Welcome. This is my cyber-center to record my thoughts, impressions, photos, and video journal from my week-long Zen retreat at the Big Mind Western Zen Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. Tonight was orientation night (Sunday, October 11th). Check out my video journal entry describing my thoughts and feelings about evening #1.

I’m also posting a few photos I snapped tonight during some of the orientation instructional sessions, which mostly included instructions for when and how to bow during meditation sessions, as well as a dry-run of oryoki—a meditative eating style.

Surprise number one came tonight when it was announced that the mornings and the evenings will be completely silent—no verbal communication with anyone else on the retreat before 10:30 AM or after 5:00 PM, as well as avoidance of nonverbal social interaction (smiling, eye-contact, nodding, waving, etc.) except when necessary. The principle reason for the silent mornings and evenings is to facilitate the journey inward to experience one’s self most deeply with minimal outside distractions calling for attention.

Thank you for taking an interest in this exploration—I’m looking forward to this week’s journey.

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