Retreat Cabin Application
Open Dates
Great Vow Zen Monastery
The monastery retreat cabin rests on the edge of our 23 acres of forest. Though, just a short walk to the monastery buildings, it has a feeling of a forest hermitage. Equipped with running water, electricity, a small kitchenette with electric stovetop and small refrigerator and a compost toilet it is an ideal location for doing short solo retreat practice. You will have access to our forest trail system, beautiful meadows and gardens, as well as the privacy for solo meditation and dharma study. The intention of the retreat hut is to provide practice support for those looking to deepen…
16 Bodhisattva Precepts Online Classes
With Larry Fuho Trussell
February 25 - March 31, 2024
Online
The beginning and end of our practice is ethical living; acting, speaking and thinking in ways that support the greatest wellbeing and awakening for all beings. Anyone who has taken the 5 Precepts Class can take this class, whether you have already formally taken the precepts, are considering taking the precepts, or you are simply curious about the ethical guidelines that rest at the foundation of Zen practice.
Home Hermitage – A Day Long Retreat Online
With Jogen Salzberg, Sensei
March 31, 2024
Online
We will spend a day meditating in the intimate aloneness that embraces all beings. Doing sustained zazen in our own dwelling place and its wild domesticity invites the desired integration of the everyday and the sacred. […]
Spring Practice Period: Awakening with the Earth
April 2 - May 26, 2024
Great Vow Zen Monastery
Spring at Great Vow Zen Monastery is beautiful. The fruit tree blossoms open towards the heavens, the forest is abuzz with new insects, birds and tree frogs are waking up from their winter slumber, and daffodils, poppies, irises and tulips paint the world. With the natural world springing to life with such exubrance and force, residency at the monastery inclines towards the out of doors. We dedicate more of our daily practice to the care and maintenance of our garden and grounds. This includes maintaining our trails and caring for native trees in our forest to planting veggies in…
Liberation Beyond Belief
With Hogen Bays, Roshi and Myoyu Haley Voekel
April 4 - 7, 2024
Great Vow Zen Monastery
Our practice is a continual invitation to expand our view. As our view expands, we no longer live tethered to our preferences, judgements and beliefs about how we think the world should be. We come to see that even the most tumultuous and challenging circumstances can become opportunities for deep insight and possibility. Our Zazen practice gives us a foundation upon which insight can land and be cultivated. It gives us a base upon which we can move with the winds of change. Here is our space to ground, to root, and then to look around with fresh eyes. What…
Understanding The Inner Critic
With Kodo Conover and Kosho Ault
April 5 - 6, 2024
Heart of Wisdom Zen Temple
Through steady but gentle inquiry, we’ll explore the inner critic in a supportive environment and come to some understanding around its complexity, elusiveness, and misplaced intentions as well as its deeper purpose. Building and healing our relationship with the inner critic is an unfolding practice, like zazen. There is no formula or one-size-fits-all. We'll practice responding to the inner critic with a variety of tools using meditation and Dharma teachings, devotional ritual, creative practice, and group work. Schedule: Friday April 5 from 6:00 - 9:00 pm Dinner included Saturday April 6 from 9:00 am - 4:00 pm Lunch included
April Sesshin
With Larry Fuho Trussell and Danney Soten Lynch
April 15 - 21, 2024
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 for beginners. In order to attend in person, we require that you attend one of our silent weekend retreats or a five-seven day silent retreat at another Zen Center before registering for our longer zen retreats. For more information about what to expect when attending…
Five Buddhist Precepts for Ethical Living: Online Class Series
With Ed Gensho Welsh
April 17 - May 22, 2024
Online
These one hour online 5 Precepts classes will happen every Wednesday for six weeks. We all want to live a compassionate life. The precepts give us a framework for what it means to live an ethical life. More then a set of rules to follow, the precepts are deep inquiries into the actual living of our lives with attention and love. The format is an introductory talk followed by class discussion. Participants will be encouraged to do a short writing on each precept and practice with the precept during the week. There are also some supplemental readings.
Spring Zazenkai: A One Day Meditation Retreat
With Larry Fuho Trussell
April 27, 2024
Heart of Wisdom Zen Temple
A Zazenkai is a day of Zen practice in the city. Join us for a silent day of meditation (seated and walking), chanting, mindful eating, temple care-taking, and a dharma talk. We close the day with a ceremony to renewing our intention to live an ethical life.
Dissolving the Barriers: a Thousand Year Old Remedy for Modern Suffering
With Lama Lekshe
May 2 - 5, 2024
Great Vow Zen Monastery or Online
Cleverly side-stepping the western tendency to look for ‘cures’ through analysis and problem solving, Tonglen accomplishes healing with a simple, imaginative 5-part contemplative exercise. Through repeated practice, suffering and its causes are gradually diminished, and wisdom and compassion arise in their place. Genuine Tonglen is an advanced practice, but with precise guidance it can be effectively undertaken by a determined beginner, with or without previous meditation experience.
