We’re organizing our Monday evening meditation a little differently this year to allow for greater accessibility. All meditation evenings will begin as usual at 7:00pm and conclude by 8:30ish. The links to the Zoom evenings and the location of the in-person evening is available upon request via email to rhowlettlaw@gmail.com.
1st and 3rd Mondays InPerson/Hybrid Zoom evenings. (Location and link provided upon request) Seated and walking meditation, dharma talk, sutra service, and discussion.
The 2nd Monday of the month will be Zoom only. (Link provided upon request) Seated and walking meditation, dharma talk, sutra service, and discussion.
The 4th Monday of the month will be a New Program via Zoom. It will consist of an Open Sitting with an opportunity to Meet with a Teacher if you wish. (Link provided upon request)
On this new 4th Monday night, we’ll offer an evening of silent unstructured meditation and you can also bring your practice questions to a teacher in a private Breakout Room if you wish. Everyone is welcome to drop in and meetings with a teacher will be on a first come/first served basis. When you log on, a facilitator will be on hand to manage the evening. If you’d like a meeting with a teacher, you would need to log on by 7:15.
The 5th Monday will be a Zoom only evening. (Link provided upon request) Seated and walking meditation, dharma talk, sutra service, and discussion.
(All in person evenings include a hybrid Zoom as well)
01/06 In Person Rachel Mansfield-Howlett Roshi
CityZen is a Zen practice and koan center in the Pacific Zen School led by Rachel Mansfield-Howlett Roshi. Our form of Zen includes traditional and revitalized practices that open the way to discovering the joy and connection that resides underneath this life. You are welcome – all faiths, genders, ethnicities, or sexual preference. And of course: BLACK LIVES MATTER! We offer inperson and Zoom evenings of meditation. Contact: rhowlettlaw@gmail.com to receive the locations and Zoom link.
01/13 Zoom - Chris Bell Sensei
01/20 In Person Deanna Hopper Sensei
01/27 Open Meditation/Dokusan - Gary Brandt Sensei
02/03 In Person Rachel Mansfield-Howlett Roshi
02/10 Zoom - Deanna Hopper Sensei
02/17 In Person Gary Brandt Sensei (President’s Day)
02/24 Open Meditation/Dokusan - Chris Bell Sensei
03/03 In Person Rachel Mansfield-Howlett Roshi
03/10 Zoom - Senseis Chris Bell & Gary Brandt
03/17 Sesshin
03/24 Open Meditation/Dokusan - Gary Brandt Sensei
03/31. Zoom Michelle Brandt Sensei
04/07 In Person Rachel Mansfield-Howlett Roshi
04/14 Zoom -
04/21 In Person - Michelle Brandt Sensei
04/28 Open Meditation/Dokusan - Chris Bell Sensei
2025 SEVEN-DAY SPRING SESSHIN
MARCH 14 - MARCH 21, 2025Full or part time attendance
Scholarships available
St. Dorothy’s Rest
Occidental, Sonoma County
Sesshin is an ancient Zen tradition; it’s a special environment built to help you discover your own awakening. Often in your daily life, the light of your attention goes out from you into the world; during sesshin you turn the light back inward into your own heart/mind.
We are so looking forward to meeting in person again for our Great Spring Sesshin. CityZen’s senior teacher, Rachel Mansfield-Howlett Roshi will be the guiding teacher. Senseis Michele Brandt, Chris Bell, Deanna Hopper, and Gary Brandt will also be teaching.
We practice in a relaxed traditional form of sesshin, with lots of dharma talks and opportunity for meeting individually with the teachers. Our silent retreat is held at St. Dorothy’s Rest in Camp Meeker, with stunning views of the redwoods and rolling hills and featuring exquisitely made hearty vegetarian meals.
We wholeheartedly invite you to join us for this precious week.
Please contact Christopher Bell for more information. Chrisbzen@gmail.com.
Rachel Mansfield-Howlett Roshi is a koan master in the Pacific Zen School lineage and the Founder and senior teacher at CityZen in Santa Rosa CA. With degrees in botany and law she is also a public benefit environmental attorney, law professor, cook, gardener, and grandmother. She is a contributor to The Book of Mu: Essential Writings on Zen's Most Important Koan and The Hidden Lamp, Stories from Twenty-Five Centuries of Awakened Women.
Nothing has ever been hidden.
