Workshops & Events

Mindfulness for Parents (hybrid)
September 11 from 7-8:30 pm

We are offering this Mindfulness for Parents program once a month. This is for parents and caregivers of children of all ages. It is facilitated by Kelly June Good, Kathy Dull and Karleen Manchanda.

Calm

  • Changing the way we relate to parenting stress

  • Learning how to attune to and regulate emotions

  • Shifting from automatic reactions to thoughtful responses

Compassion

  • Developing a kind, non-judgmental acceptance of ourselves and our children

  • Taking care of ourselves so we can care for our families

  • Building our capacity to hold space for the joys and difficulties of life

Connection

  • Nurturing attentive and open-hearted relationships

  • Integrating mindfulness practices into daily family life

  • Finding support through sharing in a mindful community

This event is FREE and hybrid but please register below. If you are attending on line, the zoom link is here. Donations are appreciated should you wish to support our mission.

Fridays with Roshi
September 22, 2023, from 6:30-8:00 PM (CST)

“Gratitude is the Best Medicine” Robert Roshi

In a time of increasing instability, chaos, violence, and disruption, how do you remain open and kind? How do you find your footing, when the ground keeps shifting? When the map you relied on to find your way in the world no longer works, what map will you use? When uncertainty is the norm, how will you show up? Will you be able to still contribute your gifts in such a time? Roshi Robert will lead a discussion and inquiry into this problem and how we might begin to find our own gifts in the midst of the storm.

Pricing for Program

Patron: $30
Supporter: $20
Participant: $10

Autumn Sit and Social
Thursday, October 5, 2023, 6:30–9:00 PM (in-person only)

Let’s welcome the Fall Season together. ZLMC’s Kinship Circle invites you for an evening meditation on the Center’s back patio (6:30-7:15 pm), followed by refreshments and social time with your Sangha friends. Bring a beverage of your choice and we will provide some snacks. We hope that you will join us for this FREE event. Please RSVP below.

Zazenkai with Roshi June Tanoue
October 7, 2023

This is a one-day Zen workshop. It will be in—person only.

Zazenkai Schedule

Pricing for Zazenkai

We rely primarily on the donations and class fees that our sangha offers. We encourage those with more capacity for giving to consider registering at the patron or supporter level. One pass is good for all four classes.

$199 Patron
$179 Supporter
$139 Participant

Gong Enhanced Sound Journey
A special benefit for ZLMC celebrating Indigenous People’s Day - Monday evening, October 9th from 7–9 pm

Gong Bath is a surprising and unique sound experience that washes through your whole body with dissonance and harmonic sounds, creating spontaneous meditative effects that are often described as deeply relaxing, entrancing, balancing and cleansing. The sequence and combination of these sounds can un-stick places we may not be aware of, and creates a relaxing atmosphere conducive to a stillness within. Come experience a unique intimate voyage through the mystic vibrations of harmonic Gongs sounds, profound poetic expression, guided meditation, and the balancing grounding sonorities of the Native American flute.

Featuring musicians of Mystic Pulsetm:
Jason-Senshin E Kyo Ruby - Gongs
Lisamarie-Luminous Dana of the Heart - Windwalkter - Native American Flutes & Relaxation Guide

Note: Participants may receive Gong Bath-Sound Journeys in the relaxed reclined position of shavasana (on your back, laying on the floor), in zazen, or in a chair as needed. It is recommended that you bring yoga mats, zabutons/zafus, or camping pads, pillows and blankets for your comfort. Please silence all techie devices and leaves shoes at the door.

Lisamarie Windwalker will lead this special event at the Zen Center on Monday night October 9th. She is in the lineage of Thich Nhat Hanh and is also active with the Zen Peacemakers. She and Kathleen Hoetsu Battke co-created the Ecosattva Council Circle & Hive.

Ticket Prices for Gong Enhanced Sound Journey

We rely primarily on the donations and class fees that our sangha offers. We encourage those with more capacity for giving to consider registering at the patron or supporter level. This special event is a fund-raiser for the Zen Life & Meditation Center, Chicago.

