Sesshin

October Sesshin - The Ancient Way

With Hogen Bays, Roshi, Jogen Salzberg, Sensei and Danney Soten Lynch

October 9 - 19, 2025
Great Vow Zen Monastery or Online

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 […]

November Sesshin - Gratitude

With Laura Jomon Martin, Myoyu Haley Voekel and Anusha Enryu Fernando

November 10 - 16, 2025
Great Vow Zen Monastery

With gratitude for our beloved sangha near and far, the Monastery joyfully offers another sesshin. This sesshin has no set price. All are welcome to attend, and donations from the heart are welcome. During this week of practice, we will eat only the offerings brought to us specifically for this retreat. So food donations, while […]

December Sesshin - Rohatsu

With Hogen Bays, Roshi, Larry Fuho Trussell and Myoyu Haley Voekel

December 7 - 14, 2025
Great Vow Zen Monastery or Online

The current option is to sign up for the Waitlist. We will contact you with more information once you have joined the waitlist.  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 […]

Pari-Nirvana Sesshin: A Meditation Retreat exploring Life, Death & the Unknown

With Larry Fuho Trussell, Myoyu Haley Voekel and Ed Gensho Welsh

February 16 - 22, 2026
Great Vow Zen Monastery or Online

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 […]

March Sesshin - Deep Listening

With Jogen Salzberg, Sensei, Hogen Bays, Roshi and Anusha Enryu Fernando

March 13 - 22, 2026
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.

April Sesshin

With Larry Fuho Trussell and Laura Jomon Martin

April 13 - 19, 2026
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 […]

May Sesshin - The Light of our Ancestors

With Amy Kisei, Sensei, Patrick Bansho Green and Darah Shonin Ashton

May 11 - 17, 2026
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 […]