In W.G. Sebald’s The Rings of Saturn, there's an interview with an English farmer who at one point says:
“I have always kept ducks, even as a child, and the colours of their plumage, in particular the dark green and snow white, seemed to me the only possible answer to the questions that are on my mind.”
Reclaiming the Fallow of the Year
fal·low/falō
adjective:
fallow (of farmland) plowed and harrowed
but left unsown for a period in order to restore its fertility.
Synonyms: uncultivated, unplowed, untilled, unplanted, unsown; unused, dormant,
resting, empty, bare.
In our northern
climes, before the advent of artificial sources of light, the months of winter
were a long dark time. Nature too, took her rest and there wasn’t much to do on
the land for our farming ancestors. Long nights and cold days meant folks got a
break from the busyness of life and entered into a more timeless place. The stillness
without encouraged a slowing down, uncovering a stillness within. It’s the
place before the formation of ideas; before an opinion or comparison arises.
It’s the place of intuition, inspiration, improvisation and creativity.
What did
our ancestors do during the long dark winter months? We can imagine that they told stories, stoked the
fire, made love, slept, painted, played music, made something hearty
to eat from what had been stored or was on hand, and bundled up and took walks.
Modernly,
the lights are always on, figuratively and literally. We have lost something
important to our well being in converting all of our time to the activities of
the light. We can feel it in our bones when we flit from activity to activity, contantly looking for the hit that dispels boredom. Alternatively, we can become familiar with the activities that truly rejuvenate our bodies and spirit.
The following familiar story shows the value of emptying or losing track of the known, to restore the fertile ground.
A man
went to visit a teacher to find out about Zen. While the teacher served tea,
the professor talked about what he knew about Zen. The master poured the man’s
cup to the brim, and then kept pouring.
The
man watched the overflowing cup until he could no longer restrain himself.
“It’s full! No more will go in!”
The
teacher replied, “How can I show you anything unless you first empty your cup?”
Knowing is a kind of filter that limits our vision
and closes off possibility. In other words, we only see
what our knowing will allow us to see. Allowing ourselves a period of
fallow both empties and widens the field. Laying down the realm of the known
and unknown, relinquishing our usual tendencies to form opinions and judgments, to predict success or failure, we enter the vast and wide of the Great Way itself and allow ourselves to be
reshaped by this undoing.
An old master said: “The way is vast and wide, how could it ever be a matter of knowing or
not knowing? Knowing is arrogant; not knowing is stupidity; the way is far
beyond both of these.”
Practices for the Dark of the Year
Slowing down.
Doing a
single task with all your attention gives you a needed break from the jar of
constant distraction. Doing a thing, wholly, brings its own kind of joy and you
can learn to rest again in the gentle peace of everyday things. When you’re
sitting with a friend, give them your full attention. If you are walking, just
walk. If you are sautéing onions, notice their color and smell as they cook,
the rhythm of the spoon in your hand.
Give yourself time to do nothing.
This
winter sit in candlelight, stare into a fire, go outside and watch the moon and
stars, listen to the rain fall, sit by the ocean and watch the waves roll in
and out, rest on a bench and watch birds and passersby, rest by a lake or a
river and notice the insects and trees and the sound of water over pebbles.
Put down your electronic devices.
Of
course. Of course! A couple hours before bedtime, or for a time early in the
morning as you are waking, put away your devices and the sounds they make to
alert you of emails and phone calls.
Sleep.
Sweet
sleep restores our bodies and allows the mind to rest, to dream, to let the
intelligence of all things find its way into our consciousness.
Walk.
Anywhere.
A short stroll or a long walk about, it’s what our bodies are meant to do. It
reminds us of the true pace of life and shows us the aliveness of the world.
Read aloud to each other.
A
forgotten art, we can take it up again. Like walking instead of riding, we slow
down to take in more. Resting in the cantor of the human voice, we savor what
we may otherwise have missed.
Make love.
No
explanation necessary, right?
Listen.
Be quiet
and listen. Notice when judgments and opinions arise, when you are comparing
yourself to others or complaining about unimportant things. Then, just return
to the place where you are.
Cook simple meals and share them together.
Find a
local farm, bakery or supplier and gather some things that look good to you.
Learn to cook a few seasonal meals that you will enjoy making. The simpler, the
better.
Notice what has already been given to you.
You are
given this life as a human being, each of your senses, this fine body, the moon
and the stars, the green leaf, and watery sea, a home, food to eat, and each
other.
May you truly enjoy the blessings of this season.
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