INTEGRAL MEDITATION GROUP
Mondays | 7:00 pm – 8:45 pm (at Ekoji)
If you are new to Integral Meditation, please email in advance and we’ll meet you at 6:45 pm to provide an orientation.
Contact: img@ekojirichmond.org
ABOUT US
Integral Meditation Group is a Zen Buddhist group that draws from Integral Philosophy. The group is committed to waking, growing, and showing up to be fully alive and present. The aim is for relief from suffering, leading fulfilled, meaningful lives in service to self and others, and building a heartful world. We focus on spiritual practices that are enlivening while also alerting us to spiritual bypassing.
PROGRAM
7:00–7:30 | Zazen – Sitting meditation
7:30–7:40 | Kinhin – Walking meditation or another movement meditation
7:40–7:50 | Check-in – Sharing with the group a focus on the present moment using words, movements, or silence
7:50–8:30 | Integral Life Practice – Discussion on Buddha, Dharma, and/or Sangha, drawing from texts by meditation practitioners and Integralists
8:30–8:45 | Zazen – Sitting meditation
TEACHERS
Don Koehler and Cheryl Pallant co-lead the group. Don was influenced, trained, and inspired by Mondo Zen and Hollow Bones in the Rinzai Zen lineage. The late Junpo Denis Kelly started Hollow Bones and was the primary teacher. Don was also influenced by Doshin M.J. Nelson, the founder of the Integral Zen Community in Denver and Boulder, Colorado. Cheryl’s background is in Soto Zen, Tibetan Bon, and Transcendental Meditation. Her teachers include the late Sojun Mel Weitsman and Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche. She is also a somatic and energy medicine practitioner and interfaith minister.
INTEGRAL LIFE PRACTICES
Integral Meditation Group is based on sitting practice, Integral Philosophy, and the Integral Map. The Integral Map is a comprehensive tool that provides an overview of Integral Philosophy to aid in making sense of our lives and provides essential elements to facilitate personal, group, and cultural development. Practices draw from Buddhist practitioners, psychologists, systems thinkers, and others, and rely on zazen, somatic work, Internal Family Systems, shadow work, and more.