Retreat Cabin Application
Open Dates
Great Vow Zen Monastery
The monastery retreat cabin rests on the edge of our 23 acres of forest. Though, just a short walk to the monastery buildings, it has a feeling of a forest hermitage. Equipped with running water, electricity, a small kitchenette with electric stovetop and small refrigerator and a compost toilet it is an ideal location for doing short solo retreat practice. You will have access to our forest trail system, beautiful meadows and gardens, as well as the privacy for solo meditation and dharma study. The intention of the retreat hut is to provide practice support for those looking to deepen…
Half-Day Zazen Retreat
December 2, 2023
Heart of Wisdom Zen Temple and Online
This retreat is a half day of Zen meditation practice to settle into deeper stillness as we move into our final week of Ango and closing ceremonies. It will be an opportunity to come together with community, celebrate what we have cultivated, and reflect on the lessons learned, insights explored, and intentions we'll set moving forward. Join us for a half day of meditation (seated and walking), chanting, and Dharma words. This retreat is held in silence. Please arrive by 7:45 8:00 am Zazen 9:00 am Service 9:30 am Break 9:50 am Zazen 11:20 am Dharma Talk, Zazen, and Closing chant
December Sesshin – Rohatsu
With Jan Chozen Bays, Roshi, Hogen Bays, Roshi and Larry Fuho Trussell
December 3 - 10, 2023
Great Vow Zen Monastery or Online
We are currently at-capacity for in-person attendance. Please email the registrar (registrar@zendust.org) with any questions or to join the waitlist. If you are a long time sangha member (10 years +), please do reach out about attending. Registration for Zoom attendance is open. The light of the Buddha's awakening has not dimmed. This very moment, alive, awake and luminous. Each year people from all over the world gather to celebrate, to sit in stillness and to be nourished by this truth. All over the world people join in the ritual of Rohatsu sesshin. This sesshin is the culmination of…
Beginner’s Mind Weekend Meditation Retreat
With Myoyu Haley Voekel and Darah Shonin Ashton
December 15 - 17, 2023
Great Vow Zen Monastery
The teachings and practices of Zen Buddhism empower us to live our lives wholeheartedly with openness, insight and compassion. During this weekend retreat we follow a silent retreat schedule, which allows us to temporarily put aside outside concerns and go deeply into inner work. The silent retreat schedule includes about seven hours of sitting meditation (with breaks), Buddhist chanting services, formal oriyoki meals, and a period of community work practice. On the first evening the retreat leaders will give thorough instruction on the foundations and methods of Zen meditation. Opportunities to meet with a teacher or senior practitioner to discuss…
Orientation for Awakening to the Delusion of Whiteness: Using the Dharma to Dismantle Oppression
December 17, 2023
Online or at Heart of Wisdom Zen Temple
Awakening to the Delusion of Whiteness is structured as an “affinity group” for white people to explore the elements that have contributed to this often unconscious identity. We explore in this way with an understanding that our own liberation/awakening is intimately bound to one another.
The Work: a weekend Inquiry Retreat
With Eduardo Zambrano
January 4 - 7, 2024
Great Vow Zen Monastery
During this retreat, we will use Byron Katie’s method of inquiry called The Work to investigate our core beliefs and fixed ideas which cause suffering in our world. What ideas to you have about your life and the world that actually are not in service to the development of compassion? We hold many views simply from habit. In this retreat we will be given tools to expand beyond what we believe to be our limitations, and see our world from a place of insight and deeper wisdom. Resilience is our individual capacity to thrive in demanding situations, and to get back up…
Life Vows Weekend Retreat
With Kodo Conover and Kosho Ault
January 5 - 6, 2024
Heart of Wisdom Zen Temple
As we pass the Winter Solstice and turn to the new year, the time is ripe for contemplating vow. When you think about life’s purpose, what comes up? For some, we can feel overwhelmed by the fear of not knowing how to identify our aspirations or actualize them. We can become self-defeating, avoidant, overly idealistic, or face other kinds of obstacles. Whatever arises, zazen and inquiry offer a framework to become grounded, meet these sticking places, and transform the energy of the unknown into pure possibility. Zazen teaches us to turn down the volume on the planning, worrying mind and…
Investigating Zen Practice: a one-day workshop
January 13, 2024
Heart of Wisdom Zen Temple
Experience an Introduction to Zen Practice through the Ten Directions. This one-day in-person workshop at Heart of Wisdom Zen Temple is for beginners or those who want to dive deeper into Zen practice. Learn how to practice using ancient methods that are applicable in today’s world: Meditation and sitting with stability Mindfulness practice off the cushion Chanting Mindful eating Work practice Stillness Walking meditation Koans Tradition and ritual Dharma teachings Lunch is included. Your RSVP helps us know how much lunch to prepare.
