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Event Series: 30 Days of Zen

30 Days of Eco-Zen (Online Course)

EcoZEN: Earth as Zen Teacher (30-Day Journey)

Daily Emails, Meditations & Cohort Forum: August 1 – 30
Live Workshops: Saturdays, August 2, 9, 16, and 23, 10:45am – 12pm MT / 12:45 – 2pm ET
REGISTER HERE

We bring back our much loved “30 Days” online course this August with a brand new topic — eco-zen. We will explore Ecodharma through a specifically Sanbo Zen lens, grounded in sitting practice.

Nature is — and has for centuries been — one of our awakened Zen teachers, and nature is eager to fill our cup and open our hearts.

In this course, we will bring teachings, koans, and poetry from the Zen canon together with experiential practice prompts to investigate the nondual foundations of Ecodharma. Through daily zen practice and teachings, we will nurture a foundational relationship with nature, and develop the reciprocal love and healing that relationship with the natural world provides.

Registration Fee:

  • Benefactor Fee of $149 (register here)
  • Program Fee of $99 (register here)
  • 25% and 50% needs-based scholarships available (register here)
  • Members receive a 50% discount! See your Members’ Newsletter for a special link.
The 30 day course was outstanding in every regard…little did I know the peace, calm, wisdom
and overcoming past traumas that could happen in just one month.
— 2023 Course Participant 
Course Overview

A deep dive into the role of nature in Zen practice, exploring how Earth itself can serve as a teacher and koan.

  • Week 1: Nature in Zen koans and poetry
  • Week 2: Nature as the “wall” for zazen (meditation)
  • Week 3: Nature as teacher—may include non-duality, impermanence, equanimity, the three poisons, compassion, not-doing, simplicity, and metta
  • Week 4: Co-healing with Nature—being healed by nature and learning ways to care for it in return

Each day, you will receive an email that includes:

  • an excerpt from a koan or zen text related to Eco-Zen
  • a practice invitation written by one of our four Zen Teachers to help bring the teaching alive in your practice, on or off the cushion. We will be guided by Zen teachers Carolyn Seburn, Shana Smith, David Loy, and Myoshin (Emily Walsh). Read more about them below.
  • a reflection prompt, inviting you to share in our option online community forum

These emails are designed to be digestible and catalytic additions to your daily practice, helping us become more intimate the teachings, and develop tools for tapping into eco-zen throughout our lives.

During our Live Workshops, you’ll get to engage directly with one of our four Zen teachers (Carolyn Seburn, Shana Smith, Myoshin (Emily Walsh), and David Loy) as well as the course cohort to address your burning questions and get live support.

Our optional daily community forum helps provide additional space for personal reflection and peer connection. Past participants have found not only that they learn from others, but are surprised to find that they themselves have plenty of wisdom to offer. 

And finally, our center provides opportunities to sit, daily, online with the cohort and our broader sangha. You have the option to engage in your daily practice independently or join a larger group for online sessions via Zoom. See here for our daily sitting schedule. 

Register here

(Members Receive 50% Discount! See your Member’s Newsletter for a special link.)
For scholarship registration, click here.

About Scholarships:
Scholarships are covered with the help of generous donations from fellow sangha members, with the intention to make these precious experiences available to those otherwise excluded, as a step towards inclusivity and wide welcome in this shared practice. We have intentionally removed barriers to applying for the scholarship in trust and compassion for each one’s discernment. If you are able, please consider making a donation or registering at the Benefactor rate to help support our scholarship offerings.

What Makes this Program so Powerful?

Ummon addressed the assembly and said, “I am not asking you about the days before the 15th of the month, but what about after the 15th? Come, and give me a word about those days.” And he himself gave the answer for them.  “Every day is a good day.”

— Case 6, Blue Cliff Record

Daily encouragement, teachings, and practice tips 

Each day, you’ll receive a message containing a brief teaching from the Zen tradition and a practical practice tip, designed to inspire meditators at any experience level. Your daily digest of teaching & practice tips will showcase quotes from Zen Masters, revealing profound wisdom within your everyday life and interactions. We’ll share strategies for maintaining daily practice and fostering connection with your meditative awareness throughout the day. Over the course of these 30 days, this series of messages aims to support, encourage, and deepen your practice. The chosen teachings offer a glimpse into the freedom, compassion, and wonder inherent in meditation and Zen practice.

