Fall 2023 Retreat

We are pleased to announce that Shohaku Okumura Roshi has generously offered to conduct another Fall Retreat in Western Pennsylvania at the Villa Maria Education and Spirituality Center. Stillpoint is honored to sponsor Okumura Roshi at Villa Maria on October 12-15, 2023.

Okumura Roshi and Stillpoint have conducted many fall retreats at Villa Maria, but our streak was broken during the pandemic. Villa Maria has reopened its doors to retreats this year, and Okumura Roshi expressed his interest in conducting a fall retreat with Stillpoint in 2023. As many of you know, Okumura Roshi is stepping down as Head Abbott of the Sanshin Zen Community in Bloomington, IN. later this month and, in all likelihood, this will be his last retreat in Western Pennsylvania.

For those who haven’t been to a Stillpoint Sesshin, people arrive Thursday night in preparation for two full days of meditation on Friday and Saturday, and a half Day on Sunday. The retreat is spent in silent contemplation. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are provided by the staff of Villa Maria. The meditation sessions are broken up with two hour long talks by Okumura, who will take one of his world-famous deep dives into a selected writing from Dogen, the 13th century founder of Soto Zen in Japan. The sesshin ends with breaking of the silence and a refreshing lunch on Sunday afternoon.

If you wish to participate in this special retreat, please fill out this form. A notice with all of the relevant registration, cost and other retreat information will be emailed to you in about one month. We hope you can join us. Registration will be limited, however, so if you are interested please let us know as soon as possible.