Seirin Tim Schorre: Intention and Spring Bird Migration

Zen Priests Seirin Tim Schorre and Gyōzan Royce Johnson lead a day of intensive practice. Practicing together in a day of sesshin allows us to continue to develop and deepen practice. The cut off date for signing up is Friday morning April 23rd at 11 am. Otherwise, it is not possible to guarantee sending the zoom link to late sign ups.

The day will be focused on zazen and the practice of opening the mind and heart. Zazen can ground and support us, everyone around us, and the whole world, allowing us to open to the teachings of wisdom and compassion. The day includes zazen (sitting meditation), kinhin (walking meditation), a dharma talk with discussion, and breaks for meals.

Shinji Mary Carol Edwards: Zen Practice Is Our Relationship With Nature

Dharma talk by Assistant Teacher of HZC Shinji Mary Carol Edwards. Mary Carol is a landscape designer, wetlands restoration expert, and owner/founder of Green Star Wetland Plant Farm.

Abbot Gaelyn Godwin Roshi: The Elephant and the Dog

Dharma Talk by Abbot Gaelyn Godwin, Abiding Teacher of HZC.

Guo Gu: Silent Illumination

Dharma Talk by Guo Gu, founder and teacher of the Tallahassee Chan Center in Florida.

Our natural awakening—or buddha-nature—is inherent within all of us and waiting to be realized. Buddha-nature has the qualities of both silence and illumination, and by working with silent illumination meditation you can find your own awakening. Guo Gu introduces you to the significance and methods of this practice through in-depth explanations and guided instructions. To help establish a foundation for realizing silent illumination, he has translated twenty-five teachings from the influential master Hongzhi Zhengjue into English, accompanied by his personal commentary. Silent Illumination will be an indispensable resource for meditators interested in beginning or deepening their silent illumination practice.

Guo Gu is a Chan teacher, author, and Buddhist scholar. He is the founder and teacher of the Tallahassee Chan Center in Florida and founder of the socially engaged intra-denominational Buddhist organization, Dharma Relief (DharmaRelief.org). As one of the few teachers carrying on the living wisdom of Chan Buddhism in the West and as the trainer of all Western Dharma teachers in the Dharma Drum Lineage of Master Sheng Yen (1931-2009), Guo Gu has a unique ability to bring profound Buddhist doctrines to life through concrete methods of practice. His teachings have touched the hearts of many students across the globe where he leads multi-day, intensive Chan retreats in different countries. His personal website is www.guogulaoshi.com.

Shop for a copy of Silent Illumination from Shambhala Publications, here.

Kenkai Brandon Lamson: Practice of the Wilderness and the Lotus Sutra

Brandon's Dharma Name means Inkstone Ocean, Turning Toward the Light. He is a senior member of HZC, a former member of the Board of Directors, an adjunct professor of creative writing at UH, a poet, a yoga teacher, and a leader of Houston Dharma Collective.

Choro Antonaccio: True Person of no Rank

Dharma Talk by Zen priest Choro Antonaccio.

Choro began formal Zen practice in 1999 at Chapel Hill Zen Center, where she was lay and priest ordained by Josho Pat Phelan Roshi. Choro also trained at Tassajara, Green Gulch Farm, and City Center. She moved from North Carolina to Texas last year, and currently serves as Tanto / Head of Practice at Austin Zen Center. 

Gyōzan Royce Johnson - One Day Saturday Sesshin: The Teaching of Rebirth

Zen Priests Seirin Tim Schorre and Gyōzan Royce Johnson lead a day of intensive practice. Practicing together in a day of sesshin allows us to continue to develop and deepen practice. The cut off date for signing up is Friday morning March 19 at 11 am. Otherwise, it is not possible to guarantee sending the zoom link to late sign ups.

The day will be focused on zazen and the practice of opening the mind and heart. Zazen can ground and support us, everyone around us, and the whole world, allowing us to open to the teachings of wisdom and compassion. The day includes zazen (sitting meditation), kinhin (walking meditation), a dharma talk with discussion, and breaks for meals.

Kōshin Paley Ellison: The Gnarled Plum Tree has Fresh Blooms

Dharma Talk by Kōshin Paley Ellison, Co-Founder and Guiding Teacher of the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care

Intimacy is based on the willingness to open ourselves to many others, to family, friends, and even strangers, forming genuine and deep bonds based on common humanity. Kōshin Paley Ellison’s teachings share the way forward into a path of connection, compassion and intimacy.

Sensei Kōshin Paley Ellison, MFA, LMSW, DMin, is an author/editor and Soto Zen teacher and psychotherapist. Appreciated for his guidance in helping people integrate and apply time-tested Buddhist teachings as simple strategies for living in today’s chaotic world, He is a Co-Founder and Guiding Teacher of the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care, the author of Wholehearted: Slow Down, Help Out, Wake Up and an editor of the best-selling book Awake at the Bedside: Contemplative Teachings on Palliative and End of Life Care.

Abbot Gaelyn Godwin: Nature is the Face of Truth

Dharma Talk by Abbot Gaelyn Godwin, Abiding Teacher of HZC.

Laura O'Loughlin: The Heart Wakes up to Impermanence

Dharma Talk by Laura O’Loughlin, Zen teacher.

Laura O’Loughlin is a co-founder of Brooklyn Zen Center (BZC). She is a dharma teacher and Director for Ancestral Heart Zen Monastery. Laura received lay dharma entrustment from Teah Strozer in 2017 and had also formally studied with Darlene Cohen. She is a psychotherapist using mindfulness and trauma modalities to support healing and transformation. Before co-founding Brooklyn Zen Center, Laura trained residentially at Tassajara Zen Mountain Monastery, San Francisco Zen Center's City Center as well as Austin Zen Center, where she served as Director. Laura is interested in how Soto Zen, alongside other somatic and wisdom practices, can support practitioners and communities to transform racial, patriarchal and other social harms. Laura has co-facilitated the undoing whiteness group at BZC for several years and has led sacred feminine retreats.