Week Seven of the Mystic Heart Meditation program will be led by David Gluck, head of Zen training at Rochester Zen Center.
Mystic Heart is one of the programs offered by the Department of Religion, and its aim is to teach Chautauquans about the world’s many meditation traditions.
Gluck’s sessions will take place from 7:15 to 8 a.m., and 8:15 to 9 a.m. daily in the Presbyterian House Chapel, and at 4:45 p.m. Monday and Wednesday in Hurlbut Church sanctuary. Gluck will also teach at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday in the Hall of Missions.
Gluck, a certified Jivamukti Yoga teacher, will be leading Hindu and yoga-based mediations.
“It is interesting when you come to a place like Chautauqua because you meet meditators who have been meditating for 45 years, and you also meet people who have never sat before,” Gluck told the Daily in 2018.
The meditation practices grounded in Hinduism derive from the Indus Valley, and are part of one’s daily routine in modern Indian society. These meditation practices stand apart from strict Hinduism, but are philosophical disciplines and rigorous practices.
This coming week, the sessions will focus on experiential practice rather than lecture.
“Meditation is like everything else in life that is worth doing; you have to put in the boring, harder work,” Gluck said in 2018. “It might not be the most fun thing in the world, but eventually, it becomes really rewarding. I think everything good in life seems to follow that same routine. It doesn’t seem there are any real shortcuts.”
During his stay, Gluck plans on teaching Japa, the repetition of a mantra; Bija, the practice of experiencing the sensations associated with each chakra; Pranayama, deep breath practices; Nāda Yoga, the use of sound to dig deeply into the body; and Sushumna Nadi and breath, quiet meditation with visualization of the body’s central energy channel.
“Eastern systems have always believed that there are energies in the body and that we have the ability to tap into them through practices like meditation,” Gluck said in 2018. “I do believe this is true.”
Gluck began his study and practice of yoga and dharma in 2001. After two years, Gluck became certified and has worked professionally as a teacher of yoga and dharma ever since.
He has also led retreats both nationally and internationally. In 2013, Gluck was an instructor in the George Brown College Classical Yoga and Teacher Training program, teaching philosophy and asana. Additionally, he has been a prominent philosophy teacher for the Yoga Sanctuary Fast Track Teacher Training program, based in Toronto.