$69 Patron
$49 Supporter
$29 Participant

Eight Verses of Training the Mind Workshop (hybrid)

Four week series begins Thur., October 12, 2023 @ 7:00 PM (CST)

This course will focus on one of the most concise teachings of Lojong, or Mind Training. Lojong means to observe and train one’s own mind to develop true compassion and wisdom. Even though this short text is comprised of only eight-four line verses it reveals the essence of the Mahayana path to enlightenment. The instructions offer essential practices for developing the precious heart of bodhichitta by cultivating compassion, wisdom, and love.

The text, originally written by Bodhisattva Geshe Langri Tangpa, an eleventh-century Tibetan Buddhist Master embodies the very heart of dharma by teaching the essence of the Mahayana path to liberation. The fundamental theme of mind training practice is a profound re-orientation of our basic attitudes, habits, and thoughts about ourself and others.

Instructor: Rev. Diane Myogetsu Bejcek is a novitiate Zen Priest and Shuso (Senior Student) at the Zen Life & Meditation Center, Chicago. She completed a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology and is now a Licensed Clinical Psychologist working as a Consulting Psychologist with DCFS and social services agencies providing psychological assessments, clinical supervision and consultation for children. She began formal Buddhist study and practice with a Tibetan Buddhist lineage and practiced that for about 12 years, even ordaining there as a Buddhist nun. She later took up Zen training at ZLMC and eventually ordained here as a Zen preist.

Pricing for the Eight Verses of Training the Mind

We rely primarily on the donations and class fees that our sangha offers. We encourage those with more capacity for giving to consider registering at the patron or supporter level. One pass is good for all four classes.

$199 Patron
$179 Supporter
$139 Participant

Calling Our Sangha Together (hybrid)
October 22 – Nov. 19, 2023 (Five consecutive Sundays)

Roshi Robert will facilitate five sessions with our Sangha community, beginning on Sunday, October 22, 2023 from 9:30 to 11:00 am. Each session will build on the previous one using an ancient Tibetan process called the Four Karmas (This will be done differently than our normal council process). Roshi invites all Sangha members to join and requests that members commit to all five sessions so that they get the full experience of this process. If you can’t attend one or two sessions, they will be recorded for those participating.

The following guidelines will help us get the most out of this process:

  • DEEP INQUIRY: We rely on differences of experience and perception in order to discern action that might bring sanity and clarity to our situation.

  • HUMILITY: We honor the fact that no one person or group has the answer.

  • APPRECIATION: The experience of all stakeholders are essential to understand the complexity of our situation.

  • PATIENCE: We take time to listen to each other so that we may better understand the complexity of our situation.

  • INSIGHT: We open to the collective wisdom that arises when we work well together.

We make the following assumptions:

  • Certainty is the source of positional conflict; curiosity creates and opens possibilities and enriched relationships

  • All perspectives are essential but not sufficient. No one person or group understand the whole complexity of our situation.

  • Every perspective, prejudice, and opinion offers information that is valuable to the whole.

  • People support what they create; engagement is a necessity for a healthy community.

  • Diversity is an emergent quality; it is a life-saving enriching blessing, not a problem.

The Five Stages of this process involve:

  1. Pacifying (Buddha Family Energy)

  2. Enriching (Ratna Family Energy)

  3. Magnetizing (Padma Family Energy)

  4. Cutting (Vajra Family Energy)

  5. Action (Karma Family Energy)

These sessions are all FREE. A FREE resource course has been created on our new Zen Life Online Community platform. Should you wish to study the history and context of this process, please email robert at robert.althouse@zlmc.org. He’ll send you all the information you’ll need to log onto the site.

Should you have any questions about this, please feel free to contact Robert Robert by email at robert.althouse@zlmc.org or at 708.703.2510.

We ask that everyone RSVP so we know if you are planning to attend all the sessions.