The AZC Fall Practice Period kicks off with this One-Day Retreat in line with traditional Sōtō Zen forms and the topic of our Practice Period- Training the Mind with Lojong. This daylong meditation retreat will be led by Visiting Teacher Dawn Neal and AZC Head Teacher Doshin Mako Voelkel. The focus will be on the embodied experience of ānāpānasati, mindfulness of breathing, as a foundational practice. During the day we will lightly weave in contemplation on the four preliminaries of Lojong below. The emphasis will be on allowing those contemplations to inform and to be supported by mindfulness of breathing.

At the end of the day, there will be an optional tea and discussion time to share learnings in a lightly facilitated way.

The four preliminaries of Lojong:

1. Awareness of the preciousness of human life.
2. Awareness of the reality that life ends; death comes for everyone
3. Recalling that everything you do, virtuous or not, has a result. 
4. The understanding that too much focus on self-importance, including too much thinking about being good or bad leads to suffering. Obsessing about getting what you want and avoiding what you don’t want does not result in happiness.