Dharma Gates: Living a Zen Path
with Mn. Shoan Ankele and Mn. Gokan Bonebakker
January 10 - 14, 2024
This retreat is for people between the ages of 18-30.
In collaboration with Dharma Gates, a grassroots nonprofit dedicated to opening pathways into formal meditation training for people ages 18-30, Zen Mountain Monastery is offering a 5-day immersion in the path of Zen Buddhism.
Zen is a practice of discovering our natural inner clarity and learning how to bring this into our everyday life. Over the past fifteen hundred years, the Zen tradition has evolved various upaya, or skillful means, to help us wake up to reality right where we are. This retreat will be an opportunity for beginning to intermediate practitioners to experience Zen training within the supportive environment of the Monastery. During our time together, we’ll engage in some of the core practices of Zen, including zazen (Zen meditation), Buddhist liturgy, and silent work practice, all of which emerge from direct contact with our inherent wakefulness. We’ll spend one full day in silence, following the structure of a classic one-day Zen meditation retreat.
Appreciating the opportunity to come together with practitioners at a particular stage of life, we’ll take some time for active reflection, too – through discussion, movement, or art practice – on key topics and challenges that may resonate for younger people. How do we live a meaningful life according to our values in a world in crisis? What is the relationship between meditation, Buddhism, and ethics? What does spiritual training really mean? What is the role of a teacher or a community in our practice? What is the Zen tradition, and what does Zen training offer, in the landscape of Dharma practices and traditions?
Whatever questions are most alive for you – we invite you to bring them wholly to the practice and use the support of the monastic container to aid in deep inquiry.
This retreat will be donation-based with a $50 deposit to secure your place. If you are not able to pay the deposit, please email the registrar.
As with all in-person retreats at the Monastery, participants are required to follow these these guidelines for keeping everyone safe. Please review the current protocol requirements before registering, and if you have further questions, please contact the registrar. (registrar@dharma.net)
Teachers
Danica Shoan Ankele is a Dharma Holder and Senior Monastic in the Mountains and Rivers Order. A native of New York City, she first came to the Monastery as a sophomore in college and has been in full time residential training since 2007. She became a senior student in 2009 and took full monastic ordination with Shugen Roshi in 2015. Shoan is the Monastery’s Creative Director and Training Coordinator. She also oversees our Tenkozan line of statues and naturally dyed fabrics, designed and produced on the Monastery grounds.
Learn more about Mn. Shoan Ankele
Bear Gokan Bonebakker is a senior monastic and a Dharma Holder. He first came to the Monastery in 1994, and has been in residence since 2007. Gokan is the Operations Director, helps coordinate the National Buddhist Prison Sangha, and works in the orchard.
Learn more about Mn. Gokan Bonebakker