Fall Announcements for Dragon Mountain

Things have been busy at Dragon Mountain, and there will be more announcements coming over the next few months. This blog will be used for announcements etc., while we are moving to a different platform for topic and discussion posts (to be announced soon).


Mental Health Care Advocates of Rhode Island/OASIS

Dragon Mountain runs the Responsive Wellness Program at Mental Health Care Advocates of RI/OASIS. MHCA/OASIS is a peer run community for those with mental illness. Dragon Mountain holds 7 sessions a week of qi gong and meditation, plus an additional once a month pain management guided group meditation. We have been present with this community for almost two years and are excited to see how it is growing.

Fox Point Senior Citizens Center

Dragon Mountain is now offering the Responsive Wellness Program every Weds at 9:30am (right before bingo) at the Fox Point Senior Center. This is a seated program with movement, meditation and information all focused on providing pain management and improving quality of life. Fox Point Senior Center is free of charge, serves lunch (donation requested but not required), has many different fitness programs including one that features the beautiful pool, as well as different activities throughout the week. They are located right in the Boys and Girls Club on Ives (next to the Fox Point Library). This is a wonderful community and we are honored to have been asked to be a part of it.
PS - they could also use a volunteer for a few hours a week to help in the office, contact me via the z-cc.com site.

Online Video, eBook and Paper Programs
We are almost done completing the Compassionate Facilitator Program, Understanding Loss series and the Chan Buddhist Program "The 10 Ox-herding Pictures: Developing & Deepening Buddhist Practice." Both will be available via online video instruction, by eBook, and as paper books. This spring should see the release of online video programs in several of the martial arts taught at Dragon Mountain as well. Check back for release announcements of the stages of these programs.

The "10 Ox-herding Pictures" is our dharma teaching program. It is a guided method to help you:

• Develop and deepen your understanding and practice of Chan Buddhism
• Live, act and understand the world through the practice of Chan Buddhism.
• Learn to use the sutras as part of your practice.
• Living towards dhyana.

The Compassionate Facilitator's Program is designed for facilitators  who manage groups. It is a secular program that will help you facilitate groups of all kinds. It includes modules such as:

• Non-verbal communication
• Methods of compassionate group facilitation
• Assessment of group practices
• Implementing change
• Preventing Facilitator Burnout
• Understanding and Managing Bias
• Group Dynamics
• Sustaining adaptive groups
• Crisis Intervention
• Boundaries and adaptive communication

We are also developing a series on grief, bereavement and social support called "Understanding Loss." Topics to be covered include:

• Abortion
• Miscarriage
• Infertility
• Chronic pain
• Aging
• Disability
• When a parent dies
• When a partner dies
• When someone you know dies
• When a pet dies
• When an important figure dies
• Tragedy in the news

Amituofo!

Shouting in a Silent Room - Rethinking Meditation and Serious Mental Illness

Shouting in a Silent Room:

Rethinking Meditation and Serious Mental Illness

Cassandra Tribe, Master

Dragon Mountain Ch'an Temple and Zen Community Centre

Patriarch's Vision Vol 1 No 3

International Ch'an Buddhism Institute

Dusty is indolence.

Dust comes in its wake.

With knowledge and vigilance,

Draw the arrow of suffering from yourself.

Buddha Vacana

The use of movement and meditation within group recovery practices for persons with Serious Mental Illness (SMI) is a contentious practice in the United States. Part of the struggle comes from the problems inherent to this community and the other stems from the lack of practical and traditional training in meditation by the facilitators and program designers. A recent year-long initiative introduced a traditional program of Chan meditation and movement to a community centre for those with Serious Mental Illness to examine the viability of movement and meditation in a population identified by Any Mental Illness.  The hope was to gain a better understanding of the problems with meditation and Serious Mental Illness and to suggest what potential resolution could be.

What was discovered was that the majority of the problems associated with using meditation as a complementary or support practice with those with Serious Mental Illness stemmed from the inadequate training of the facilitators and program designers. It was not the result of anyone with a Serious Mental Illness being unable to manage their reaction to meditation. In examining why the training and programs were inadequate, the core problem stemmed from the Westernization of traditional Chan practice to increase its accessibility to Western culture has resulted in a dilution of its ability to be effective by making the current practices and mind-sets of facilitators too rigid to be able to respond to what is happening in the moment.

By further following the hypothesis that the principle of the mass line theory could be applied within this setting to correct the approach of the facilitator and the design of the program, an effective and supportive meditative practice could be developed and used by persons with Serious Mental Illness, as well as Any Mental Illness as it would be rooted in the traditional teachings and practices informed by the community involvement. It was also believed that by using the mass line results as a guiding tool a new program for training facilitators could be implanted to restore flexibility, presence, mindfulness, discipline and compassion to their education.

Where perception of danger lies, rigidity and exclusion thrive.

