Great Vow Zen Monastery
Pari-Nirvana Sesshin: A Meditation Retreat exploring Life, Death & the Unknown
With Larry Fuho Trussell, Myoyu Haley Voekel and Ed Gensho Welsh
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 […]
Beginner's Mind Weekend Meditation Retreat
With Darah Shonin Ashton and Onshin Landry
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 […]
March Sesshin - Deep Listening
With Jogen Salzberg, Sensei, Hogen Bays, Roshi and Anusha Enryu Fernando
The Resilient Heart
With Hogen Bays, Roshi
This retreat is one in which Hogen Roshi often experiments with dharma teaching and practice. So, please come with a flexible mind, open to possibilities. This retreat/workshop is (as are all of our events) an opportunity to hear the teachings of liberation, to reflect and verify them and to apply them to our lives. As the truths of […]
Spring Practice Period: Awakening with the Earth
Spring at Great Vow Zen Monastery is beautiful. The fruit tree blossoms open towards the heavens, the forest is abuzz with new life as birds, insects and tree frogs are wake up from their winter slumber. Early spring flowers emerge in abundant color, offering fresh perspectives and encouragements. With the natural world springing to […]
April Sesshin
With Larry Fuho Trussell and Laura Jomon Martin
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 […]
Love & Spaciousness: A Loving Kindness Weekend Retreat
With Patrick Bansho Green and Myoyu Haley Voekel
With wonderment on our side, and in relationship with all that is, we recognize the inherent compassion that naturally arises from deep and sustained presence. Held in a container of zen forms and the vibrant dance of a monastery waking up to spring, we will explore the nature of being anything at all! During this silent retreat our day will […]
May Sesshin - The Light of our Ancestors
With Amy Kisei, Sensei, Patrick Bansho Green and Darah Shonin Ashton
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 […]
Holding Power Wisely: Ethics, Boundaries, and Care in Buddhist Teaching Relationships
With Jan Chozen Bays, Roshi, Lama Lekshe, Laura Jomon Martin and Patrick Bansho Green
Holding Power Wisely is a two-day, residential applied ethics workshop for Dharma teachers, teachers-in-training, and others who hold positions of spiritual teaching authority within Buddhist communities. Teachers may also send students with possible teaching responsibilities on their development horizon. Since teaching relationships carry inherent power, even when grounded in sincere intention and deep practice, the […]
Swords into Blossoms: The Alchemy of Stopping and Seeing
With Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei and Danica Shoan Ankele, Sensei
On the night of his enlightenment, the Buddha was confronted by Mara, a trickster figure embodying forces that sought to pull him away from awakening. Remaining firmly seated, the Buddha met these forces with stillness and awareness. Mara dissolved, and the Buddha awakened to his true nature. Why does this ancient story remain central to […]
Five-Day Silent Chan Retreat led by Guo Gu
With Guo Gu
Tuesday June 23 – Saturday June 27, 2026 In the Chan tradition, there are two main approaches to awakening: the method of silent illumination (mòzhào) and investigating a critical phrase (huàtóu). The former is a settling method of serene reflection on the nature of awareness; the latter is an explosive approach that aims to concentrate […]
Summer Residency Program 2026
July Sesshin
With Jogen Salzberg, Sensei, Patrick Bansho Green and Myoyu Haley Voekel
Grasses, Trees, and the Great Earth Sesshin
With Amy Kisei, Sensei and Myoyu Haley Voekel
Earth body, sky heart. Rooted and flowing. Luminous and open. We are made of earth and sky, of wind breath and rain song, our lives woven from the teachings of the natural world. This retreat is an opportunity to re-connect and relax into the wild, ancient, wisdom of the Grasses, Trees and Great Earth. We […]
Jizo Sesshin
With Jan Chozen Bays, Roshi and Laura Jomon Martin
This retreat begins on Tuesday! This retreat will focus on the qualities of Jizo Bodhisattva, guardian of all that comes from the earth, and Jizo’s qualities – benevolence, optimism, fearlessness, determination, and vow. A unique element of this retreat is the inclusion of time devoted to art projects, creative time, and a slide show […]
December Sesshin - Rohatsu
With Hogen Bays, Roshi, Larry Fuho Trussell and Darah Shonin Ashton
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 […]