Residential Practice
About Our Residential Program
Residency at Great Vow Zen Monastery is a precious opportunity to devote your energy to full-time Buddhist practice. The practice of Awakening brings healing, transformation, compassion and stability into one’s heart and life. Join us for one of our residency programs.
What is Residency at Great Vow?
With 3 – 4 hours of daily meditation, residents are given the time, guidance and support to deeply enter the path of meditation – unifying, clarifying and opening the heart-mind. Meditation methods in calm-abiding, insight, koan, shikantaza and loving kindness are all taught and practiced within this community.
There is a rigor to the daily monastic schedule which supports a wholehearted engagement with every activity of life. Residents follow the daily schedule including dawn and evening meditation, five to six hours of community work practice, mindful eating, and Zen chanting/liturgy services at the monastery. Throughout the year we focus on different aspects of practice from body practice (yoga, qi gong and running), to creative process and the study of the Buddhist sutras.
All residents participate in Sesshin, our monthly weeklong silent meditation retreat, weekend meditation retreats, weekly classes and engage in direct study with a teacher.
If you are a woman, a person of color, LGBTQ* or economically disadvantaged, we welcome and especially encourage you to apply. Different types of financial assistance are available.
Summer Program
July 7th – August 21st
Our intention is to nurture a heart centered, embodied practice life and to bring deep presence, wisdom and compassion forward in our day to day experience.
About Summer Practice Period
This is a great opportunity to strengthen and explore 24 hour a day practice, in the context of the monastic schedule. Our most popular period of residency, the Summer Program is 6-week session of immersive Zen training. Summer Program is designed to give you a genuine view into Zen monastic practice as it is currently being expressed in this country. Dive into a full schedule of meditation, chanting, work practice and retreat. This practice period includes 2 week long meditation retreats and several weekend retreats, all with the emphasis of looking deeply into the nature of our own hearts and minds.
https://www.zendust.org/calendar/226/summer-residency-program/
To inquire about residency please email training@zendust.org
AUTUMN ANGO
Every fall, Great Vow residents are sustained by the beauty and mystery of autumn and dive into an all embracing practice period of deeper silence and extended retreat.
About Ango
It is an ancient tradition, beginning with the Buddha Shakyamuni and his disciples, to set aside months of time each year to greatly simplify one’s affairs and focus exclusively on meditation practice and the study of the self.
In that spirit, this autumn at Great Vow we will hold an Ango (practice Intensive) - a two-month period- to help us explore the hidden corners of our own hearts and minds . The Ango daily schedule will include more zazen (about 5.5 hours), body practice and allow us to wade into container of deeper silence and community connection. The Ango includes one weekend meditation retreat as well as, the Walking the Ancient Way ten-day sesshin, Gratitude sesshin, and our seven-day Rohatsu sesshin.
The beauty and serenity of the monastery itself provides extra support in the process of re-discovering and resting in true self. This endeavor is life-changing and is a great opportunity for those looking to deepen their meditation practice, find peace of mind, and the innate confidence and clarity that shines through when life is oriented towards presence and love.
To inquire about residency please email the Residency Coordinator, training@zendust.org.
Spring Practice Period
April 5th – May 29th
Spring offers more opportunities to work in and explore the natural world. This period also dives into a more rigorous Zazen schedule than the winter practice container.
About the Spring Practice Period
Throw open the windows and let in the sun! (and rain, and wind and ever changing weather of the Pacific Northwest). Spring is a time to shake off the winter chills and breath in the fresh smells of life emerging from the earth.
In the Spring we dive into more hours of Zazen, enabling us to collect our attention, nurture our heart minds, and look with curiosity into the nature of reality. What are we, really? And what is really going on?
Let’s look together at these essential questions and draw on the wonder and beauty of spring to help us keep them alive in our collective and individual heart minds.
During the Spring Practice Period residents will participate in the full monastic schedule, which includes early morning and evening meditation and meditation retreats/sesshins.
https://www.zendust.org/calendar/144/springing-to-life-monastery-practice-period/
To inquire about residency please contact the Residency Coordinator, training@zendust.org
Information & Application for Residency
Residential training begins with a month commitment. Longer stays are available after that first month. Shorter guest stays are also welcome.
The initial cost for residential training is $600 per month. The training fee covers room, meals, Dharma teachings, monthly sesshin, and most other retreats and workshops. Different types of financial assistance are available, please inquire.
Ordained and monastics are always welcome at no cost.
It is ideal if those interested in residency are able to visit before applying; there are options for shorter overnight stays to see if residential training is right for you.
Residential Training Guidelines and Agreements may be viewed here.
For more information about residential training and to obtain an application, contact training@zendust.org
Join a Practice Period
Opportunities abound all year long!
It’s helpful to look at the various practice period schedules offered throughout the year at the Monastery. There is an ebb and flow to the intensity of practice here and each season has its own character. Take a look at the ZCO calendar page for more details.
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