United Kingdom & European Retreats
United Kingdom Retreats
Intensive Meditation Retreats
Contemporary Zen is Zen Buddhism for modern people living in western culture. Getting to know yourself, exploring your mind, seeing your true nature (Kensho), finding an answer to existential questions like 'who am I', 'what is our purpose here on earth', can be approached through meditation and mindfulness. Contemporary Zen is not a religion, it is an inquiry into fundamental, existential questions, and about integrating them into ordinary life.
Whilst we work with old, ancient even, insights and methods, from Buddhist and Zen Buddhist tradition, we acknowledge fully that we live in the western world with its culture and peculiarities. Our minds are conditioned by us growing up in this culture and to our minds we have to turn to observe and get to know our selves.
This is Zen for our times, enabling you to bring meditation and stillness into your life, without the need to renounce anything. This teaching is based on acknowledging and accepting what is, including your self, your ego, your mind. Just like Zen helped the Samurai warriors hundreds of years ago, it can help you now to come to terms with the demands of life and questions you might have about existence, life and death, and why we need to find meaning in our lives.
We take into account and find it useful to look at new developments in neuroscience, psychology, but also to the implications of developments in physics, cosmology and mathematics. After all, science tells us how we perceive the world, and how, through communication, we concur about appearances, and through this, form our concept of reality.
Therefor we consider the nature of suffering and how it arises from desire (which is an old Buddhist concept) and also look at the reward cycle in the brain, cognitive systems; the effects of neurotransmitters, for example(which are the modern, scientific take on the same thing). Trying to understand the self, its functions and nature, it is helpful to learn how we form attachments all through our lives.
Another point is the search for meaning. It is important in connection with conditioning in childhood and how a sense of self is (necessarily) forming. Looking at our lives and mental activities, we easily see what importance we give to this search for meaning. And of course, it is 'I' who looks for meaning, and any meaning I find, is put there by me. Meaning is not intrinsic to the world, the things we perceive, it's the mind receiving the perception that ascribes meaning. The consequence of this is rather profound. Meaning gives substance to the self. Try to catch yourself every time you place meaning on something... and whilst you are at it, find out who that is exactly.
Contemporary Zen Master Nish Pfister
*Full details and bookings:
Zen Master Nish Pfister : Tel. 01769 580237
(answerphone, leave a message and I’ll ring back)
Website: www.contemporaryzen.org.uk
*PLEASE NOTE PEACEFIELDS RETREAT CANNOT TAKE BOOKINGS DIRECT AND IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ORGANISATION OR FINANCE OF EACH RETREAT.
European Retreats.
View from Boden Retreat Centre which is situated 1,400 metres high in the Austrian Alps.
RETREATS WITH INTERNATIONAL CONTEMPORARY ZEN MASTERS MARIA & MIREK KOVAR
Next Retreat 12th-19th September 2010 at Boden Austria.
*For queries and booking:
Phone: 0049 – (0) 8031 221 81 60
*PLEASE
NOTE PEACEFIELDS RETREAT CANNOT TAKE BOOKINGS DIRECT AND IS NOT
RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ORGANISATION OR FINANCE OF EACH RETREAT.
Zen Master of The New School of Contemporary Zen founded in the United Kingdom by Zen Master David Ferguson.
Mirek
was a disciple of Osho for 14 years. In that time he worked
Internationally as a Therapist with Psychotherapy, Breath Therapy,
Chinese Medicine and Shiatsu.
He then studied with Zen Master David Ferguson and now teaches as a Master of The New School of Contemporary Zen.
Zen Master of The New School of Contemporary Zen founded in the United Kingdom by Zen Master David Ferguson.
Maria
was a disciple of Osho from 1988 and has worked Internationally as a
Therapist with Breath Therapy, Counseling, Tantra and was Founder of
the Therapy Aquafloating.
From 1998 - 2001 she was the School
Director of the Osho Ko Hsuan School in the United Kingdom, an
International Boarding School for children. While in the United Kingdom
she studied for many years with International Contemporary Zen Master
David Ferguson.
She now lives in Rosenheim, Germany and teaches in the understandings of The New School of Contemporary Zen.