The 2023 retreat was a resounding success! 31 attendees from around the region made their way to the Villa Maria Spirituality and Education Center to attend one last retreat with Shohaku Okumuru. We were especially honored that he was able to make the journey. He’s stepped down as the Abbot of Sanshin Zen Community and has drastically dropped back on his teaching appearances. Still, he wanted to make one last visit as he’s been coming out to Stillpoint since the early 90’s, and we were honored to be able to make that happen. It’s estimated he’s done 25+ retreats with us over the years. It was impressive to see the audience range from people who had been at the first Stillpoint retreat, to people who were attending their first multi-day retreat ever, and everyone in-between!
Sadly Don Orr wasn’t able to be there, as he has passed away. Don was instrumental in starting up the retreat and taking the lead on planning and ensuring that it went off without a hitch for decades. Since this tradition wouldn’t exist without his hard work over the years, we started up with an informal memorial on Thursday.
On Friday we went in to full silent mode and began the Sesshin in earnest. The schedule was moderated a bit compared to previous years, as no one is as young as they used to be, but we still managed to get five or six hours of meditation in a day. This was interspersed each day by two talks by Shohaku Okumura each day.
The first talk each day covered a different Waka poem written by Dogen. For those unfamiliar with Okumura’s style, he can spend a great deal of time diving in to these simple 31 syllable poems, providing a variety of insight into the history Zen, the significance of the characters used in the poems, how they related to Dogen’s other writings, difficulties in translating a 13th century Japanese poem to 21st century English, and how these simple poems can be used as inspiration in practice. It’s truly a unique experience and I believe there’s no one more capable of bringing Dogen’s wisdom to Western audiences than Okumura.
The second talk each day was a more informal Q&A period. Questions from the attendees were answered in great detail, and this gave opportunities to learn about the tradition passed down to our current teacher from his teacher Uchiyama-Roshi, of Opening the Hand of Though fame. There were also of course occasional moments of humor and sincere insight that really helped people focus their Zen practice as it fits in their daily lives.
Things wrapped up early afternoon Sunday. There was a great vibe and great energy as we finally broke the silence for Sunday lunch. People who hadn’t seen each other in years were reconnecting like the previous retreat was just last week.
But sadly, as we know, all things are impermanent. As Okumura transitions to the next phase of his life, it seems we will not be able to have a 2024 retreat with him. Everyone at Stillpoint is grateful for the time and attention and sincere guidance he has given us over the years, and that he was always able to find time for our little retreat even as his stature in the Zen community grew over the years.
Here at Stillpoint we are trying to figure out how to evolve the retreat and ways to continue the tradition. Given Shohaku Okumura’s unique style there will certainly be some changes in the retreat format and structure, and we look forward to creating some new traditions for 2024 and beyond.
stillpoint 