Details about Roshi Rachel Mansfield-Howlett’s Day-Long Retreat with Brief Bio is at bottom of this page.
Day: Thursday
Time: 7:00pm – 9:00pm
Affiliation: Flower Mountain Zen
Contact: Chris Gaffney cgaffney@csuchico.edu or 530-588-4941
Practice: Chan/Zen practice
This is the stone, drenched with rain, that points the way’ - Santoka
Timeline: We begin with about 30 minutes of silent meditation keeping company with a koan* that is given by the head of practice. We have ~15 minutes for socializing and tea, then return for a brief sitting meditation, followed by a talk by the head of practice, typically Chris Gaffney. We then spend ~45 minutes in conversation that centers on how the practice/koan/meditation is found in our lives.
Participating: Sitting quietly with one another is a deep way we all participate. We invite you to join in our group conversation after meditation as much as you feel comfortable. There is no pressure to speak, listening is also a powerful way to participate. We do believe that heartfelt, honest conversation is very helpful in freeing us from the prisons we build for ourselves. Please join us – all of us is wiser than any of us.
Cost: There is no cost for joining us for meditation, if you can we do ask for a donation to support the operating costs of the Center as a whole.
More about our Sangha:
The mission of our Sangha is to help one another open our minds and hearts to the Buddha nature inherent in all beings. Our practice is one of silent meditation, koan inquiry, and Dharma conversation. The use of koans – stories which provide a bridge between the spoken and the unspoken, and thereby provide a path to fuller embodiment of spiritual practice – is key in our Sangha.
Our Chan/Zen practice is one in which neither conceptual clarity nor psychological equanimity, both good things, is considered fundamental. What we wish to nurture is a better feel for our own true nature, which we have found is fundamentally mysterious, as is the universe we find ourselves in. These are not separate mysteries.
Chris Gaffney provides leadership as Head of Practice. He has followed a Chan/Zen path for over 25 years, and meets regularly with his guiding teacher Rachel Boughton Roshi, who is the leader of Flower Mountain Zen.
We meet every Thursday evening from 7:00 – 9:00. We begin with silent meditation, a koan having been dropped into the silence at the beginning of meditation. After silent meditation, both sitting and walking, we have a dharma talk, usually by Chris Gaffney. After the talk, we share experiences we have had in our meditation and in the conversation. We believe that heartfelt, honest conversation is very helpful in freeing us from chains of habitual feeling and thinking.
The point of Chan practice is to have it vanish into our actual life, including the knotty parts, the parts where any ‘answer’ found is not what’s important. Engaging with koans facilitates the embodied recognition that the Buddha’s awakening is not distinct from ours. Please join us – all of us is wiser than any of us.
Questions? Contact Chris at cgaffney@csuchico.edu (530-588-4941).
Details of Roshi Rachel Mansfield-Howlett Day-Long Retreat
Rachel is a koan master in the Pacific Zen School lineage and the Founder and senior teacher at CityZen in Santa Rosa CA. There will be both sitting and walking meditation and we will be keeping company with a koan in the Rinzai tradition. A Dharma Talk is likely to appear. No meditation experience needed, just bring your curious mind and open heart.
Roshi Mansfield-Howlett will be offering one-on-one meetings (Dokusan) during the day. A marvelous opportunity, that seldom comes our way, to explore our practice more deeply and generously.
Schedule
8:45 Arrive and find a seat (cushions and chairs available)
9:00 Welcome and info
9:15 Meditation Begins (25 min sitting periods followed by 5 minute walking meditation)
One-on-one meetings (Dokusan) available
10:30 Dharma Talk followed by some time for questions and answers followed by meditation
12:00 Lunch
1:00 Meditation begins
One-on-One meetings (Dokusan) available
Period of outdoor walking meditation (weather permitting)
3:00 Closing
About Rachel –
A 40-year practitioner of Zen, she was authorized to teach Zen and koans in 2003 and received full transmission, Inka Shomei, in 2009 in the Pacific Zen School lineage from John Tarrant Roshi. In 2011, she founded City Zen In Santa Rosa, CA. 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.
Rachel Mansfield-Howlett has degrees in botany and law. She is a public benefit environmental attorney, law professor, cook, gardener, and grandmother. Complimentary to her environmental law practice, she teaches a western style of Zen that emphasizes social justice, environmental, and community values.
Born into a family of ranchers, farmers, and schoolteachers in rural Oklahoma she moved with her family to southern California in the 1960s, attended college in Chico and settled in Sonoma County in the early 70s. Rachel traces her Chickasaw heritage through her maternal grandfather, a descendant of former Chickasaw leader Daugherty (Winchester) Colbert.
Rachel’s style of Zen practice helps us to awaken to the joyful spring of our life and to recognize the interconnectedness of all beings. Bringing this awakening and recognition into our daily lives is central to the practice.
About Gary –
Gary is a Santa Rosa native and writer of fiction. He has worked as a bartender, bookseller, editor, and teacher, and holds a B.A. in Liberal Arts. A 30-year practitioner of Zen, Gary first doing koan work with John Tarrant Roshi and Joan Sutherland Roshi. He began practicing with CityZen in 2011 and received authorization to teach as Sensei from Rachel Mansfield-Howlett Roshi in 2023. Gary was given the dharma name Community Dragon.
He is keenly interested in the way the koan curriculum—an uncanny literary tradition in its own right—enlists the imagination to route us back to our native joy. He believes Zen is essentially a practice of the heart.
You can find more information about Rachel, Gary and CityZen at: http://www.cityzensantarosa.com
For questions about the retreat contact:
Jan Black
707-206-8222
