Monastery
Thanksgiving Day Potluck Celebration
Come celebrate Thanksgiving and the spirit of autumnal release at Great Vow. Vegetarian potluck dinner begins at 4pm. Main courses (nut loaf, mashed potatoes, stuffing) will be provided by our kitchen. Side dishes, desserts, salads, and other magical accompaniments are brought by guests. Potluck Dinner will be followed by games, dancing, and spontaneous conviviality. […]
December Sesshin - Rohatsu
With Jan Chozen Bays, Roshi, Hogen Bays, Roshi and Larry Fuho Trussell
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 […]
Beginner's Mind Weekend Meditation Retreat
With Laura Jomon Martin and Myoyu Haley Voekel
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 […]
Commitment and Connection: A New Year's Retreat
With Hogen Bays, Roshi and Myoyu Haley Voekel
What does it mean to be entering a New Year? One the one hand, as humans, we are simply pinning a tail on vast space and calling it 'time'. On the other hand, a New Year can have very significant implications in our lives and the lives of those we love. How do we […]
Vow Sesshin
With Hogen Bays, Roshi and Patrick Bansho Green
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 […]
Pari-Nirvana Sesshin: A Meditation Retreat exploring Life, Death & the Unknown
With Amy Kisei, Sensei and Laura Jomon Martin
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? […]
Emergent Darkness - A Creative Process, Parts Work and Zen Retreat
With Amy Kisei, Sensei and Myoyu Haley Voekel
Darkness is the home from which you come - Here in winter’s cold, dark hour—what is waiting to emerge? Zen practice and the creative process invite us into the mysterious source from which all things seem to arise. Darkness is pregnant, the empty page full of potential---a plum blossom emerges from within winter’s cold, barren […]
March Sesshin - Deep Listening
With Jogen Salzberg, Sensei, Hogen Bays, Roshi and Anusha Enryu Fernando
Koan Sesshin
With Jan Chozen Bays, Roshi, Larry Fuho Trussell and Patrick Bansho Green
Zen koans are words, phrases or questions that can re-orient us from the discriminating mind to the One Mind, from the Relative to the Absolute. In this sesshin we will work with koans, stilling the mind, and experience the bright clarity that comes forth as each moment Sesshin is a rigorous and, at times, […]
May Sesshin - The Light of our Ancestors
With Amy Kisei, Sensei, Patrick Bansho Green and Ed Gensho Welsh
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 […]
June Sesshin - Loving Kindness
With Jogen Salzberg, Sensei and Laura Jomon Martin
Because of our past as well as presently existing beliefs and attitudes, our capacity to meet ourselves and life and the people, places and things within it, with an open heart, is probably not fully embodied. Buddha taught that love and friendliness can be developed immeasurably, and that there is only benefit in filling ourselves […]
July Sesshin - Summer Breeze
With Patrick Bansho Green, Danney Soten Lynch and Darah Shonin Ashton
Grasses, Trees, and the Great Earth Sesshin
With Amy Kisei, Sensei, Sara Shinei Monial 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 […]
October Sesshin - The Ancient Way
With Hogen Bays, Roshi, Jogen Salzberg, Sensei and Danney Soten Lynch
There is something very special about the magic of autumn and the kicking off of the fall ango practice period that makes this sesshin so powerful. What a great gift it is to be able to sit together in silence. This is our longest sesshin of the year. The extra days enable us drop down […]