When you have begun to establish a regular practice, the most valuable gift you can give yourself is a weekend or week-long retreat - a real immersion in the experience of Zen that will give remarkable new depth to your practice.
Zen Open Circle conducts regular seven or eight day sesshin, usually in Autumn and Spring, with occasional shorter weekend retreats in January and November.
Sesshin means 'to touch, to settle, to convey the heartmind'. A silent seven-day retreat can uncover the depths of real practice and offer a taste of clarity and peace that is hard to imagine, beforehand. The program includes extended periods of meditation, Zen talks, regular opportunities for private interviews with the teacher, yoga and gentle stretching, outside walking meditation and rest in beautiful natural bushland surroundings.
Our retreats usually take place at Ancient Ground temple, Gorricks Run, in the Upper Macdonald Valley, via St Albans. (See Map) Gorricks Run is a powerful place of great natural beauty, with high sandstone cliffs protecting a quiet valley of creeks and trees and open grass, ringed by national park, and alive with birds and animals.
Susan Murphy Roshi also leads sesshin and weekend workshops in Melbourne with the Melbourne Zen Group. Further details: HERE
