Practicing with the Zen Ox Herding Pictures (cancelled)

Ten Ox Herding Pictures

Since 12th-century Chinese master Guo-an Shi-yuan created them, the famed Ten Ox-Herding Pictures have mapped the path for Zen practitioners. They have inspired countless commentaries and new renderings by ancient and contemporary lay people, Zen masters, and artists.

The ox is enlightenment and the herder is you, the meditator. During this retreat, we will use the ancient parable, drawings, music, and poems to explore the stages of our individual and collective awakening, and how that awakening illuminates ordinary living.

In ancient Taoist and Buddhist cultures, the strong, willful and hard-working ox was an essential and commonplace part of everyday wellbeing. Today in the West, the image of taming the working beast confronts us with new questions about how we “ride” and encounter our own busy minds and the world we inhabit. We learn through spiritual practice that awakening resides in the daily and ordinary realities of tending to our livelihoods, communities, and inner-lives.  In this retreat, using silence, study, writing, art, and yoga, we will cultivate our capacity to ride the ox home, and perhaps see that the ox and the herder are one.

This retreat, October 3-7, 2018, will be held at Bread Loaf Mountain Zen Community in Cornwall, Vermont. Each day will include periods of meditation, communal meals, dharma talks, visual arts, writing exercises, and yoga. We will drop into nourishing silence and revitalizing creative activity. Evening sessions will be open to the wider community.

Faculty include local artist, Kate Gridley, writer and environmentalist, John Elder, Yoga practitioner Colleen Brown, and Zen Teacher Joshin Byrnes.

Please register for this event by clicking here.

The suggested donation for this program is $250. Although we recommend that you donate at least the suggested amount, you are welcome to decide to offer what you can afford. If you can donate more, you are invited to do so. In this way you support participation of people who can afford less, or the money can be used to thank the teachers. To make your donation via PayPal, please click HERE.  You can also send a check to Bread Loaf Mountain Monastery, PO Box 818, Middlebury VT 05751. All donations are tax deductible.

Sample Schedule (this will likely be refined further, but start and end times are firm):

Wednesday (October 3)
2:00 – 3:00 pm Arrival and Registration,
3:30 Orientation (Introductions, orientation to BLMZC, teacher intros, program overview)
5:00 Zazen (25 minutes of meditation, 10 minutes walking meditation, 25 minutes of meditation)
6:00 Dinner
7:00 Public Dharma Talk: The Spiritual Journey and Pictures 1-3
8:30 Adjourn

Thursday (October 4)
6:00 Yoga
7:00 am Zazen and Zen Liturgy (40 minutes sit; 20 minutes chanting and prostrations)
8:00 Breakfast in silence
9:00 Samu (work practice starts with a brief meeting for announcements and work assignments)
10:30 – 12:30 Session: Visual Arts Practice
12:30 Lunch
1:30 Rest period
2:00 – 2:30 Refreshing Yoga
2:30 – 4:30 Session: Writing Practice
5:00 Zazen and walking meditation (25-10-25)
6:00 Dinner
7:00 Public Dharma Talk: Pictures 4-6
8:30 Adjourn

Friday (October 5)
6:00 Yoga
7:00 am Zazen and Liturgy
8:00 Breakfast in silence
9:00 Samu (work practice)
10:30 – 12:30 Session: Visual Arts Practice
12:30 Lunch
1:30 Rest period
2:00 – 2:30 Refreshing Yoga
2:30 – 4:30 Session: Writing Practice
5:00 Zazen and walking meditation
6:00 Dinner
7:00 Public Dharma Talk: Pictures 7-9
8:30 Adjourn

Saturday (October 6)
6:00 Yoga
7:00 am Zazen and Liturgy
8:00 Breakfast
9:00 Samu (work practice) meeting and samu period
10:30 – 12:30 Session: Visual Arts Practice
12:30 Lunch
1:30 Rest period
2:00 – 2:30 Refreshing Yoga
2:30 – 4:30 Session: Writing Practice
5:00 Zazen and walking meditation
6:00 Dinner
7:00 Public Dharma Talk: Picture 10
8:30 Adjourn

Sunday (October 7)
6:00 am Yoga
7:00 am Zazen and Liturgy
8:00 Convivial Breakfast
9:00 – 10:00 Samu
10:30-1:00 Retreat session
12:30 pm Lunch
2:00 closing Session
3:30 Adjourn