Service to the Temple
May 4, 2024
Heart of Wisdom Zen Temple
Working together is part of our spiritual practice, and allows us to honor and care for the sacred space that Heart of Wisdom provides in our city. Please join with community for this morning of practice and work together.
ZCO Annual Meeting
May 5, 2024
Heart of Wisdom Zen Temple or Online
Once a year we gather for an annual membership meeting to reflect on what we've accomplished and intentions for the year ahead.
Home Hermitage – A Day Long Retreat Online
With Jogen Salzberg, Sensei
May 5, 2024
Online
We will spend a day meditating in the intimate aloneness that embraces all beings. Doing sustained zazen in our own dwelling place and its wild domesticity invites the desired integration of the everyday and the sacred. […]
Investigating Zen Practice: a one-day workshop
May 11, 2024
Heart of Wisdom Zen Temple
Experience an Introduction to Zen Practice through the Ten Directions. This one-day in-person workshop at Heart of Wisdom Zen Temple is for beginners or those who want to dive deeper into Zen practice. Learn how to practice using ancient methods that are applicable in today’s world: Meditation and sitting with stability Mindfulness practice off the cushion Chanting Mindful eating Work practice Stillness Walking meditation Koans Tradition and ritual Dharma teachings Lunch is included. Your RSVP helps us know how much lunch to prepare.
May Sesshin – The Light of our Ancestors
With Amy Kisei, Sensei and Patrick Bansho Green
May 13 - 19, 2024
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 path of their lives and opening the Dharma truths - just as we aspire to do. Join us for this intimate week of practice. Sesshin is a rigorous and, at times, challenging silent meditation retreat that is not recommended for beginners. In order to attend…
Touching Life: Thursday Evening with Corey Hess
May 23, 2024
Heart of Wisdom Zen Temple
In place of our usual Thursday night gathering, Heart of Wisdom will be hosting guest instructor, Corey Hess. Practices will include Zhan Zhuang, Qigong, Seated Meditation, Non-Directed body Movement. About Corey Hess: After spending my twenties doing intense internal healing and embodiment work in Japan, I came back to the States with unique insights to share about healing, pain, meditation, and internal energetic process. After fifteen years ripening and learning to communicate these insights through hands on touch therapy, teaching movement, and discussion, I now offer classes in Qigong, Zhan Zhuang, non-directed body movement, and meditation instruction. I also run…
Love & Spaciousness: A Loving Kindness Weekend Retreat
With Amy Kisei, Sensei and Myoyu Haley Voekel
May 24 - 26, 2024
Great Vow Zen Monastery
With wonderment on our side, and in relationship with all that is, we recognize the inherent compassion that naturally arises from deep and sustained presence. Held in a container of zen forms and the vibrant dance of a monastery waking up to spring, we will explore the nature of being anything at all! During this silent retreat our day will unfold within the practices of zazen, chanting, formal meals and a short work practice. Much of the day will be spent in the meditation hall practicing seated meditation together. Beginners welcome. 🙂
Chan Practice of Silent Illumination with Rebecca Li
With Rebecca Li
June 11 - 16, 2024
Great Vow Zen Monastery or Online
“Silently and serenely, one forgets all words. Clearly and vividly, it appears before you.” These are the opening lines of the poem Silent Illumination composed by Chan master Hongzhi in the twelfth century China, a poem often used by the late Chan master Sheng Yen in his silent illumination retreats. Silent illumination is a practice where stillness and clarity are cultivated simultaneously through the process of recognizing and releasing layers of ever more subtle habitual reactivities that cause suffering. This practice allows us to live more in accordance with wisdom and compassion, as we suffer less and become more present,…
16 Bodhisattva Precepts Series (in – person)
With Kodo Conover
June 23 - July 28, 2024
Heart of Wisdom Zen Temple
**A new offering**: precept study outdoors in Heart of Wisdom temple garden. Appreciate the longer days and summer breezes with community. The beginning and end of our practice is ethical living; acting, speaking and thinking in ways that support the greatest well-being and awakening for all beings. Anyone who has taken the 5 Precepts Class can take this class, whether you have already formally taken the precepts, are considering taking the precepts, or you are simply curious about the ethical guidelines that rest at the foundation of Zen practice.
Summer Residency Program 2024
July 5 - August 18, 2024
Great Vow Zen Monastery
The Summer Program at Great Vow Zen Monastery is an opportunity to plunge into Zen practice with the support of community and teachers, and to taste the benefits of calming the mind and opening the heart. Our Summer Program is a special part of our on-going residential program at the monastery. It is designed to give you a genuine immersion in Zen practice, through the practices of meditation, mindful eating. ritual/liturgy, movement practices (yoga/qi gong), and temple work.