Vow Sesshin
With Hogen Bays, Roshi, Jan Chozen Bays, Roshi and Patrick Bansho Green
January 15 - 21, 2024
Great Vow Zen Monastery
From emptiness springs forth our deepest potential. When we are able to drop our ideas about who and what we are, we can recognize the infinite realm of possibility that has always been our playground. Reality before interpretation, before we start applying labels and identities, is vast and unbounded. From this space, we access the wisdom and compassion that is the source material of our life. With wisdom and compassion as our foundation, we recognize that we are the totality. Nothing separate and always in relationship. We come to see our personality and our personal particularities as part of the…
In Person 16 Bodhisattva Precepts Class Series – Great Vow Zen Monastery
With Senior Lay Practitioner and/or Ordained Priest
January 21 - February 25, 2024
In person! Great Vow Zen Monastery
The beginning and end of our practice is ethical living; acting, speaking and thinking in ways that support the greatest wellbeing and awakening for all beings. Anyone who has taken the 5 Precepts Class can take this class, whether you have already formally taken the precepts, are considering taking the precepts, or you are simply curious about the ethical guidelines that rest at the foundation of Zen practice.
Winter Zazenkai: A One Day Meditation Retreat
With Kodo Conover
January 27, 2024
Heart Of Wisdom Zen Temple
This is a silent day of Zen Buddhist meditation practice together, seated and active. The schedule includes meditation (zazen), chanting, caring for the garden and grounds, and Dharma talk.
Awakening to the Delusion of Whiteness: Using the Dharma to Dismantle Oppression
January 28 - June 24, 2024
Online or at Heart of Wisdom Zen Temple
Awakening to the Delusion of Whiteness is structured as an “affinity group” for white people to explore the elements that have contributed to this often unconscious identity. We explore in this way with an understanding that our own liberation/awakening is intimately bound to one another.
Monastery Winter Practice Period
January 30 - April 3, 2024
Great Vow Zen Monastery
In the stillness and quiet of the monastic container, when we allow the dust to settle and the thinking mind to open and relax, spontaneous wonderment and delight naturally appear. Attention is love. How do we attend to our life? During this practice period we will lean into creativity as an expression of love and attunement to the day to day activities of Monastery life. The schedule will be much the same as the rest of the year and will include Zazen, work practice, classes and retreats, formal meals and time to explore creative process, individually and as a group.…
A Creative Process and Zazen Weekend Retreat
With Laura Jomon Martin and Myoyu Haley Voekel
February 1 - 4, 2024
Great Vow Zen Monastery
We are the creative outpouring of an unbounded universe. We don't need to do anything in particular to make it so. Just our very being-ness - as we arrive in each moment to moment experience, is a miraculous and creative endeavor. It is our great responsibility to come to know this and rest, relaxed in this great pool of infinite possibility. And - oh wow - human beings have these wonderful bodies and thumbs and hearts. From simple imaginings come such splendor as the world of art that we have come to know and hold dear. What a gift, what…
Death’s Tiny Tea House – An Open Discussion
February 10, 2024
Heart of Wisdom Zen Temple
“I am of the nature to die, there is no way to escape death. “All that is dear to me and everyone I love are of the nature of change; there is no way to escape being separated from them.” --The Five Remembrances The Buddha’s teachings on impermanence and death are fundamental: “I am of the nature to die . . .” And, at the same time, we live and practice in a culture that generally discourages discussion of dying, death, and grief. Frank Ostaseski, cofounder of the Zen Hospice Project, writes: “We cannot be truly alive…
Pari-Nirvana Sesshin: A Meditation Retreat exploring Life, Death & the Unknown
With Laura Jomon Martin and Larry Fuho Trussell
February 12 - 18, 2024
Great Vow Zen Monastery or Online
Zen meditation is an invitation to the unknown. During this sesshin we take up the Buddha's Parinirvana--the Buddha's death, as the essential inquiry into our own relationship with death, dying and the uncertainties of this life. How often in your daily life do you allow yourself to reflect on your own mortality, your own death? This sesshin provides the structure and support needed to look into the fears and anxieties surrounding death, dying and the unknown. Supported by the stillness and quiet of winter, we allow the body, heart and mind to deeply settle and rest - as we feel…
Death’s Tiny Tea House – An Open Discussion
February 21, 2024
Heart of Wisdom Zen Temple
“I am of the nature to die, there is no way to escape death. “All that is dear to me and everyone I love are of the nature of change; there is no way to escape being separated from them.” --The Five Remembrances The Buddha’s teachings on impermanence and death are fundamental: “I am of the nature to die . . .” And, at the same time, we live and practice in a culture that generally discourages discussion of dying, death, and grief. Frank Ostaseski, cofounder of the Zen Hospice Project, writes: “We cannot be truly alive…
16 Bodhisattva Precepts Online Classes
With Larry Fuho Trussell
February 25 - March 26, 2024
Online
The beginning and end of our practice is ethical living; acting, speaking and thinking in ways that support the greatest wellbeing and awakening for all beings. Anyone who has taken the 5 Precepts Class can take this class, whether you have already formally taken the precepts, are considering taking the precepts, or you are simply curious about the ethical guidelines that rest at the foundation of Zen practice.
