November 7- 9, 2025
Registration opens October 22 and closes November 5
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Shinzen’s last Home Practice Program weekend.
Friday PM - November 7 || 7-9pm Pacific / 10pm-12am Eastern
Focus In
Leader: Shinzen Young
Type of Program: Special Theme
Prerequisites: Previous experience with the See, Hear, Feel family of techniques
Fee: $10 per person
In this program, you will learn to track your subjective experience in terms of visual thoughts (mental images), internal conversations (mental talk), and emotional body sensations. It’s about appreciating yourself just as you are – knowing yourself to death, loving yourself to death.
In preparation for this program, please:
Review from Five Ways to Know Yourself manual:
Chapter 1: The Way of Thoughts and Emotions, pp. 21-25
Saturday AM - November 8 || 8am-12pm Pacific / 11am-3pm Eastern
Focus on Rest
Leader: Shinzen Young
Type of Program: Foundations
Prerequisites: None
Fee: $20 per person
Learn how to find/create pleasant restful states in all three sensory systems: visual, auditory, and somatic.
If you say “meditation” to the average person, they will probably get the mental image of someone sitting cross-legged on the floor trying to mellow out and release stress. Many – perhaps even most – traditional forms of meditation involve focusing on such simple, soothing experiences. There is a good reason for that. It creates a positive feedback loop; the more you concentrate on soothing rest, the more soothing it becomes, thereby motivating you to concentrate even more. This positive learning loop creates snowballing growth in your concentration power.
Restful states are frequently present in daily life, but most people fail to notice and enjoy them because they have neither the concepts nor the vocabulary needed to recognize them. This program will change that.
In preparation for this program, please
Read from the Five Ways to Know Yourself:
Introduction, pp. 7-17
Chapter 3 The Way of Tranquility, pp. 34-47
Saturday PM - November 8 || 1-5pm Pacific / 4-8pm Eastern
Mini Cross Training
Leader: Shinzen Young
Type of Program: Cross Training
Prerequisites: Previous experience with Note Everything, Be Source, Auto Move and Feel Good
Fee: $20 per person
In this program, we’ll work with four techniques:
See, Hear, Feel - Work with any and all sensory experience.
Be Source – Focus on Expansion & Contraction in all your senses.
Auto Move - Tune into spontaneity as you walk, move, dance, etc.
Feel Good - Create and hold pleasant emotional sensations in the body.
In preparation for this program, please:
Review YouTube ‘Auto Walk’
Review See Good, Hear Good, Feel Good - Be Good in Shinzen’s Blog
Review YouTube videos: Expansion & Contraction and Guided Meditation on Expansion & Contraction
Skim About Posture
Sunday AM - November 9 || 5-9am Pacific / 8am-12pm Eastern
Motion Challenge
Leader: Shinzen Young
Type of Program: Accelerator
Prerequisites: Previous experience with at least one Unified Mindfulness Technique
Fee: $20 per person
People often complain that they’re able to get in deep states during formal practice but are not able to maintain those states in daily life. There’s a lot to be said about this but one suggestion is to work smart by creating for yourself “motion challenge sequences.” The idea is simple. Take any meditation technique you relate to and attempt to maintain it through a sequence of progressively more challenging and/or complex activities. Stay with each stage for however long it takes you to get as deep as you were in the previous stage.
Here's an example. Do a technique of your choice while...
Lying down
Seated eyes closed
Seated eyes open
Standing
Slow walking
Faster walking
Walking in a sensorially impactful environment
Doing simple exercises
Doing more complicated exercises
Washing dishes
Cooking a simple meal
Cooking a more complicated meal
Carrying on a vacuous conversation
Watching low-impact TV
Watching high-impact TV
Carrying on a substantive conversation
Carrying on an emotionally charged substantive conversation
Your goal is to work up to the point where you can be as deep in situation #17 as you are in situation #1. It's like weight training, you build it up gradually. This may seem like an awful big homework assignment but you have the rest of your life to turn it in!
During this program, we will alternate periods of self practice in motion with periods of guidance and discussion.
In preparation for this program, please:
Think ahead about what types of tasks you will use as motion challenges during this program and prepare the environment if need be (see list in description or come up with your own). Consider having a clock or timer nearby to stay on time.
Review any other relevant materials you'd like (recalling the prerequisite for this program).
Sunday PM - November 9 || 10am-2pm Pacific / 1-5pm Eastern
The Power of Don’t Know
Leader: Shinzen Young
Type of Program: Special Offering
Prerequisites: Some familiarity with the See, Hear, Feel family of techniques (Just See, Just Hear, Just Feel, SHF).
Fee: $20 per person
In this retreat, we will explore how to utilize doubt, confusion, and indecision for psychospiritual growth. Three cultures have independently discovered the power of “Don’t Know.”
Ancient Greece, where this practice was referred to as epoche.
Tang Dynasty China, where it developed into kōan practice.
Medieval Christian Europe, where it was called docta ignorantia (which in Latin literally means “informed ignorance”).
Although it may seem paradoxical, suspending the need to know can lead to a new kind of knowing. In the Buddhist tradition, that new kind of knowing is referred to as a prajña – the wisdom function.
In this retreat, Shinzen will take you through a systematic procedure to explore this theme.
In preparation for this program, please:
Watch video: Not Needing to Have Answers & the Wisdom Function
Watch video: Total Happiness - 3 of 5 - Don't Know Mind
Skim About Posture