"Shitou's Thatched Hermitage" with guest teacher Kokyo Henkel

Our daylong retreat will focus on the classic Zen poem, "Song of the Thatched Hermitage" by our lineage ancestor Shitou, who also wrote the Sandokai or the Harmony of Difference and Equality. There will be morning and afternoon talks, zazen, and optional dokusan (private interviews). The retreat will end with a celebration of Buddha's Birthday.

Your registration offering supports our guest teacher and the ongoing activities of Valley Streams Zen Sangha. No one will be turned away for lack of funds. Contact [email protected] to request a scholarship or if this will be your first retreat with us.

Kokyo Henkel has been practicing Zen since 1990, in residence at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, Green Gulch Farm Zen Center, No Abode Hermitage in Mill Valley, Bukkokuji Monastery in Japan, and Santa Cruz Zen Center. He was ordained as a Zen priest in 1994 by Tenshin Anderson Roshi and received Dharma Transmission from him in 2010. Kokyo has also been practicing with the Tibetan Dzogchen (“Great Completeness”) teacher Tsoknyi Rinpoche since 2003, in California, Colorado, and Kathmandu, as well as other Tibetan teachers in the Nyingma and Kagyu traditions, completing Vajrayana ngondro (foundational practices) in 2020. Kokyo's retreat near Tassajara, called Bright Window Hermitage, welcomes Buddhist practitioners of all traditions.

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