Jizo Ceremony for Children Who Have Died
With Jan Chozen Bays, Roshi
July 13, 2024
Great Vow Zen Monastery
The loss of a child often opens a well of profound grief. No matter how the child dies, suddenly or slowly, whether through illness, accident, miscarriage, abortion, or suicide, our sorrow is deep and may be long-lasting.
Chant for Peace at Heart of Wisdom
July 13, 2024
Heart of Wisdom Zen Temple
INTERFAITH CHANT FOR PEACE AT HEART OF WISDOM ZEN TEMPLE, PORTLAND OREGON TIME: 9:00am - 9:00pm LOCATION: Heart of Wisdom Zen Temple ADDRESS: 6401 NE 10th Ave, Portland, OR 97211, USA To join via Zoom, click here Awake with a passion for inner and global transformation, this 12-hour chanting vigil is a celebration of our spiritual aspirations to see the Sacred in every person, and to live Unconditional Love. This is an InterFaith event. Each hour of the Chant for Peace is led by a different spiritual tradition. We form one community and join our voices together. Chanting is spiritually potent medicine.…
July Sesshin – Cultivating the Empty Field
With Jogen Salzberg, Sensei and Myoyu Haley Voekel
July 15 - 21, 2024
Great Vow Zen Monastery
Summer is bright and alive. The sun hangs high in the sky, illuminating the earth with unflinching clarity. What wisdom does a warm summer day offer? Everything is laid bare before the luminous rays of the sun. In this meditation immersion, we will endeavor to study the self, forget the self and glimpse Buddha Nature, opening in silent communion with this community of human and non- human beings. This is our collective awakening.
Summer Zazenkai: A One Day Meditation Retreat
With Larry Fuho Trussell
July 27, 2024
Heart of Wisdom Zen Temple
A Zazenkai is a day of Zen practice in the city. Join us for a silent day of meditation (seated and walking), chanting, mindful eating, temple care-taking, and a dharma talk. We close the day with a ceremony to renewing our intention to live an ethical life.
Grasses, Trees, and the Great Earth Sesshin
With Amy Kisei, Sensei and Kodo Conover
August 12 - 18, 2024
Great Vow Zen Monastery
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 will spend time learning from each of the five elements, as they manifest in our experience. Deeply exploring and releasing into our interconnection with the living, breathing body of the Earth, waters, energizing air, bright fiery sun, and vast spacious sky. This retreat is held…
Wilderness Backpacking Sesshin: a weeklong meditation retreat
With Danney Soten Lynch and Sara Shinei Monial
August 25 - September 1, 2024
Mt. Hood Wilderness (Wy'east)
This retreat will be held in the Mt. Hood Wilderness, Oregon. Previous meditation retreat and backpacking experience is highly recommended. Immerse yourself in the silent wisdom of the forest, mountains, and sky. Allow these wild places to awaken within you and inform how you experience and embody this life.
The Work: a weekend Inquiry Retreat
With Eduardo Zambrano
September 5 - 8, 2024
Great Vow Zen Monastery
During this retreat, we will use Byron Katie’s method of inquiry called The Work to investigate our core beliefs and fixed ideas which cause suffering in our world. What ideas to you have about your life and the world that actually are not in service to the development of compassion? We hold many views simply from habit. In this retreat we will be given tools to expand beyond what we believe to be our limitations, and see our world from a place of insight and deeper wisdom. The monastery environment provides an ideal setting in which to deepen the practice of The…
Jizo Sesshin
With Jan Chozen Bays, Roshi and Laura Jomon Martin
September 10 - 15, 2024
Great Vow Zen Monastery - In Person Only
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 and talk about Jizo. As part of our practice, we will be making small Jizo-related items. Due to the nature of this retreat schedule, we will be sitting outside and also out of the zendo to make art, there will not be an online option.…
2nd Wilderness Backpacking Sesshin: a weeklong meditation retreat
With Danney Soten Lynch and Sara Shinei Monial
September 22 - 29, 2024
Mt. Hood Wilderness (Wy'east)
This retreat will be held in the Mt. Hood Wilderness, Oregon. Previous meditation retreat and backpacking experience is highly recommended. Immerse yourself in the silent wisdom of the forest, mountains, and sky. Allow these wild places to awaken within you and inform how you experience and embody this life.
October Sesshin – The Ancient Way
With Hogen Bays, Roshi, Patrick Bansho Green and Darah Shonin Ashton
October 10 - 20, 2024
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 into the bare bones essentials of our lives. We have this rare opportunity to turn towards the practice/awakening that is our true nature, and to celebrate quietly together in the container of sesshin. Day after day plunge into the waters of mystery and exploration. Turn…