Transforming Shame and Guilt to Healing & Connection: A Meditation in Recovery Daylong Retreat

Format and content

This is a structured day-long sit (not overnight), held at Green Gulch Farm, the residential practice center of San Francisco Zen Center. The retreat weaves together three distinct elements: silent and walking meditation in the Soto Zen tradition, Dharma talks specifically framed around the Twelve Steps and the Bodhisattva Precepts, and creative writing and storytelling as a form of practice and reflection.

The combination signals a retreat designed for people working a recovery program who want to explore how Zen sits alongside that work—not replacing it, but offering another angle on the same terrain of honesty, amends, and transformation. The creative writing component is less common in traditional sesshin; it's positioned here as an active practice, not just journaling, suggesting the retreat treats language and story-telling as ways to metabolize experience rather than obstacles to silence.

What to expect

A day-sit means you arrive in the morning and leave by evening—no overnight lodging. You'll sit multiple periods of zazen (Zen meditation), walk during kinhin breaks, listen to Dharma talks that explicitly connect Buddhist teachings to recovery principles, and participate in structured creative writing. The schedule will likely include a meal (Soto Zen centers typically serve oryoki-style or communal meals during retreats), though details aren't specified here.

Soto Zen practice emphasizes zazen itself as the primary teaching, without koan study. The Bodhisattva Precepts are the ethical foundation of Mahayana Buddhism—a set of commitments to benefit all beings. Pairing these with 12-step language (amends, honesty, sponsorship, service) suggests the teachers are fluent in both frameworks and see genuine alignment between them.

Come prepared for silence during meditation periods and meals. Bring something to write with if you want to participate fully in the creative writing section, though the retreat may provide materials.