the organism: the organism aligns and configures itself naturally in response the to quality of attention we are invoking.

Attempts to control the sound or to control the position of the body tend toward a reification of tension in the body, which closes down the sound and results in a more mechanical sort of playing. In my recent lesson I had a vivid demonstration of this observation. I was playing a particular phrase in an orignal composition by Koga-sensei, and he was observing and commenting on my struggle with a particular progression of notes that would normally require a coordinated movement of the fingers, neck, and breath to achieve. He noted that I had tension in my upper lip. His suggestion was for me to connect my upper lip to my third eye while I was playing. I did this and immediately the difficulty of the particular progression was gone and I was able to return to a consistent expansive playing of the phrase. The distinction was quite apparant to me and was typical of the many such epiphanies that I have been privileged to enjoy through the brilliance of Koga-sensei.

As I was enjoying the freedom of that very subtle interior gesture of connecting my upper lip to my third eye, I looked at the root of the tension I had been holding in my lip. Describing the ensuing impression in words does not capture the instantaneous impression of my seeing the root of this tension, because my seeing of it was not a product of analysis. It simply was what it was. What I saw was the tension arising from a fear of missing the note and the corresponding mechanical attempt to compensate for this fear by overcontrolling the muscles of my upper lip to make sure that I did not miss the next note in the progression. This seemed like a left-over habit from my early years of practice and the resulting tension was functioning like an energy block or a unresponsive knot (all very subtle however). When I connected my lips to my third eye, this energy had a place to go and the fear and corresponding tension simply went away. A suppleness had returned to that part of my body.

In seeing this particular mechanism of tension revealed, I appreciated the occasion to reflect on the pervasiveness of micro and macro tension throughout the body. These tensions are created as defensive responses to a myriad of perceived threats. I perceived how these tensions enslave energies in service of mechanical reactions to circumstances in all aspects of our lives. The insights and discoveries that Koga-sensei teaches about liberating the Self in the performance of shakuhachi apply equally well to other aspects of life. The key elements amount to striving toward a higher octave of energy, while at the same time being mindful, at the level of sensing, of the activities of the organism as a whole.

First, let’s distinguish between a spiritual tradition and a religion. Tayu founder Robert Ennis used to call religion the skeletal remains of a previously living spiritual practice. This metaphor aptly depicts the relationship between the two phenomena. A spiritual tradition arises when someone has a profound and sustainable realization about the nature of reality far beyond the capacities of the egoic mind, and can skillfully transmit that realization to others. Such a realization has profound effects upon the moment-by-moment experience of life. A spiritual tradition remains alive as long as a fully-realized practitioner of that tradition can demonstrate its principles in daily life. When an incompletely-realized successor seeks to continue to promulgate the teachings without full understanding of their underpinnings, then we can speak of the birth of a religion.

At its foundation, a religion consists of ossified, more or less unvarying rules. These may be ethical codes (e.g., “Honor thy father and mother” and “Do Not Steal”) or prescriptions for producing particular results (e.g., “Pray to Lakshmi for abundance” or “Meditate to realize your Buddha nature”).  The rules of a religion tend to be frozen because the mind of a religious adherent (as opposed to a spiritual adept) is itself more-or-less frozen, and such a mind naturally clings to, and reverences the preserved words of the founder. In contrast, the mind/heart of spiritual realization comprehends without thought that conditions and contexts of practice necessarily change; hence appropriate change is not simply enabled, it is embraced and executed.

Back to Darwin and religion: Interactions between Darwinian thought and religion are often seen as a competition between two more-or-less incompatible idea systems. This is the basis for the religious fundamentalist rejection of Darwin. Or more generously, the interactions between Darwinian thought and religion have also been viewed as an opportunity to expand the relevance of each separate system through cross-fertilization and a general broadening of perspective. But the focus either way has been on interaction between two differently constituted ideational systems. Some people insist that only one can be right; others prefer to try to make both correct.

