Details about Day-Long Retreat with Rachel Mansfield-Howlett Roshi, and Brief Bio of Rachel are at the 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.
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. More about Rachel’s background and living practice can be found below the Schedule for the Day.
Schedule for the Day
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 –
Rachel Mansfield-Howlett Roshi is a koan master in the Pacific Zen School lineage and the founder and senior teacher at CityZen, a Rinzai Zen practice group based 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.
Born into a family of ranchers, farmers, and schoolteachers in rural southern Oklahoma she moved with her family to southern California in the 1960s, attended college at CSU Chico and settled in Sonoma County in the early 70s, where she resides today with her husband. Rachel traces her Chickasaw heritage through her maternal grandfather, a descendant of former Chickasaw leader Daugherty (Winchester) Colbert.
She founded CityZen in 2011, which offers a style of Zen practice that honors the old ways and offers practice modes that acknowledge the nuances of 21st century life. A 40-year practitioner of Zen, she was authorized to teach Zen and koans in 2006 and received full transmission, Inka Shōmei, in 2009 in the Pacific Zen School lineage from John Tarrant Roshi. Complimentary to her environmental law practice, she teaches a style of Zen that values: being in nature, growing and cooking your own food, community engagement, and social justice empowerment.
She and her husband are passionate about supporting local farmers and making fresh handmade meals from seasonal ingredients. Rachel produces seasonal menus for CityZen’s sesshins where participants learn to cook together as a dharma practice — making hearty, healthy, exquisite meals from scratch.
More information about Rachel and CityZen can be found here: http://www.cityzensantarosa.com
For questions about the retreat contact:
Jan Black janfblack@comcast.net 707-206-8222