The Method in Madness Institute

Katagiri Roshi once said to me, "We are all Buddha. I can see you are a Buddha. You don't believe me. When you see you are a Buddha, you will be awake. That's what enlightenment is." (...)

In the process of claiming our own good writing, we are chipping away at the blind gap between our own true nature and our conscious ability to see it. (...)

We should recognize that we are good inside and emanate our goodness and create something good outside us.

NATALIE GOLDBERG

Compassion and resilience (...) these essential and universally prized human qualities can be solidly cultivated by anyone willing to take the time to do it. They can become the way we are and live on a daily basis.

We can train our minds.

We are not stuck with our fearful, habitual, self-centered ways of seeing and feeling. 

NORMAN FISCHER

The third and last event in the MiMi Fall 2024 ZEN & REREADING writing season will take place on SUNDAY DECEMBER 15.

In the first MiMi Fall 2024 Retreat, we saw the importance of understanding Buddhist teachings if we want to do writing practice "as a Zen practice," as a Zen "study of the mind."

The second Fall Retreat reminded us that compassion is a central dimension of Zen. Therefore, rereading as a Zen practice requires us to know what is meant by "compassion" in a Buddhist Mahayana context (the broader school to which Zen belongs). The mind of compassion, Suzuki Roshi writes, is "beginner's mind," a concept that includes practicing (zazen, writing, rereading) without a "gaining idea," so without having to tell ourselves "I have achieved something."

Shouldn't we be proud of ourselves when we finished a writing practice or a text written for publication though? Don't we deserve some encouragement and self-congratulatory pep-talk to keep us on the right track and write as much as we can, cutting out bad passages "like a Samurai," as Natalie says?

There isn't necessarily anything wrong with that, but there is something better: egoless rereading, a form of rereading where the "small self" (the sense of self that tells us that we're not whole and complete yet, not a Buddha yet, that we first need to achieve this or that) no longer leaves its shadow or trace (as Suzuki Roshi calls it) on our activity. That allows us to be fully concentrated on the activity itself, rather than being distracted by what completing a task may say about the nature of who we are. We can be fully "here now."

How to learn to do this? That's what we'll see during the End of Fall Egoless Rereading Retreat on Sunday December 15.

Egoless rereading is not just a study of the mind, it is also a training of the mind. By rereading our writing practice in this way, we develop our innate compassion for ourselves and for others.

We do so in two ways: (1) by adopting "pure perception," by learning to see that we and everyone else are Buddhas already, and (2) by working with "slogans for mind training" which in Tibetan is called "lojong."

In this way, we no longer merely study the mind (its content and how it functions); we can begin to transform the mind, so that each and every experience in daily life becomes an opportunity to develop compassion and awaken the marvelous, innate qualities of the mind.

What is the secret of these teachings and practices? It consists of "bodhicitta," the active generation of the cultivation of the awakened mind NOT primarily to help ourselves, but to become able to help all beings recognize that they too are Buddhas already. Only when we recognize this, Mahayana Buddhism argues, can we find the place of peace, stillness, and sparking joy that we all long for. Only when we recognize the true nature of the mind will we finally be home again.

On SUNDAY DECEMBER 15, we'll study texts from Suzuki Roshi's successor, Zen teacher Norman Fischer, coming from his commentary on the lojong slogans, Training in Compassion - Zen Teachings on the Practice of Lojong.

He writes:

The third reason for this commentary has to do with what I consider

a serious weakness in Zen:

its deficiency in explicit teachings on compassion. 

As we'll see, Tibetan commentaries on the lojong teachings are indeed both profound and highly pragmatical. That's why we will end the December Retreat by reading passages from a specifically Tibetan commentary on the same lojong teachings.

This Tibetan commentary will come from a book that will also be the basis for the 2025 MiMi yearlong writing practice course, The Art of Compassion. For those who are interested, we'll give a detailed overview of the program at the end of the Retreat (which is mandatory if you'd like to apply for the yearlong program). More about that soon!

PRACTICAL INFO

The event begins at

9 am PT, 10 am MT, 11 am CT, 12 pm ET, 5 pm UK, 6 pm Paris-Amsterdam

and ends 4 hours later.

FEE: 49 USD

A recording of the retreat will be available within about two weeks after the event.

The MiMi Scholarship Fund has a limited number of places for those who need financial assistance to be able to benefit from our community's activities too (see below).

This is only possible thanks to the generosity of our donors, so if you can afford it, please add a donation to your order during checkout. Every little bit helps!

FOR WHOM?

MiMi retreats are open to anyone interested in writing, literature, and mindfulness. No meditation or Natalie Goldberg writing practice background is necessary. Whether you're a seasoned writer or simply curious about the intersection of mindfulness and writing, this event is open to any level of experience. All that's required is an open heart and a willingness to explore.

FACILITATOR

Anja Van Rompaey is a published author, philosopher, and certified Trauma-Sensitive meditation teacher (trained in teaching Jon Kabat-Zinn's MBSR, Mark Williams' Mindfulness, and Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach's Awareness meditation programs). She led the writing practice community EU Writing Down the Bones for more than four years and founded The Method in Madness Institute (MiMi), a MindX SRL division dedicated to helping participants learn how to meditate, read the classics in world literature, philosophize, and use writing practice as an authentic Zen "study of the mind" - or to take their practice to the next level.

At present, Anja teaches The Compassionate Writing Year program and a weekly seminar on Suzuki Roshi's Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind. Passionate about writing, reading, mindfulness, and sharing her knowledge and expertise wherever possible, she has organized over fifty half-day and full-day online Sit Walk Write Retreats. She's currently a student of Mingyur Rinpoche.

 To apply for a scholarship click HERE. 

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