This daylong retreat will explore attitudes and teachings about death and dying through meditation, ceremony, writing, music, and movement.

People celebrate the Aztec/Mexican “Dia de los Muertos” by making elaborate altars, feasting, singing and telling jokes making light of death. The Japanese/Zen Buddhist “Sejiki” ceremony similarly involves by making a special altar-offering of food and drink to the “hungry ghosts,” ritually invoking their presence to wish for their peace and ease.

Our retreat will incorporate elements of these ancient practices – everyone will be invited to create a small altar with photos and/or mementos of loved ones who have passed on. We will honor our ancestors with ritual and song. We will meditate on and discuss conditioned beliefs and emotions that arise with respect to death and dying, as well as Buddhist teachings that aim to meet and soothe our fears of death. We will also move together in the ancient forms of qi gong. Both the light-heartedness of the Dia de los Muertos and the soberness of the Sejiki ceremony will be in the room.

Our leaders aim to create a day that is meaningful and supportive to everyone present. That said, this retreat may not be suitable for the recently bereaved.

This retreat will be led by So’on Jim Hare and Devin Wallace.

So’on Jim Hare serves as Tanto, or head of practice. He lived in the San Francisco Zen Center community from 1980 to 1984 and was lay ordained by Tenshin Reb Anderson in 1985. He served as Head Student at Green Gulch Farm during the spring 2002 practice period, and was priest ordained by Rev. Myo Lahey in 2016.

Devin Wallace began Buddhist practice in 1972 at the Eugene (OR) Zen Priory. He has been involved with several Buddhist Sanghas and centers over the years and currently is a member of White Heron Sangha in San Luis Obispo, where he serves on the Program Committee, leads 1 day retreats, and gives occasional dharma talks. Since 2008 Devin has been a student of the Venerable Hol Wye Sunim, a Zen monk originally from Sri Lanka who is now based in Antelope Valley, CA. Devin co-facilitates retreats with Sunim and hosts his monthly on-line class. Devin is also the principal teacher of a small Sangha in Los Osos, CA, and teaches qi gong throughout the county.

Attendance is available on a sliding scale from $10 to $100. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.

If this will be your first extended sitting with us, please send us a note at info@valleystreamszen.org to introduce yourself.

Please register here.