Two forces are at work in the social welfare system that has prohibited meditation from being effectively introduced as a supporting or complementary therapy for those with Serious Mental Illness and Any Mental Illness. The first is the standard declaration by the U.S. Department of Health that has discouraged the use of meditative practices with mentally ill consumers because of a perceived risk of dissociation, disturbance and inducement of psychosis or delusions. The second comes from the adaptation of the traditional Chan practices to popular alternative culture within the American society that has reduced the focus of the practice to one of self-focus and individualized experience. The lack of contextual study of the sutras, diligence in practice and the promotion of patient practice over a form of rapid achievement have allowed a diluted form of Buddhist practice to be embraced by the alternative culture. The unfortunate effect of going too far in adapting the traditional practice to a culture is that the meaning and effectiveness of the practice, with or without fidelity to the beliefs - has lost its ability to provide for a check for the mental stability, intent and methodology of the practitioners promoting it as a treatment for the reduction of stress and anxiety in those with mental disorders of any degree.

Rather than promote a more independent and freer interpretation of Buddhist practice and belief that leads to greater accessibility and application; the removal of discipline and structure has led to a preponderance of schools and practitioners that are more engaged with individualistic interpretations that cling to a kind of materialism and reject change, adaptability, flexibility and responsiveness as a value in community practice. The duality of sudden enlightenment and revelatory enlightenment of the Chan tradition has made it particularly susceptible to adoption by those who under less kind circumstances would be considered narcissistic seekers of a cult of personality.

Core to the identity of these practitioners is the presentation of meditation as having a specific goal, as well as all experiences and beliefs systems being but only differently voiced versions of the same universal experience. This individualistic and self-centred interpretation of traditional practice has gained a strong foothold in the Western world as it retains the individual as the centre of the essence of all cycles, removes the need for training and supervision, and establishes a role in which authority is not to be questioned or constructively criticized. When this is combined with the recent scientific studies of certain types of meditation that have quantitatively defined a physical effect for the practice - the result is the creation of a false behavioural operand that can only lead to failure, as well as harm when introduced to a marginalized and vulnerable community along with a complete invalidation of the social capital of marginalized communities by refusing them the value of their unique identifiers.

This phenomenon is not unique to the religion of Buddhism.  Unlike its companion trends in Christianity and Islam; the practices of the latter faiths are not being used by.... (read more  download the full journal article and issue here, or visit the ICBI for the latest issue)

Finding Rest in a Restless World

If I were to pick one common theme in the reasons that people seek out meditative or contemplative practices, it would be the desire to find a place of rest in what is becoming an increasingly speedy and overwhelming world. The desire can almost be best described in the phrase, "wanting the world to stop for just a little bit so I can catch my breath."

It is often not that we do not know what to do when faced with life's challenges; but that they come so fast we don't have the time to look in our bag of tools to find the right one to use. Left with speed choices, it is no wonder we often pick things that leave us more rushed than before. For relaxation, we watch highly emotional television shows and movies that make us tenser than we realize. To gain health and wellness, we embark on programmes that emphasize the "wrongness" of just about everything we have been doing that increases feelings of guilt and shame. We join gyms and dojos not thinking through the extent of the monetary and time commitment they really demand in order to be considered "worth it." We turn to medicine in hopes that there is simply something wrong with us that we can manage away with a well-timed pill, not considering how powerless a medicine regimen can make you feel or the complication side effects can be.

So people turn to meditation and contemplation because they have heard rumor of a place where you can go and be in quiet. Where you can rest in an atmosphere of acceptance and regain your footing. So why doesn't meditation work for most people?

Meditation won't work if it is done as a solution rather than a supporting process. If you come to meditation thinking that by learning how to quiet your mind you will find rest, you will inevitably become restless. To be restless is best defined as wanting an immediate change or solution; or better yet, to be restless is to want something to be different NOW.

The key word is "want." When we "want" an outcome, there is much greater chance that we will experience disappointment because we close the door on being present to experience the process. And, if we are not present, we then miss the opportunities that will organically present themselves to us. When we have a "want," we are also more likely to make choices that are emotionally and reactive, rather than an organized response to opportunity.

The world now, West or East, is a restless world. We have come to communally believe in the illusion of immediate solutions -- that if a law is passed, people's thinking and behavior will change, that if a study finds a reason for a health problem, avoiding the cause will always prevent the problem, that pursuing a spiritual practice guarantees a spiritual depth. The food we eat must be fast and good. The entertainment we see must in some way excite our emotions. Our spiritual practices must all come with goals we can sum up, achievements we can realize and tchotchkes we can display.

To find rest in this restless world, one may not need to seek out esoteric and demanding meditative practices, one must learn to rest. Master Sheng Yen surprised an interviewer when asked about the correct posture to meditate in by devoting much time to correcting the wrong posture. He pointed out that many people who sit to meditate are not engaged in cultivation of concentration and wisdom, but are resting. "To rest properly, he demonstrated, "one must sit back and let the chair take all of your weight." You must give yourself up to rest. Count your breaths, concentrate on your breathing and let your mind empty itself of thought - that is true rest and something that all of us need to learn.

Learning to recognize what you need is the first step to creating balance within your life. When you feel that you have not done enough, been enough, are enough -- recognize it as a restlessness and want. When restless -- rest; for that is the meaning of the word -- to be restless is to be one without rest. Once you have rested, then look toward what practices would best support you in pursuing the cultivation of your life.

Amituofo,

Cassandra