Zazenkai (silent one-day retreat)

When: Sunday, April 4th (Easter Sunday)
Where: Cedar Ridge Lodge at Battelle Darby Creek

         (http://www.metroparks.net/xxParksBattelleDarbyFacilitiesReservable.aspx)

Directions:
BATTELLE DARBY CREEK
1775 Darby Creek Drive
Galloway, OH 43119
(southwestern Franklin County)

From I-270 take the West Broad Street (U.S. 40) exit west. Go about five miles on Broad Street to Darby Creek Drive. Turn left onto Darby Creek Drive and proceed three miles. The main park entrance is on the right. After you enter at the main entrance you will see a sign for the Cedar Ridge Lodge on the right. Go right into the drive (if open) and park in the lodge parking area on the right.

Suggested Donation: $5 to $10 to help cover the lodge rental fee. All extra proceeds to be donated to ZCS.

Schedule:
7:30-8:15am  Zendo set-up (simple alter and zafus/zabutons)
8:30 Zazen (to include approx. 9 minutes of basic sitting meditation audio instruction by Zoketsu Norman Fischer)
9:05 Kinhin
9:15 Zazen
9:50 Kinhin
10:00 Zazen
10:35 (Silent) Tea and coffee break; Audio Dharma talk: "Big Mind" by Steve Hagan (approx. 42 minutes)
11:45 Light pot-luck lunch; kitchen clean-up. (Please maintain silence.)
--Break--
1:00 Zazen
1:35 Kinhin
1:45 Zazen
2:20 Kinhin
2:30 Zazen
3:05 End of Zazenkai (silence lifted); Break down and pack up of zendo materials; Clean-up of the lodge

Participants will need to bring their own zafus and zabutons (cushions and mats). We'll sit facing the wall(s) as is customary within the Soto Zen tradition. If you prefer to use one of the available chairs for meditation, you may want to bring a thin cushion as an aid for upright sitting. You may also want to bring your own chair. Slow walking meditation (kinhin) may be done either clockwise together (inside) or individually outside. Written instruction for zazen (sitting meditation) will be available on the table near the entrance.

About the pot-luck lunch: The Cedar Ridge Lodge has full kitchen capability, but no cooking or eating materials, so please bring your own eating plates and utensils. Coffee and hot tea will be provided, along with mugs. One or two volunteers will be needed to arrange the food dishes for the participants, and volunteers for kitchen clean-up will also be needed. 

Zazenkai are opportunities for practitioners to deepen their meditation practice through the cumulative effect of multiple sitting and walking meditation periods, and extended silence. Listening to Dharma talks, mindful eating, work practice, and break time are additional ways to extend our meditation into our everyday activities. Although participants are strongly encouraged to attend the whole day Zazenkai, if you are able to only come to a portion, please choose either the morning session or afternoon session, rather than only one or two sitting and walking sessions.

For questions and/or reservations please contact Randy Hester at rhester@columbus.rr.com. Reservations aren't necessary because the lodge is large, but would be helpful in giving us an idea of the number of participants to expect.