In contrast, there are some very interesting points of congruence between Darwin’s work and living spiritual practice. Darwin sought a comprehensive explanation for the observed distribution of differing species of life across time and space. Natural selection was a brilliant insight because it was based upon deep observation of the ways that organisms live, reproduce, and die, and because it enabled immediate comprehension of relationships between phenomena whose linkages had not before been obvious. But the true scientist understands that even the most stunning theory must, in a fundamental sense, always remain provisional. Evidence – the observed facts – must always come first before any explanation to account for the nature of evidence, because without that attitude, newly-observed data that might support another explanation may be ignored or jettisoned from a desire to save a cherished theory. That attitude – the priority of evidence over theory – is the essential core of the scientific enterprise.  It is even more important than the ideal of “controlled experiments” because in many cases, and Darwin’s naturalist observational data is one such case, establishing and conducting meaningful controlled experiments with certain types of evidence is completely impractical. It’s quite hard to do with species of finches, to use one of Darwin’s examples. It is only in recent years that Darwin’s scientific successors have been able to directly demonstrate the action of natural selection upon species of microorganisms under laboratory conditions.

Like Darwin and other scientists, practitioners and adepts in living spiritual traditions seek comprehensive, meaningful answers to important questions. Who am I? What am I doing, and why am I doing it? Is there some aspect of experience greater than the ordinary experience of life that people commonly agree upon, and if so, what is it, and how can I obtain reliable data about it?

Like the best scientists, practitioners and adepts in living spiritual traditions strive as part of their endeavor to always remain open to new data that might call for revision or replacement of even the most profoundly beautiful answers so far attested. One could even characterize the achievement of a true spiritual adept as the creation of a reliable habit of interior openness, of deliberate instability of certainty, operating simultaneously along with a full, richly wholehearted and unimpeded appreciation for the beauty of reality so far revealed.

So it is the inscription within consciousness of the instability of certainty that marks the best scientists and the best spiritual practitioners. Our ordinary discursive minds compulsively seek to eliminate uncertainty; but the wise recognize the futility of grasping after false assurances as the egoic mind insists. Because the habit of grasping after ideas is so strong, people assume that replacing one dogmatic system of ideas with another represents profound change. But the opening of heart and mind to whatever the universe has to tell us takes us farther still, as great saints and scientists demonstrate. Great scientists and great practitioners do not just leap once or twice into the unknown. They make careers of leaping into the mystery at the heart of existence. What career do you seek to create with your life?

© 2009 Tayu Order, Incorporated

• White: Silver Needle
• Green: Emerald Sencha & Kukicha
• Oolong: Cold Summit Tung Ting
• Pu-erh: Silver Needle Beencha & Imperial Pu-erh
• Herbal: Tulsi Ginger

Several interesting principles emerged from the research that we did in preparation for this tasting. Following is an outline of the subjects discussed, which can be summarized in two points:

• Camellia sinenis (tea) is recognized both at a general level as an aid to the digestive processes of the body
• Specific types of tea have been recognized as having special properties that support and enhance digestion

Although we didn’t structure the actual discussion this way, in preparing for the event I had organized the research on tea and digestion into three more or less distinct perspectives, followed by an outline of the topics covered in the discussion on each perspective:

•  Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)
• Alternative Western Medicine
• Western Scientific Studies

  Traditional Chinese Medicine
  In TCM, food and drink are understood to be medicinal in nature. Proper digestion is key because the body has to be able to absorb the beneficial substances that we ingest. As a widely appreciated remedy in the context of TCM, tea is understood to have the following properties:

  • Tea helps to regulate & promote healthy movement of qi (chi), i.e., life-force energies
  • Tea helps with the digestion of fatty foods 
  • Tea is often taken immediately after meals as a digestive aid
  • Pu-erh tea invigorates the Spleen, disinhibits dampness, reduces stomach heat, moves stomach qi downwards, counteracts & flushes alcohol toxins – in fact, pu-erh is widely used as a remedy after drinking too much alcohol

    Alternative/Holistic Western medicine
    In alternative Western medicine, our research identified three principal assertions related to tea and digestion: Acid/Alkaline balance of body tissues; Diuretic properties of tea; “Adaptogens” in tea. Here are the summarized points:
     

