Zen Retreats and News

Fall 06 Zen Retreat
The fall Zen retreat with Eshin Godfrey from Vancouver took place on November 25 this year at the Buddhist society’s room in the Spruce Capital building here in Prince George. Eshin is from the Rinzai Zen lineage and has run many retreats with us in the past. The retreat started on Friday evening after Eshin and Judith Johnson had visited the people at the prison interested in Zen meditation.

The practice followed the basic form with chanting, zazen meditation and formal meals. Brief private interviews with the teacher took place in the afternoons. Edward Dobrowsky , Judith Johnson, John Neuman and Larry Steele attended the retreat. All found the weekend rewarding.

An informal dinner after the retreat was held at Spicey Green, a small restaurant downtown. Eshin encouraged people to consider attending one of the week long Seshins held by the Vancouver Zen Centre. The retreats are held on Galiano Island. He felt people attending could benefit from more intensive meditation.

Another weekend Zen retreat will be held in Prince George this spring. Anyone interested can join the Zen group on Tuesday evenings at the weekly zazen sits.

Weekly Zazen sits planned at the College of New Caledonia
Plans have been made to hold weekly meditation meetings at the College of New Caledonia in the new year. John Neuman, a biology professor at the college, has offered to organize this. The meetings will be open to all students and faculty. Information will be posted on the BMSNBC Website as it is available.

Judith Johnson to pursue further Zen study at Mount Baldy Zen Center in California
Judith Johnson is preparing to leave her teaching career and pursue full time Zen practice at the Mount Baldy Zen Center in California. She will finish her spring semester and then move on to California. Judith has been looking forward to this opportunity for some time.

The Mount Baldy Zen Center was established and is overseen by Joshu Sasaki Roshi who came from Japan in the 60’s to help bring Buddhism to North America. He will be 100 years old next year and is still working vigorously to pass the dharma on to his students. Rinzai Zen Buddhism is practiced at the center by resident monks as well as lay students.

Judith will be missed here in Prince George, but we are happy that she will be able to follow her growing interest in Buddhist practice.

Vipassana Retreats and News

Monday evening Vipassana group
The Monday evening Vipassana group continued to be well-attended throughout the fall, and was enriched by the presence, at different times, of quite a number of students visiting from the Comparative Religions class at UNBC.

John DeGrace gave a presentation to the Comparative Religions class in early November, and then in December to a grade 12 class at Duchess Park Secondary.

Adrianne Ross Retreat at UNBC Mid-January
After a year’s absence Dr. Adrianne Ross is returning to Prince George this January 13-14 to lead a vipassana retreat on the beautiful UNBC Campus.

Adrianne has many years of meditation teaching experience, and also teaches “mindfulness based stress reduction,” as part of her clinical practice as a family physician, to patients with chronic pain and illness. The weekend retreat will be preceded by a public talk on “Mindfulness Tools for Working with Stress in Daily Life.”

Download: Poster
Contact: John (in Prince George)964-2685.
Email: 

Meditation and Self-Knowledge course

In January and February, John DeGrace will be offering a four Saturday course at UNBC Continuing Studies on “Meditation and Self-Knowledge.” Information can be found thorough the Continuing Studies web pages, and directly at http://www.unbc.ca/continuingstudies/health/index.html#MeditationandSelf-Knowledge.

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