The Sixth Ancestor of Chinese Zen awakening his Dharma brother by asking "without thinking of good and bad, what is your original face?" This daylong retreat will focus on the 24th case in the koan collection known as the Mumonkan, or the Gateless Barrier. There will be morning and afternoon talks, zazen, and optional dokusan […]

These lines beckon us to meet the clear, still, nature of reality as our own intimacy and immediacy. This day-long retreat led by guest teacher Danan Wark will feature morning and afternoon talks, zazen, and optional dokusan (private interviews). Your registration on a sliding scale offers support to our guest teacher and the ongoing activities […]

Our retreat day will include sitting and walking meditation, a Dharma talk and afternoon discussion period. Outside the meditation hall we will maintain noble silence. Please bring a bag lunch. Please register here.

Manifesting the promise of liberation becomes our legacy for future generations. This one-day retreat will feature periods of sitting and walking meditation and a Dharma talk by Paravritti Doralee Grindler Katonah, Valley Streams Zen Sangha's leader of the meditation hall. Lunch will be silent; please bring your own bag lunch. Attendance is available on a […]

Following up on January's half-day, we'll explore the next lines in the Song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi and their guidance for our practice. This retreat day will be led by So'on Jim Hare. The day will include periods of sitting and walking meditation, morning Dharma talk and afternoon Q&A/discusson. Jim will be available for […]

In this Dharma poem we hear how to build a thatched hut and to practice zazen by turning the light around. Our daylong retreat will focus on the classic Zen poem, Song Of The Thatched Hermitage by our lineage ancestor Shitou, who also wrote the Sandokai or the Harmony of Difference and Equality. There will […]

We create nests of being that call for release for our true nature to freely engage our everyday lives. Come practice together. The theme of this one-day retreat will be a discussion of the koan, “If you don’t swing the sword, the fisherperson stays in the nest.” (68 Jiashan “Swinging the Sword”, Book of Serenity.) […]

In zazen, we rest awake in the boundless silence and stillness that invisibly nourishes and sustains our everyday, active lives. The mind holds the body, and the body holds the mind, in deeply habitual ways. In zazen (just sitting with nothing to get ahold of and nothing to get away from – in complete acceptance), […]

This retreat will be dedicated to cultivating equanimity, defined within the early Buddhist teaching of The Four Brahmaviharas. Equanimity, one of the four divine and immeasurable attitudes, is not a superficial attitude. It’s not a mask that one wears on top of tension or grievances, and it's not like floating among the clouds far above […]