    Alkalinity/Acidity
    • Tea assists digestion by neutralizing excess acidity and preventing fermentation and putrefaction in the stomach; moreover, more acid body tissues are less healthy than more alkaline tissues, so ingesting more alkaline substances is beneficial for the body. Example: Alkalization of mouth, throat and stomach reduces halitosis
    • Tea leaves freshly picked are maximally alkaline. Processing increases acidity, so whites are more alkaline than greens, greens are more alkaline than oolongs, and black teas may well be acidic rather than alkaline.The acidity/alkalinity of tea may be due in large part to the pH of the water used to brew the tea – ideal water for tea should be slightly alkaline
    • Overbrewing tea, whether from too long an infusion, or using water that exceeds the ideal temperature for the kind of leaf (esp. green teas), can make the brew more acid because more tannic compounds are incorporated in overbrewed teas
    • Since blood and tissue acidity promotes calcium loss from bones & teeth, daily consumption of alkaline teas reduces osteoporosisTea is a diuretic that flushes toxins from the body antioxidant and alkaline properties of tea remove toxins from tissues that are then excreted

    Tea contains “Blood Adaptogens”

    • Adaptogens are medicinal compounds alleged to regulate blood pressure, balance blood sugar, and prevent thickening of the blood
      

    Scientific Studies
    Results of new scientific studies of the benefits of tea for the body are regularly reported in the scientific and popular media. Many of these studies are relevant to the subject of tea and digestion. As Stuart pointed out at the tasting, it is important to recognize that the nature of scientific inquiry and investigation means that studies are generally constructed to answer more narrow questions than those addressed in TCM and alternative, holistically-oriented western medicine. None is “better” than the others; each approach simply has its own different strengths.

    Here are some points that emerge from a cursory look at currently available studies on tea and digestion:
     

    • Thermogenic (heat-producing) effects of tea on the body:
    • Higher metabolism rate produced by regular tea drinking (which is the basis of claims for tea promoting weight loss)
    • Higher metabolism of fats in particular produced by drinking tea
    • One of the most important antioxidant compounds in tea, EGCG (Epigallocatechin gallate) also has an anti-inflammatory effect within the gastrointestinal tract
    • EGCG blocks absorption of cholesterol by the body, in addition to the action of tea in removal of cholesterol & sticky plaques from walls of blood ; plus it promotes excretion of cholesterol-containing compounds
    • Black tea has been demonstrated to have anti-ulcerative effects in animal studies
    • Black teas have been shown in animal studies to assist in regulation of serum blood sugar levels; although as yet unproven in humans, black tea consumption may thus help prevent diabetes

    This is just the briefest of outlines of material on the benefits of tea for digestion. We welcome comments on and questions about this posting. Please join the ongoing discussion!

“Meditation has been sold to Americans as a tool to reduce stress, enhance calm and improve health. But real meditation is a wolf, not a fraud in sheep’s clothing. In its purest forms, meditation consumes the unwholesome flesh of self-delusion to lay bare the enduring bones of Truth described by saints and mystics. The catch is that, while still very personally attached to the gristly tendrils of our mechanical, compulsive impulses, we imagine that it must be agony to observe the wolf feasting as it is meant to do. And that fearful anticipation of pain effectively circumvents the only hope of genuine salvation from the merry-go-round of self-deception. Hence real self-examination doesn’t just happen; it must be made to happen, systematically and consistently. That is the task and the promise of real meditation.”

If it is true that meditation has been misrepresented as benign and oh-so-sweet, this passage operates as a corrective to that misperception. When meditation is understood to be boring, bland, and gutless, why should those helplessly recapitulating their compulsive habits seek refuge in meditation?

Meditation as carnivore is a metaphor to help people realize that real practice, real meditation, can be pursued with enormous energy, and must be so pursued to lead to liberation from compulsive habit patterns. Meditation as wolf reminds the practitioner that the energies of the passions can be transmuted to serve practice.

Genuine meditative self-examination entails cultivation of a profound hunger for truth. But such cultivation is not a saccharine pursuit. Injunctions to be “sweet” or “nice” are irrelevant to what it feels like to redirect the convoluted energies of self-indulgence toward a pure passion for truth. But this can be difficult to appreciate, as the title of one of Jacob Needleman’s latest books Why Can’t We Be Good? illustrates. There are two answers to Needleman’s question:
 

1)      We can’t be good because we’re stuck enacting deep habit patterns that are relatively impervious to ordinary self-reflection or psychological manipulation. Even when we manage to shift some things via ordinary means, unintended consequences usually emerge where we least expect them, such that the sum total of unnecessary pain produced does not vary.

