Hello traveler! The Dharma Circle is a peer-supported meditation practice group that does not separate meditation from enlightenment. In this group we will primarily explore the “methodless method”—of sitting free of any and all conclusions while resting in our original nature. Further, we will explore what awakening and enlightenment means in the context of sitting and living our daily lives. As part of deepening our understanding of awakening and practice we will will investigate the relationship between the Relative and Absolute, activating and maintaining the desire for liberation, and other topics—using our own experiences and lineage texts as a basis.
Meditation is the heart of practice. To meditate is to enjoy our original boundless selves free from all concern. Together we will explore the practice of meditation informed by the nondual that practice IS enlightenment. No other liberation exists outside or apart from this very moment.
Together we will explore the lineage texts and teachings from the nondual traditions of Buddhism, Advaita, and contemporary masters. Our practice is informed by an integral and evolutionary philosophical perspective that embraces life and the universe itself as the creative activity of enlightened mind.
Individual and collective inquiry invites us to transcend our unquestioned assumptions and explore the mysterious nature of consciousness as an individual and collective self. Collective inquiry is where we explore the dharma through our own living experience and learn to speak from our spontaneously arising authentic wisdom.
Paul "Shigetsu" Bloch is an ordained monk in the Soto tradition of Zen Buddhism. He has been a spiritual practitioner and meditator for over 20 years, initially studying in the late 1990s with the in the tantric kriya tradition of Paramahamsa Yogananda and Hariharananda Giri before committing to becoming a close, longtime disciple of Andrew Cohen in the Advaita Vedanta lineage of H.W.L. Poonja and Sri Ramana Maharshi. In 2014, Paul began focusing his studies in Japanese Soto Zen, meeting and practicing with several teachers in the US and undergoing monastic training in Japan. He has also traveled extensively throughout India, Nepal, and Thailand, engaging with teachers of Tibetan Buddhism and Trika Shaivism. In addition to his extensive residential training, he has undertaken many week-long and three-month retreats, and feels an abiding obligation to share what he has learned through his practice.