Your daily practice: meditation and journaling

If your schedule permits, we highly encourage you to participate in the daily cohort sitting on Zoom (refer to the daily schedule). You have the flexibility to choose both the timing and duration of your daily meditation. Engaging in the daily journal is an optional yet highly recommended component of this program. It serves as the ‘thread that deepens and builds, this through-thread, this value of continuous practice.’ Each day, we will provide participants with a reflection prompt, and we encourage you to share your response on our private online message board.”

The sangha aspect of the daily journal–reading others’ shared posts, identifying and learning from those shared posts, responding to others’ posts and getting feedback on my own posts–made me feel part of an open-hearted, like-minded community, which felt wonderful.
30-Day Course Participant 

Live workshops

During these live sessions, we’ll come together on Zoom to foster connection and receive direct guidance on our sitting. These sessions will feature open discussions and small group sharing. Additionally, there will be a Q&A segment where you can pose questions to our exceptional teachers.

Guidance from Mountain Cloud Teachers 

Consistency is crucial for developing and deepening a meditation practice, and our Mountain Cloud teachers are dedicated to providing support. They actively engage with the community forum and lead live workshops throughout the program.

Teachers

Carolyn Seburn – Sei’un An (Peace-bringing Cloud) Zen teacher Carolyn Seburn is an authorized Dharma successor of Roselyn Stone (Sei’un An – Clearing Away the Clouds) Rôshi of the Mountain Moon Sangha (Toronto and Brisbane). She has been practicing Zen meditation since 1985 and guiding Zen practice since 2015. Married, with one offspring, Carolyn is also a biologist and public servant who focuses on wildlife conservation. Carolyn is also appointed a Zen teacher with Sanbo Zen International and is on the teaching staff of Mountain Cloud Zen Centre. The Mountain Moon Sangha of Ottawa abides by the Code of Conduct for Sanbo Zen International.

Shana Smith discovered yoga in 1990 and began attending regular classes in several different styles of yoga After several years of ardent practice and study, she began to teach at her local studio and Yoga Temple.  Shana became interested in the sensations and insights she experienced in Savasana, which led her to begin a regular meditation practice and in 2007 took refuge in the Sanbo Zen Lineage, and recently become a Sanbo Zen Assistant teacher.  Over the years, she has found a tremendous synergy between Yoga and Zen, and integrates the two in her daily, committed practice.

David Robert Loy is a professor, writer, and Zen teacher in the Sanbo Zen tradition of Japanese Zen Buddhism. He is a prolific author, whose articles appear regularly in the pages of major journals such as Tikkun and Buddhist magazines including TricycleLion’s Roar, and Buddhadharma, as well as in a variety of scholarly journals. Many of his writings, as well as audio and video talks and interviews, are available on the web. He is on the advisory boards of Buddhist Global Relief, the Clear View ProjectZen Peacemakers, and the Ernest Becker Foundation. David is one of the founding members of the new Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center, near Boulder, Colorado.

Myoshin (Emily Walsh) has been passionate about nature ever since she lived in the Amazon forest as a child. She is Irish-Brazilian, currently living in the South of Brazil and serving as Chair of her dear home Sangha, Via Zen (www.viazen.org.br).

Being fully aware that healthy environments are essencial to the thriving of all beings, she tries her best to combine her skills as a geographer, a mindfulness teacher and a Biodanza facilitator to promote the bliss of interconnectedness – as well as the freedom of organically living according to our Buddhist precepts.

Registration Fee
  • Benefactor Fee of $149 (register here)
  • Program Fee of $99 (register here)
  • 25% and 50% needs-based scholarships available (register here)
  • Members receive a 50% discount! See your Members’ Newsletter for a special link.

Registration is open throughout the course, and upon signing up, you will receive a digital copy of the previously sent daily emails, along with recordings of all live events.

If you have any questions about the program, feel free to contact Kieran.

Start
August 1, 2025 @ 12:00 am
End
August 30, 2025 @ 12:00 am
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