Finding The Still Point
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Zen Mountain Monastery
- Zen Mountain Monastery, 871 Plank Rd Mt Tremper, NY 12457
- Jul 19 - 21, 2019 (3 days)
- $350.00 - Program Price $315.00 - *Practicing Member Price $250.00 - **MRO Student Price
About This Event
“We seem to have lost the ability to just be quiet, to simply be present in the stillness that is the foundation of our lives. Yet if we never get in touch with that stillness, we never fully experience our lives.” —Daido Roshi
The Buddha realized enlightenment while practicing seated meditation. This practice is the heart of Zen training. Zazen is simple, easy to describe and understand, and also incredibly profound. It’s a practice that deepens and develops over time. While we may be drawn to zazen for the immediate benefit of learning to calm our restless and distracted minds, zazen is a path to liberation. Once we receive beginning instruction and commit to a sitting practice, how do we practice so that our zazen deepens and ripens?
This weekend retreat offers the chance to develop your relationship to zazen. We’ll do this through extended periods of meditation, as well as guided study and reflection sessions. We will explore the subtleties of meditation posture in a hands-on clinic, look at ancient and contemporary teachings on mindfulness meditation, and take up exercises designed to deepen your understanding of zazen as a practice of training the mind. We’ll give special attention to the importance of developing concentration, allowing space for difficult emotions, and dispelling some common misconceptions about zazen.
This retreat is a natural and recommended next step following attendance at an Introduction to Zen Training Weekend retreat. We also recommend it if you have an established practice and are ready for additional guidance and support, or would like an intermediate step before attending sesshin. Participants will also have an opportunity for daisan, face-to-face teaching, with Hojin Sensei.
Please don’t let financial issues prevent you from attending a program at the Monastery. If you can’t afford the program fee, there are options.
Venue Highlights
Welcome to Zen Mountain Monastery. Before you register for a retreat, please take a thorough look at our website so that you familiarize yourself with what it's like to do a retreat with us.About the Venue and Teachers
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![Zen Mountain Monastery]()
Zen Mountain Monastery
Zen Mountain Monastery (ZMM), the main house of the Mountains and Rivers Order (MRO), is one of the West’s most respected Zen Buddhist monasteries and training centers.Nestled in New York’s beautiful Catskill Mountains, the Monastery draws its strength from the ancient tradition of Buddhist monasticism. Since 1980, ZMM has offered spiritual practitioners traditional and innovative ways to engage the dharma through a wide range of retreats and residential programs that unfold within the context of authentic, full-time Zen monastic training. -
![MRO Seniors]()
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![Mn. Gokan Bonebakker]()
Mn. Gokan Bonebakker
Bear Gokan Bonebakker first came to the Monastery in 1994, and has been in residence since 2007. He was ordained in 2014. Gokan is the Operations Director, helps coordinate the National Buddhist Prison Sangha, and works in the orchard. -
![Mn. Shoan Ankele]()
Mn. Shoan Ankele
Danica Shoan Ankele is a Senior Monastic in the Mountains and Rivers Order. She has been in full time residential training since 2007 and ordained with Shugen Roshi in 2014. Shoan is the Monastery’s Creative Director and Training Coordinator, and is also involved in the Monastery’s Tenkozan line of ZMM-made products, including statues and cloth items dyed with plants cultivated on the Monastery grounds. -
![MRO Teachers and Senior Staff]()
MRO Teachers and Senior Staff
Many of our retreats are co-led and facilitated by both lay and monastic teachers as well as senior monastics in the order. To learn more about our teachers and staff, visit this page.
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