Finding Heart’s True Home
Meditation, Koans, Small Groups and Conversation
with David Parks and Tammy Kaousias
Saturday, February 16
9 am to 4 pm
Price: $40.00 (includes lunch)
(Register at bottom of page)
(We will not turn anyone away if price is a barrier. Please reach out to the contact below.)
Valentine’s Day is a day given to love. A time of candy and cards, hearts and flowers, most often we see the day as one for expressing our love outward. What if we turned it around and shone love’s light inward, towards ourselves? Our hearts just might open. And when heart opens, it opens in all directions, embracing our whole life.
At the heart of our practice together will be meditation with koans. With meditation we meet life, noticing the intimacy of the moment rising to meet us, inviting us to com-union (together one). In koan meditation, a short phrase or koan, is a gateway to this intimacy, to the full experience of being alive.
In this day-long retreat, David and Tammy will facilitate meditation, conversation and community building through koans and small group practice. There will be periods of sitting meditation, light heart opening exercises, talks and relational dharma practices. Sitting, sharing and working together we create an environment which supports heart’s opening, deep transformation. Together we wake up. There will also be an opportunity to meet with David in one-on-one interviews.
Lunch will be served (a hot vegetarian soup and homemade bread). If you have special dietary needs, please bring a lunch. There is a refrigerator and microwave at the Center. If you have any questions, please email stama@unitedstateofyoga.us.
David Parks, Sensei, Director of Bluegrass Zen (sitting groups in Lexington and Berea) brings a lifetime of spiritual practice to his teaching. After 35 years as a minister in the United Church of Christ, David now teaches Zen with the Pacific Zen Institute. He has M.Div and S.T.M. degrees from Yale University. David’s teaching is rooted in life and experience. Using image and metaphor, insights east and west, he teaches with the intent of touching life, hearts, his and yours, opening to transformation.
Tammy Kaousias is an attorney and entrepreneur who loves yoga and meditation. She has practiced yoga since the 80’s, owned a yoga studio for seven years, organized and designed five yoga teacher training programs, currently owns Inner Space Yoga (a meditation and yoga cushion company), and is launching United State of Yoga, an online yoga and meditation website. She has studied koans with PZI and has facilitated a koan meditation sitting group in Knoxville for over four years.
PZI is a community that practices koans and meditation in a way that available to everyone, including those with no experience of koans or Zen. It was founded by John Tarrant, Roshi 25 years ago to pioneer more accessible ways to practice with koans
Please Register Here!
(If you cannot make the Suggested Donation, a minimum of $1 is required for processing)