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Autumn Sesshin: Four-day Online Retreat, September 14-17

Autumn Online Retreat: September 14-17
led by Valerie Forstman with opening talk from Henry Shukman
Join us online for four days of ordinary miracles with Zen practice led by Valerie Forstman.
This autumn retreat will be broadcast from our Zendo, but participation is online only — no onsite participation (except for residents and staff). If you would like the unique opportunity to do this retreat in person, click here to learn about Residency!
Participants from all over the globe attend our online retreats. If you have never participated in one of our online multi-day retreats, please consider joining us. We create a remarkably intimate sense of community practice and inter-connection during these retreats. When you register, you will receive some tips for setting up an at-home zendo to support your experience.
Our retreats include:
- daily dharma talk
- Q&A with the teacher
- optional break-out discussion group with one of our Assistant Teachers
- silent meditation (meditation blocks are 25 minutes each with 5 minutes of walking in between)
- movement practice
Retreat Schedule
Though we encourage full time attendance, we understand that many participants are navigating household and work schedules, or joining from distant time zones. We encourage participants who cannot follow the schedule to create time for meditation at other times in their day. To help you customize the schedule to your own needs, check out our Personalized Retreat Schedule Worksheet.
Daily Schedule (MT)
For those who may find it hard to sit for as many hours as the retreat offers, consider joining the retreat at 9am MT and concluding your day at 3:30pm MT.
6-8am Morning/early silent meditation
8:45am Movement
9-10am Teacher’s welcome & meditation
10:10-11am Dharma Talk
11am – Noon Sitting & optional discussion group
Noon-1:00pm Lunch and break
1-2pm Meditation
2pm Movement
2:15-3pm Q&A
3-3:30pm Meditation
3:30-6:30 Break, rest, dinner
6:30-8:30 pm Evening silent meditation (Thursday-Saturday)
The schedule may change slightly.
Bring a Friend
To celebrate the interconnectivity of our “cloud” sangha, we are offering a special “Bring a Friend” discount for this retreat. Even though this retreat will be done at home (online), we know how powerful it can be to know that others are sitting with us. If you coordinate with a friend to commit to doing this retreat “together” (even though perhaps separated by geography or time zone), you will each get a 30% discount (instead of the full price of $240, that’s $168 each!)
Our hope is that this encourages a sense of connectivity with one another throughout the experience, even while doing the retreat from the unique contexts of our own hope.
We hope this also provides the opportunity for you to invite somebody in your life who may not otherwise participate — maybe a friend who shares an interest in meditation but has never done a retreat before, or somebody would benefit from the gift of encouragement and comradery…
To do this option, one of you two will register and pay the fee for both of you ($168 each; a total of $336 upon registration). Upon registration you will include your friend’s email address and they will automatically be included.
All Registration Options
- Regular – $240 – Cost of registration starting Thursday August 24
- Bring a friend – $168 – You and your friend both get 30% off! (Read more above)
- Sliding Scale Option – If the cost of registration is prohibitive, please don’t register on this page and reach out to our registrar Johanna — we are committed to ensuring participation for everybody in our sangha!
- Benefactor Registration – $480 – support Mountain Cloud, and our ability to provide sliding scale to our sangha
Please note, because this is a short retreat (4-days) we are not offering a part-time option.
Register here:
- Start
- September 14, 2023
- End
- September 17, 2023
- Event Categories
- Retreats, Sanbo Zen, Special Events