Death’s Tiny Tea House – An Open Discussion
February 28, 2024
Heart of Wisdom Zen Temple
“I am of the nature to die, there is no way to escape death. “All that is dear to me and everyone I love are of the nature of change; there is no way to escape being separated from them.” --The Five Remembrances The Buddha’s teachings on impermanence and death are fundamental: “I am of the nature to die . . .” And, at the same time, we live and practice in a culture that generally discourages discussion of dying, death, and grief. Frank Ostaseski, cofounder of the Zen Hospice Project, writes: “We cannot be truly alive…
March Sesshin – Deep Listening
With Jogen Salzberg, Sensei
March 15 - 24, 2024
Great Vow Zen Monastery or Online
Awareness meeting sound has been a gate into the depths of the heart-mind for as long as human beings hve longed to open. During this sesshin we come together in joyous recognition of the power of deep listening, and sink into the rhythms of our wild, wonderful and mysterious life.
Spring Practice Period: Awakening with the Earth
April 5 - May 26, 2024
Great Vow Zen Monastery
Spring at Great Vow Zen Monastery is beautiful. The fruit tree blossoms open towards the heavens, the forest is abuzz with new insects, birds and tree frogs are waking up from their winter slumber, and daffodils, poppies, irises and tulips paint the world. With the natural world springing to life with such exubrance and force, residency at the monastery inclines towards the out of doors. We dedicate more of our daily practice to the care and maintenance of our garden and grounds. This includes maintaining our trails and caring for native trees in our forest to planting veggies in…
April Sesshin
With Hogen Bays, Roshi and Danney Soten Lynch
April 15 - 21, 2024
Great Vow Zen Monastery
Our meditation practice can be one of relaxed openness and vivid presence, with wisdom into our nature naturally revealing. This is the practice of serene-illumination, a form of meditation where calm-abiding (shamatha) and insight (vipassana) are practiced as one. Sesshin is a rigorous and, at times, challenging silent meditation retreat that is not recommended for beginners. In order to attend in person, we require that you attend one of our silent weekend retreats or a five-seven day silent retreat at another Zen Center before registering for our longer zen retreats. For more information about what to expect when attending…
Five Buddhist Precepts for Ethical Living: Online Class Series
With Ed Gensho Welsh
April 17 - May 22, 2024
Online
These one hour online 5 Precepts classes will happen every Wednesday for six weeks. We all want to live a compassionate life. The precepts give us a framework for what it means to live an ethical life. More then a set of rules to follow, the precepts are deep inquiries into the actual living of our lives with attention and love. The format is an introductory talk followed by class discussion. Participants will be encouraged to do a short writing on each precept and practice with the precept during the week. There are also some supplemental readings.
Spring Zazenkai: A One Day Meditation Retreat
With Larry Fuho Trussell
April 27, 2024
Heart of Wisdom Zen Temple
A Zazenkai is a day of Zen practice in the city. Join us for a silent day of meditation (seated and walking), chanting, mindful eating, temple care-taking, and a dharma talk. We close the day with a ceremony to renewing our intention to live an ethical life.
Dissolving the Barriers: a Thousand Year Old Remedy for Modern Suffering
With Lama Lekshe
May 2 - 5, 2024
Great Vow Zen Monastery or Online
Cleverly side-stepping the western tendency to look for ‘cures’ through analysis and problem solving, Tonglen accomplishes healing with a simple, imaginative 5-part contemplative exercise. Through repeated practice, suffering and its causes are gradually diminished, and wisdom and compassion arise in their place. Genuine Tonglen is an advanced practice, but with precise guidance it can be effectively undertaken by a determined beginner, with or without previous meditation experience.
May Sesshin – The Light of our Ancestors
With Amy Kisei, Sensei and Patrick Bansho Green
May 13 - 19, 2024
Great Vow Zen Monastery or Online
Zen is a direct Mind to Mind transmission--a transmission of light. We study with teachers who help us recognize and embody our awakened wisdom and compassion. During this sesshin, we will connect with our roots and draw strength from the stories of those who have come before us. Our ancestors are real people, walking the path of their lives and opening the Dharma truths - just as we aspire to do. Join us for this intimate week of practice. Sesshin is a rigorous and, at times, challenging silent meditation retreat that is not recommended for beginners. In order to attend…