It's summer in Brooklyn, and the only cool, quiet place around is underground.

Erosion Control will be hosting its inaugural meditation instruction and discussion group this Sunday afternoon at Mark Triant's new subterranean studio, The Cave, in Fort Greene.  

There is nothing in life that isn't mediated by experience.  Experience itself - its look, feel, and taste - is indeed all we can be certain of.  In a world full of language, images, ideas, and stories, it becomes increasingly easy to get entangled by fantasy, speculation, memory, hope, and fear, to the neglect of reality itself.  Meditation is a technique for training the mind to be present with reality, and in the process, to increase its capacity to see, feel, and understand its dynamics, resulting in a more aware, poised, harmonious relation to the world and oneself.

Beginners and experienced meditators alike are welcome.  We'll sit for multiple periods of 20 minutes at a time, with guided instruction and clarification in-between.  The goal is to help new meditators develop a basis for steady personal practice and get some help with any sticking points, and for more experienced meditators to share perspective, reinforce practice, and add to their repertoire.

Mark has practiced formal awareness- and attention-training techniques for a decade, and Buddhist-derived meditation techniques for around 8 years.  While informed heavily by the methods of Zen, Tibetan schools, and Burmese Theravada, Mark's approach is rooted firmly in the view that the training of awareness and investigation of the foundations of human experience need have nothing to do with any tradition or system of beliefs or rituals.  This is not, in other words, a course in Buddhism.  We are here to practice a technique together, and your own experience is (and can be) your only authority as to the rest of the picture.

To attend, please send an RSVP to erosioncontrolclub@gmail.com, and we'll get back to you with the exact address.  Attendance for the first meeting will be capped at 10 people, so please only respond if you are truly planning to join.  Furthermore, until we can buy more floor cushions, please bring something (a firm cushion or foldable blanket) on which you can sit stably for an extended period of time.  Please also arrive promptly (or even a little early): once we begin the session, we won't be able to let anyone else into the building.