2)      The only thing that can profoundly affect the compulsive habits that undergird everything we do is spiritual practice, which consists of the rigorous, persistent witnessing of unvarnished truth. Identifying with considerations of good and bad are worse than irrelevant to this pursuit. These judgments constitute links in the chains that bind us. We cannot break our chains by adding more links!

The purity of witnessing meditation cuts through the quagmire of good intentions and selfish actions, just as carnivores feed not because they seek to be “good” or “bad” but because that is their function.

Ecologists tell us that wolves seek the easiest prey: those who are weak by virtue of being old, lame, ill or young.  When we judge wolves as bad, and eliminate them from ecosystems, other creatures suffer as imbalances occur. It behooves us to recognize that the wolf of meditation consumes that in us which is weak, or as Gurdjieff would have put it, that which is unbecoming to three-brained (human) beings. We serve God, the Universe, and ourselves best when we bring the power and ferocity of the carnivore to pursuit of truth. The strongest practitioners and the greatest saints are those who impartially witness all phenomena with the clarity and single-mindedness of a carnivore stalking its prey.

Note: The paragraph quoted at the beginning of this blog posting is part of the description of two linked public talks that Stuart and I will be doing on two successive Thursdays at Many Rivers in December 2008. The full descriptions of the talks are copied below.

Dangerous Meditation I: The Esoteric Pearl of Great Price
Rob Schmidt, Ph.D., Tayu meditation teacher
Thursday December 11  7:30 pm

The esoteric spiritual practices of the world’s great religious traditions have left the confines of monastic cells and huts in remote mountains. Descriptions of esoteric secrets now fill books and can be found on the web. Does that mean there are fewer spiritual secrets left, or none? Instead of lamenting this purported loss, we might prefer to celebrate that the willful obscurantism of false teachers, deployed to snag the unwary, has been thus undermined. Most importantly, we can take comfort in the perennial truth that the “open secret” of genuine practice remains hidden in plain view in our age where information is garbage. While in times past mystics sought the Pearl of Great Price in remote deserts, today the mesmerizing wilderness of contemporary life obscures its gleam. We need training to recognize the nature of the Pearl because it and we are immersed in crap.  Yet even with every stolen mystery a mouse-click away, the truth of esoteric practice remains constant: only those initiated into productive, persistent practice are positioned to pluck the Pearl from the grime of illusion consistently and reliably. Join us for the first of two talks discussing what esoteric Truth means in the twenty-first century. These talks serve as prelude to a practice group commencing in January 2009 at Many Rivers.

Rob Schmidt, Ph.D. studied with Tayu Meditation Center founder Robert Daniel Ennis, and succeeded him as Tayu spiritual director.  Tayu Center is an esoteric spiritual school with roots in several traditions, but founder Robert Ennis crafted an original and cohesive set of everyday esoteric practices applicable to the conditions of life in the twenty-first century.

Dangerous Meditation II: The Esoteric Practice of Co-Meditation
Stuart Goodnick, Tayu meditation teacher

Thursday December 18 7:30 pm

Meditation has been sold to Americans as a tool to reduce stress, enhance calm and improve health. But real meditation is a wolf, not a fraud in sheep’s clothing. In its purest forms, meditation consumes the unwholesome flesh of self-delusion to lay bare the enduring bones of Truth described by saints and mystics. The catch is that, while still very personally attached to the gristly tendrils of our mechanical, compulsive impulses, we imagine that it must be agony to observe the wolf feasting as it is meant to do. And that fearful anticipation of pain effectively circumvents the only hope of genuine salvation from the merry-go-round of self-deception. Hence real self-examination doesn’t just happen; it must be made to happen, systematically and consistently. That is the task and the promise of real meditation. Co-Meditation is an esoteric meditative practice explicitly designed to bring impartial self-examination attention to those sticky, delusive habits of relationship that obscure the true nature of our connections to others. Join us for the second of two talks discussing the nature of esoteric practice, and to taste the most basic form of Co-Meditation.

Stuart Goodnick studied with Tayu Meditation Center founder Robert Daniel Ennis, and has been a Tayu teacher since 1993. Tayu Center is an esoteric spiritual school with roots in several traditions, but founder Robert Ennis crafted an original and cohesive set of everyday esoteric practices applicable to the conditions of life in the twenty-first century.