Zen and Focusing as Personal Practice, with Christian Dillo. The Living Process with Greg Madison

The Living Process Episode 16

Zen and Focusing as Personal Practice, with Christian Dillo

I’m happy to announce The Living Process, Episode 16 with Christian Dillo. Christian and I were meeting for the first time in this episode. In this episode Christian and I speak about how he, even as an adolescent, would pause while speaking to say what he really meant and his later discovery of Gendlin’s focusing and how it put into words a process that he was already engaged in. He was committed to authenticity and pausing and not talking in a way that alienated him from himself. He asks ‘What does the situation require from me’ to carry itself forward. Christian’s Focusing is self-taught - he Focuses has never taken a Focusing class or workshop. He has also studied Gendlin’s philosophy and during the conversation, it’s clear that he has a deep understanding of how the philosophy relates to the practice. Christian talks about why Zen practice was the way forward for him rather than going into the Focusing world and how he remains open to further collaboration with us. He also discusses his depression as a kind of shying away from intensity and how his Zen Buddhist practice was helpful in his discernment of ‘field’ awareness and ‘focused’ awareness. We touch on phenomenology as a transformative practice and both Focusing and Zen Buddhism as examples of that. We explore whether Focusing is a spiritual practice and about the possible drawbacks of thinking of Focusing as a ‘method’. Meeting Christian has made me wonder how many ‘Focusers’ are out there on their own, without any connection to the larger community! Thank you to Iain Murdoch for suggesting Christian as a guest. 

Zenki Christian Dillo Roshi is the Resident Teacher at the Boulder Zen Center. He started his practice at the San Francisco Zen Center in 1996. For 20 years, he practiced monastically at the Crestone Mountain Zen Center. In 2013, he received dharma transmission from Zentatsu Baker Roshi. Since then, he has been the Boulder Zen Center Guiding Teacher. In 2020, he moved to Boulder full-time, where he now lives with his wife and son. Zenki Roshi teaches Zen on the understanding that, fundamentally, Buddhism is an embodied investigation of human experience with the intention of realizing liberation from suffering, wisdom, and compassion. He is the author of The Path of Aliveness: A Contemporary Zen Approach to Awakening Body and Mind (Shambhala, 2022).

Episode 16 with Christian Dillo: 

https://youtu.be/AEXpOUkmLO8

The Living Process - all episodes and podcast links:

https://www.londonfocusing.com/the-living-process/

Living Process on the FOT Youtube Channel:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLx3FqA70kQWuHCHmEiZnkn1VcrRIPbcvk

#Focusing #Gendlin #Zen #ChristianDillo #buddhist  #Bodytherapy #Experientialpractice #Awareness  #Somaticwork #Zenmeditation #authenticity #bodymind