Welcome to the Peace On The Street website

Oakland Trip :

- September 23, 2006 -

Stan Koehler, Jonathan Figueroa and Kris Acevedo traveled to the San Francisco Bay Area on the invitation of Mr Coco Mendez and the other staff of the East Oakland Community High School (Eastoakland.org) to provide a series of workshops for the student leadership group “Nsurgentes”.

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The workshops focused on providing a practical meditative technology that integrates a rapid access to a transcendent state with, anger management, emotional development and a vigorous inquiry into what is real on the street. Jonathan and Kris provided the East Oakland students with practical, personal examples on how this technology is used in the inner city neighborhoods of New York, particularly in relationship to managing encounters with the police.

In addition the group did a presentation designed for educators in the Hunter’s Point area of San Francisco. Stan spoke about the curriculum used in training these young men. He spoke to the body of information as well as the methods of accessing the experiences that are foundation to this approach. Jonathan and Kris talked about how they use these experiences to manage their emotions, especially anger and the fear and/or sadness that usually underlie anger. On a broader level they discussed how this training has allowed them to affirm their identity as inner city minority youth while giving them the tools to transcend class and access other levels of American society, in particular, the cash society of corporate America

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Bringing Meditation and Psychic Self Defense to the Youngsters

I. Overview

The program is designed to present basics of meditation and psychic self-defense to inner city high school juniors and seniors. The students are led through meditation exercises and those who are open to it are exposed to the ego deconstruction protocol. The key to this is the two peer teachers who bridge the gap between the coordinator and the students. Without this the students would not participate in the exercises.

In addition to meditation the students are taught basics of psychic self-defense. Using the model of the biocomputer the students are taught about psychological programming, the effects of others thoughts and beliefs upon their own perceptions, energy management and so on.

II.Team

The team consists of Stan Koehler, Jonathan Figueroa and Kris Acevedo. Stan is a Zen priest and mentor Jonathan and Kris. Jonathan and Kris are both freshmen in college and grew up respectively in the South Bronx and East Harlem. They have both been trained in psychic-self defense, energy management and meditation.

III.Methodology

We work with a single teacher’s class for about 4 hours each afternoon. There are his regular students and as the time goes on more and more students hear of the workshops and join the class. At the same time other students rotate out.

Stan begins by establishing a theme; defending ones mind from being at the affect of others by slowing and controlling one’s thoughts. Jonathan and Kris then take turns, first describing their neighborhoods in New York and opening to some questions about the difference between NY and East Oakland. They then each speak about what they thought of meditation before they came to the dojo. They originally had no interest in meditation. They were interested in martial arts and fighting. Somehow they found themselves in the Zendo and were exposed to various meditation techniques.

At this point either Jonathan or Kris might relate a story about their experience with controlling thought and energy. Both have stories of how to interact with police. At some point we will introduce the meditation exercise. At that point the students are instructed on how to sit and to focus on a bell that one of the young men rings. This exercise will last for 10 minutes after which the students are asked about their experience.

Students are then identified that are interested in going deeper and appointments are arranged to do the ego deconstruction protocol at another point.

Depending on how much time there is Stan might enunciate a principle or an exercise (we need to be aware of the people closest to us and bring to consciousness the thoughts they have that do not serve us). Jonathan or Kris then picks up the theme and relates it to a personal experience. With Jonathan, he will speak how in his family it was always thought that he (and they) were not the sort of people who went to college. Other people, the Chinese or the White kids went to college, not people like him. He’ll develop this theme and talk about the various psychic self-defense moves he had to do to get into and stay in college.

Each of the young men has various accounts illustrating the principles that Stan will lays out. The process is interactive and the students for the most part are sitting in a group. Questions and answers will go back and forth and after awhile the student’s issues will engender the enunciation of a principle and the concomitant experiences with which it is associated.

During the breaks the team interacts informally with the students and comparisons between East Coast and West Coast slang and accents come up. At times, between classes, Jonathan or Kris will show fighting or self-defense techniques.

IV.Conclusion

At the end of the process a significant number of inner city students have been exposed to basic experiences associated with contemplative practice. Practical applications of these experiences to day to day life have been explored. For the most part Jonathan and Kris have established the connection and accomplished most of the teaching. Stan’s function is to remain in the background, perhaps pointing out a concept or two. At the same time Stan is responsible for managing the overall flow in the room, keeping Jonathan and Kris’ energy balanced and dealing with any questions or issues that come up from the students that might be disconcerting ( “My pastor says that meditation is bad; do I have to do the exercise?).

The goal is for the afternoon to flow and the team to interact as if they were a jazz trio, mixing spontaneity in the moment with a collection of structured modules. The students both observe and are incorporated into the experience, each according to their interest and the amount of energy they wish to expend. Meditation, formerly a practice that was distant and alien to their world has become practical and available.