When Sitting Is a Pain: Navigating Physical Pain in Zazen with Shana Smith
Sunday, December 6th | 1:00-2:30pm MT
Online Only – For Mountain Cloud Members
*This is part of our Members Seminar series. Members-only programming provides a setting for more intimate connections between dedicated practitioners. Learn more about Membership here or email Sarah@mountaincloud.org to come as our guest and check out the program.
RSVP HERE
This seminar is for anyone who has ever found that sitting hurts, and especially for practitioners navigating injury, aging, disability, and/or chronic pain. We’ll explore concerns around navigating pain in zazen, developing a wiser, more compassionate relationship with physical pain while honoring the body’s very real limits and needs.
Physical pain can be one of our most persistent and intimate challenges in practice. Whether we encounter an aching knee during a long sit, an injury that changes how we practice, or a chronic pain condition that accompanies us to the cushion day after day, zazen asks us to meet what is actually here.
Drawing on her own experience and years of practice, Shana Smith will guide us through exploration of how our mediation practice can help us develop a wiser, more compassionate relationship with physical pain. Grounded in respect for each person’s lived experience, the workshop invites participants to explore what happens when pain and practice meet—when to stay, when to move, how to distinguish pain from the struggle around pain, and what it might mean to meet the body exactly as it is.
The 90-minute workshop will include teaching, guided meditation and movement practices, and conversation. This workshop is for anyone who has ever found that sitting hurts, and especially for practitioners navigating injury, aging, disability, or chronic pain. No particular level of practice experience is required.
PLEASE RSVP HERE
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Shana Smith is an Assistant Teacher of Sanbo Zen based in Florida. Shana provides online 1-1 practice support to our members, and provides workshops for our 30 Days of Zen Course and sesshins.
Shana discovered yoga in 1990 and began attending regular classes in several different styles of yoga. After several years of ardent practice and study, she began to teach at her local studio and Yoga Temple. Shana became interested in the sensations and insights she experienced in Savasana, which led her to begin a regular meditation practice and in 2007 took refuge in the Sanbo Zen Lineage, and recently become a Sanbo Zen Assistant teacher. Over the years, she has found a tremendous synergy between Yoga and Zen, and integrates the two in her daily, committed practice.
Kindly consider contributing dana (a traditional Buddhist offering) to express financial gratitude to our visiting teacher. Dana for Shana: Venmo @shana-banana-smith or PayPal paypal.me/shanabananasmith
