What an Obscure Zen Program Teaches You About Freedom ⛩️
Exploring the 'ango' and sacred structure in your life.
📍 Coordinates: Mississauga, Canada. 🇨🇦
📖 Reading Time: ~4 minutes.
🧉 Housekeeping: The doors to the Warrior100 are closing this week. They close permanently at the end of Friday, August 25th. The time for decisive action is fast approaching.
Nearly two years ago to this exact date…
…after spending several months living in Mexico, I had just finished walking across the American border back into Canada. You couldn’t fly in, so walking into the country was the only possibility.
Lockdowns and the Covid pandemonium were in full force. I went to my (unoccupied) grandparents’ home to live out my 2 weeks of mandatory quarantine.
It was a potent two weeks, a forced retreat in isolation.
In the middle of the city, yet isolated from everyone. I spent much time doing yoga, meditating, recording videos, and building.
During that time, I released a video introducing the ‘ango’ and sacred structure.
Ango—literally translated—means “dwelling in peace” or “peaceful dwelling.”
ANGO
An ango is a Japanese term for a three-month period of intense training for students of Zen Buddhism, lasting anywhere from 90 to 100 days. The practice during ango consists of meditation (zazen), study, and work (samu).
This sounds ~oh so very zen~ until you realize that ango refers to the daily schedule of an intense 3-month training program.
If you know anything about Zen, you know their retreats are hardcore.
Here’s a sample schedule of an ango:
DAILY SCHEDULE
4:30 am — Sutras
5-7 am — Meditation
7-7:30 am — Breakfast
7:30-11:30 am — Work
11:30-noon — Lunch and Rest
1:30-4 pm — Work and/or Study
4-5 pm — Dinner + Bath
6-8:30 pm — Meditation
Few breaks. Early mornings. Hours of training, study, and work.
Each day, every day, for months.
So why exactly do students and masters of Zen call this period “dwelling in peace”?
Because the sacred structure that the ango provides gives you freedom.
And from freedom, peace emerges naturally, effortlessly.
Gone are the days of wasting time planning your meals, wondering what you’re going to do next, and ruminating on the past because you’re occupied with the present.
This period creates a degree of spaciousness in the mind and body of the individual. It is singularly focused, you make progress in your training rapidly, and your efforts are pointed in a clear direction.
The ango creates mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual freedom.
In the words of Jocko, an ango is an example where discipline equals freedom.
The realization hit me a few days ago as I was looking back through my IG and found this video, that after years of study, refinement, and focused effort… it finally happened…
… we made a modern-day ango.
One that doesn’t require you to drop out of society. An ango that is accessible, secular, and geared towards the ailments of modern living and unlocking the true power of the individual.
This is the WARRIOR100.
100 days. 4 daily disciplines. 2 hours per day.
Including the work (physical training), meditation (zazen), and study (warrior curriculum) that are hallmarks of the ango.
The Warrior100 is a gateway into FREEDOM.
Physical freedom by cultivating strength, stamina, mobility, and comfort in your body.
Mental freedom by cultivating concentration, focus, and meditative skill in your consciousness.
Emotional freedom by cultivating integrity, honesty, and honor in your character.
Spiritual freedom by cultivating courage, discipline, virtues, and values in your life.
100 days is intense. 2 hours per day is intense.
But what so many people miss is that you settle into this process. You let the container mould you. It’s not hard forever.
After some time, once you’ve made the changes in your schedule, once you’re daily routine allows you to smoothly complete the challenges, a newfound spaciousness arrives. Dormant energy is unlocked and rises up within you. The mental freedom that meditation provides makes it feel like you have more time, not less.
You end up with a potent self-imposed structure that facilitates your own freedom:
7 am: Wake & Physical Training
8 am: Meditation Practice
9-12: Breakfast & Deep Work
12-1 pm: Break & Lunch
1-4.30 pm: Work
4.30-5 pm: Curriculum Study Session
5-10 pm: Free Block
10 pm: Daily Review + Integrity Audit
11 pm: Sleep
Who would you become on the other side of 100 days of this schedule?
This is 2 hours of training per day. Broken up, accessible, while getting an insane amount of high-quality work done, and having ample time to live the rest of your life. With the new levels of concentration, energy, and spaciousness our practices provide, you’d probably get the best work of your life done here, as the cherry on top.
The Warrior100 is this sacred structure.
The bedrock foundation to building a life of freedom. The container for potent, concentrated change.
To step through the doorway into freedom, you must have the doorway. The structure. The discipline. The container carves order out of chaos and gives you the entrance to your own personal freedom.
These are bold claims. I know.
But the cost of true freedom is a great level of discipline.
Many will not make it.
But on the other side of this initiation is a new level of existence. One of honor, virtue, strength, clarity, passion, and purpose.
But the doorway into the Warrior100 is not open forever.
In fact, it closes THIS WEEK. On August 25th, the doors will close so that we can prepare to begin on September 1st.
This is your moment.
You don’t have to be ready. You don’t need to have the time. You just need the WILLINGNESS. The CONVICTION.
The rest will take care of itself. That’s what this container will help you with. You will create the time. Find the energy. Get the support of our community.
But the time to decide is fast approaching.
Doors are closing August 25th. We begin September 1st.
Join us, and let us pursue the freedom only available to the disciplined.
And of course, use ‘SERIOUSPLAY’ when signing up to do this with this group of infinite gamers. You’ll get $20 off too, because I love you. 💛
I hope to see you there. EB.