The more we insist that we have to change, the more we find ourselves going around in circles. The very urgency to change tends to strengthen our habitual reactions.
Change begins not with trying to change, but with noticing. That is what we believe. When we notice, a little room opens up between us and the reactions we fall into automatically, and we become able to choose for ourselves what to do.
Zen Gestalt brings the practices of Zazen (seated meditation) and the Gestalt approach together as one. From the solitary time of Zazen, we reach out to others and the world, and then return to sitting. Through this movement back and forth, awareness takes root in daily life. These five weeks are not for acquiring something. They are for noticing what is happening in you right now.
What We Do in This Workshop
Sitting
We sit on a chair or on the floor and look for the posture that is most comfortable. In a quiet time of our own, we turn our attention to whatever is arising in us at that moment: the breath, bodily sensations, sounds, thoughts, feelings. There is no need to make an effort not to think. When you notice that you have become caught up in thought, gently return to the breath. We repeat this again and again.
Noticing the Body
When we are thinking about something or talking with someone, something is also changing in the body. Our breathing becomes shallow when we are tense. Our throat tightens as we try to say something. We notice a stirring in our chest in response to someone’s words. Our shoulders drop when we feel safe. Subtle changes like these usually go unnoticed.
Here, we attend not only to what we are thinking but also to physical sensations. You do not have to feel anything in particular. “I can’t really tell” and “I don’t feel anything” are also the experience of that moment, and we look at them just as they are.
The Gestalt Process Group
The other pillar, alongside Zazen, is the process group of Gestalt therapy: a small group in which we attend together to what is happening among us here and now. It is not a discussion in which we exchange opinions on a topic or reach conclusions, nor is it a time for sharing impressions of Zazen. It is a time for seeing what is actually unfolding here and now.
You become curious about what someone said. You feel tense. You want to keep your distance. A sense of not quite understanding comes up. We observe such reactions as they are, without evaluating them. You are never obliged to say anything. We quietly watch the process of how what happens in the group affects us inside.
Beyond Talking About Something: Noticing What Is Happening Now
When we speak, we attend not only to what we are saying but also to what is happening in us at the very moment we say it: the state of the body, what feelings are arising.
At times, one participant’s experience naturally comes to the foreground, and a piece of Gestalt work begins from there. The facilitator attends not only to that person’s own experience but also to what is happening between that person and the other participants, and in the group as a whole, and intervenes as needed.
Moving Between Zazen and the Process Group
In Zazen, we observe on our own what is happening in us, and then carry that awareness with us into the process group. A body that was quiet while sitting alone may suddenly tense at something someone says. In contact with others, feelings we had not noticed may appear, and what had not yet found words may begin to take shape.
We deepen the practice by moving back and forth between these two settings.
We bring the stillness cultivated in Zazen into our interactions with others. We look at how our experience in Zazen and our experience in the group change, take what happened in relationship back with us, sit once more, and again observe what is happening in us. This movement back and forth is the heart of the workshop.
How the Five Weeks Unfold
Each session has a theme that serves as a doorway into that day’s practice. But the theme is not the only thing we work with. Because we give priority to what is actually happening in you and in the group at that moment, something other than the planned theme may become the center of the day.
What we work with in one week does not end with that week. We gradually widen the range of our attention, carrying with us what we have noticed so far.
Week 1
Noticing what is happening in you
In the first session, after going over how the workshop will proceed, we practice Zazen and body awareness, and then enter the process group. We begin simply by looking: “What is happening in me right now?” The breath, bodily sensations, thoughts, feelings, expectations or nervousness about being here, reactions as we listen to others: we look at what is happening just as it is.
Week 2
Noticing what you sense in the body
In the second week, we focus on working through the body. When we are talking with someone, when we are thinking, when our feelings are stirred, all kinds of changes take place in the body. We attend to the breath, posture, where we are holding tension, warmth, heaviness. Rather than analyzing the body, we simply check its present state just as it is.
Week 3
Noticing what is happening between you and others
In the third week, we turn our attention to ourselves in relationship. When we are with others, we may want to come closer or to pull away, to say something or to stay silent. We may want to go along with the other person, or to push back. Without judging these reactions as good or bad, we look at them as what is happening in us in the space between ourselves and others.
Week 4
Noticing habitual reactions, and choice
In certain situations, we tend to react in much the same way every time. We snap back, fall silent, go along with the other person, blame ourselves or the other, or keep turning things over in our mind. Before trying to fix this, we pause and ask, “What am I about to do right now?” When we notice our reaction, a little room may open up within what had been automatic. There, you may do what you always do, or you may try something different. What matters is not making the right choice, but noticing what you are doing and what you are about to choose.
Final Week
Two days in person
In the final two days, we take more time to deepen the practice we have been doing online. Bringing together what has emerged in each of us and in the group over the four weeks, we move between Zazen, body awareness, and the process group.
In person, we can sense movement, physical distance, eye contact, and the atmosphere of the room more directly than online. Where it helps, we include standing and walking as well as sitting. This is not a time for completing something. It is a time for looking still more carefully at what has been happening so far.
Daily Practice
This workshop is not complete in the weekly sessions alone. Everyday life between sessions is also part of the five weeks of practice.
During the four weeks, we recommend that you continue short periods of Zazen on your own while observing the changes that arise in body and mind in daily life, and that you keep a journal. We will explain how to do this and suggest a length of time in the first session, but how long you practice each day is up to you. The journal is a record for yourself. You will not be asked to hand it in.
Outside your sitting time, too, while working or doing chores, while talking with someone, when something irritates you, or when something someone said stays with you, pause now and then and ask, “What is happening in me right now?” Gently turn your attention to the breath, bodily sensations, feelings, thoughts, your distance from others, the urge to do something.
Practicing every day without fail, setting aside a fixed amount of time, and making up for days you missed are not conditions of participation. If continuing becomes a burden, you are free to stop or to change how you practice. This is not homework to get through. It is a practice for increasing the moments in which you turn your attention to yourself in the course of daily life.
Deciding for Yourself
In the process group, you will not be asked for deep self-disclosure. Whether you speak, and how much you say, is for you to decide.
If the facilitator suggests something and it feels too difficult, you can decline. We also ask that personal things other participants have shared not be taken outside the group. If you feel strong anxiety or distress during Zazen or the process group, please tell the facilitator right away. We respect each person’s choice to participate at a level that feels manageable for them.
Note: This workshop does not provide medical care or psychotherapy.
Not Seeking Change, Simply Noticing
If there is anxiety, before trying to get rid of it, we look at how it is showing up. If there is anger, before trying not to be angry, we look at how that anger is arising in the body and in our relationships. If we don’t know, we don’t force an answer. We attend to the state of not knowing as well. Even when we notice that we always react in the same way, we do not try to change it at once. First we look at how it is happening.
As we go on noticing, something a little different from before may happen. We value observing that process without hurrying it.
In this workshop, we do not regard having acquired something, having solved a problem, or having become better than before as the only outcomes. Noticing a bodily sensation you had not noticed before. Seeing your own reaction to someone’s words. Being able to stay for a while in not knowing. We value these experiences too.
Without trying to have a special experience, we look at what is happening in us at each moment, and at what happens in us when we come into contact with others and the world. That is the practice we repeat over these five weeks.
Sit.
Notice.
Connect with others and the world.
And return, once more, to yourself.