-
This year’s Stillpoint Retreat is November 20-23, 2025, at the Villa Marie Education and Spirituality Center in Northwest Pennsylvania. Villa Maria is a popular venue for groups seeking an overnight contemplative environment, so availability for weekend retreats is limited. November 20-23, 2025 was the best date available for fall 2025 retreats, and it is the
-
Kindling the Inexhaustible Lamp By even speaking a phrase to you, I have already doused you with dirty water. It would be even worse for me to put a twinkle in my eye and raise my eyebrow to you, or tap on the meditation seat or hold up a whisk, or demand “what is this?”
-
Enlightened Reality and Worldly Phenomena All things are set on a nonabiding basis. The nonabiding basis is based on nonabiding. If you can reach a thorough realization of this, then all things are One Suchness, and you cannot find even the slightest sign of abiding. The whole of your present activities and behavior is nonabiding.
-
We have opened up registration for the Fall 2024 Retreat. Attendees will arrive the evening of November 7th and the retreat will end mid-afternoon on November 10th. We are once again staying at the Villa Maria Education and Spirituality Center , located approximately 1 hour north of Pittsburgh. We considered many options after the retirement
-
Please join us for a Summer Work Day where we spend some time doing maintenance and housekeeping on our home in Lawrenceville. We will start with an optional one hour meditation session at 9:30 A.M. After that we will commence work. Since we will be doing some construction and more complex projects and we need
-
On a recent Saturday, Stillpoint members celebrated the early arrival of spring with a deep clean of the zendo. After an hour of seated and walking meditation, we transferred our mindful attention to the tasks of cleaning the practice space and common areas, and restuffing the meditation cushions. After a few hour of “work practice”
-
Please join us for an indoor work practice day to refresh the Stillpoint zendo on Saturday, March 9 at 9:30 AM. After a practice period in the morning, we will gratefully attend to the small things that keep our beloved zendo going. Planned activities include cushion stuffing, screen & window cleaning, dusting, vacuuming and general tidying
-
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
-
Cornelius Boots’s shakuhachi performance last Sunday was a very successful event. It was quite powerful to see such an accomplished musician perform in the close quarters of our meditation hall. About half the people who attended were new and of diverse demographics, and several expressed interest in returning for our regular practice events. We’re very
-
The work party on Saturday, August 5th was a great success. Here are some photos, including before and after shots of the improvements. Thank you to everyone who participated and made this possible!
stillpoint 