Saturday
23
Inner Critic Workshop
Great Vow Zen Monastery / Clatskanie, OR, USA
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Scanning 111 centers · 104 upcoming retreats
The Retreats Desk · May 14
What silence holds
A workshop at Great Vow asks what happens when the teacher-student relationship goes wrong — the same weeks Tassajara sends practitioners into the mountains and Hokyoji strips a retreat to its bones.
Pico Iyer, who has made over a hundred silent retreats at a Benedictine hermitage in Big Sur, wrote in *Aflame* that "in the solitude of my cell, I often feel closer to the people I care for than when they're in the same room." Silence sharpens things. It brings what matters into focus — and it can bring what's wrong into focus too. The same intimacy that makes a teacher-student relationship in Zen so powerful is what makes it fragile. Silence can hold trust. It can also hold its violation.
May
2026 17 retreatsSaturday
23
Precepts II – The Practices of a Bodhisattva
with Jody Hojin Kimmel
Zen Mountain Monastery / Mt Tremper, NY, USA
Sunday
24
Family Sangha Daylong Retreat at Green Gulch Farm
San Francisco Zen Center / San Francisco, CA, USA
Sunday – Sunday · 8 days
24–31
Just Sitting Retreat - Spring 2026
Hokyoji Zen Practice Community / Eitzen, MN, USA
Monday – Sunday · 7 days
25–31
Ocean Gathering Sesshin
with Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Jody Hojin Kimmel, Ron Hogen Green, Danica Shoan Ankele
Zen Mountain Monastery / Mt Tremper, NY, USA
Monday – Sunday · 7 days
25–31
One Continuous Thread: Home Practice Intensive—May
with Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Jody Hojin Kimmel, Danica Shoan Ankele
Zen Mountain Monastery / Mt Tremper, NY, USA
Tuesday – Sunday · 6 days
26–31
Agency, Interdependence and Compassion: Exploring Themes to Inform Our Most Senior Years
San Francisco Zen Center / San Francisco, CA, USA
Tuesday – Saturday · 5 days
26–30
Five-Day Sesshin
San Francisco Zen Center / San Francisco, CA, USA
Tuesday – Sunday · 6 days
26–31
Joyful Ease, Your Own True Body
San Francisco Zen Center / San Francisco, CA, USA
Wednesday – Saturday · 4 days
27–30
The Wonder of Bird Song
with Zac Denning
San Francisco Zen Center / San Francisco, CA, USA
Thursday – Saturday
28–30
Holding Power Wisely: Ethics, Boundaries, and Care in Buddhist Teaching Relationships
Great Vow Zen Monastery / Clatskanie, OR, USA
Thursday – Saturday
28–30
Three-Day Sesshin, Online
San Francisco Zen Center / San Francisco, CA, USA
Saturday
30
Half-day Sit
Zen Mountain Monastery / Mt Tremper, NY, USA
Saturday
30
Half-day Sit (online)
Zen Mountain Monastery / Mt Tremper, NY, USA
Saturday
30
Saturday In Person One-Day Sitting
San Francisco Zen Center / San Francisco, CA, USA
Sunday
31
Outdoor Practice Day Hike
Boundless Way Zen Temple/Mugendo-ji / Worcester, MA, USA
Sunday
31
Work Practice Day
Brooklyn Zen Center / Brooklyn, NY, USA
June
2026 17 retreatsThursday – Sunday · 4 days
04–07
Swords into Blossoms: The Alchemy of Stopping and Seeing
Great Vow Zen Monastery / Clatskanie, OR, USA
Friday – Sunday
05–07
Introduction to Zen Training Weekend
with Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Danica Shoan Ankele, Gokan Bonebakker
Zen Mountain Monastery / Mt Tremper, NY, USA
Saturday
06
BIAPOC (Black, Indigenous, Asian, and People of Color) Retreat at ZCNYC: Vibrant Community Practice
Zen Mountain Monastery / Mt Tremper, NY, USA