2022 Spring Hybrid Retreat

Clarifying the Call to Practice:

On the Great Matter of Birth and Death

What is Zen practice? What is its motivation? What is its direction? Why practice? What can this practice offer a fragmented and fractured world?

Traditionally, the striking of a wooden board with a mallet signals that zazen is about to start. Its sharp and definitive sound—while still warm and inviting—calls the sangha to practice together. The wooden sounding board, called the han, is inscribed with these words:

Great is the matter of birth and death.

All is impermanent, quickly passing.

Awake! Awake!

Don’t waste this precious life.

In this experiential retreat, we’ll explore the meaning, resonances, and rhythm of this call to practice. In doing so, we have the opportunity to clarify our life and its direction. How can we go about living fully and freely in our day-to-day lives together? Our practice is responding to this constant call to live out the full truth of life, wholeheartedly, for the sake of all beings.

As our retreat coincides with important days of other traditions, we’ll also look to some wholesome teachings within those wisdom traditions which may illuminate our own understanding and practice.

Retreat occurred Thursday - Saturday April 14-16, 2022

Retreat Handouts