Clowning Around: The Intersection of Zen and Clowning-1 - Tassajara Zen Mountain Center August 22, 2010

Entering a world of curiosity, wonder, and immediacy, we’ll give ourselves permission to break rules, act out and clown around.

We’ll practice theater exercises of spontaneity, status, hunger and terror to find our Inner Clown. Tripping, stumbling, falling and making mistakes both physically and metaphorically, we’ll find ourselves laughing-- “No more worry about not being perfect.” Enlivening the Clown’s humor, we’ll wake up the capacity to leap beyond getting it right. Be prepared to dress up funny and play hard. (Serious students only.)

ABOUT TASSAJARA ZEN MOUNTAIN CENTER AND SAN FRANCISCO ZEN CENTER:

Nestled deep in a mountain valley, Tassajara is located inland from the Big Sur coast in a remote part of the Ventana Wilderness. For centuries, the native Esselen people have visited here as a place of healing and renewal, and a hot springs resort was built in the 1800s. In 1967, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi and the San Francisco Zen Center established a monastic community at Tassajara, making it the oldest Zen training monastery outside Asia.

Over the years, a rich Zen-inspired culture of living mindfully with the earth and each other has developed at Tassajara. In the winter, Tassajara closes its gates and turns inward, as residents engage in intensive Zen training. During the summer months, our attention turns to welcoming and serving our guests. We warmly invite you to come and refresh yourselves in this very special place.

Tassajara Zen Mountain Center is part of the San Francisco Zen Center, which also includes Beginner's Mind Temple (City Center) in San Francisco and Green Gulch Farm in Marin County, California.

San Francisco Zen Center is a nonprofit organization, and we gratefully accept your donations. You may add a donation directly to your reservation, or please contact us for more information.

Official Website: http://www.sfzc.org/tassajara