ZenistThe Space Between Weekend Retreat
with Genko Rainwater·Soto Zen
Weekend silent retreat at Dharma Rain Zen Center (Soto Zen) exploring transition and the space between states. Participants attend Friday evening through Sunday morning with overnight accommodations and oryoki meals included.
About this retreat
The Space Between Weekend Retreat uses the spring equinox—a natural threshold moment—as the frame for exploring transition in practice. The retreat's focus is on the space within which change happens: not the destination or the starting point, but the territory between states. This framing suggests a retreat less about accumulation or breakthrough than about noticing the quality of transition itself.
The weekend runs Friday evening through Sunday morning. The center offers overnight accommodations for all participants and serves three oryoki meals on Saturday plus Sunday breakfast. Oryoki is the formal Zen eating practice done in the meditation hall with bowls, utensils, and specific hand signals; eating is part of the retreat's practice structure, not a break from it.
Dharma Rain is a Soto Zen center in Portland. The retreat is held in silence. The center has not yet published the daily schedule, sitting periods, or whether dokusan (private meetings with a teacher) are offered during this retreat. Contact the center for those details.
Originally listed on Dharma Rain Zen Center's website.
Full details from Dharma Rain Zen Center
For this weekend silent retreat people attend the entire retreat from Friday evening through Sunday morning.
We have overnight accommodations for all, and encourage people to take advantage of this. We serve oryoki meals – three meals on Saturday, and Sunday morning breakfast.
We will be looking at transition, moving from one state to another, and the space within which we do that. A time near the equinox, when we move from one season to another, is an ideal time to do that.