Needing some time in silence, rest, and contemplation as the year turns? The UUC Zen group is offering a time of renewal and contemplation at Rainbow Lodge Retreat Center (North Bend, WA), December 11-14, 2025.

There are several options for participation: 

• As a Zen Practitioner, immersing yourself in silence and daily practice.
• As a Private Retreatant, creating your own experience. You are invited to drop in to the Zen program any time.
• While full-time residential attendance is encouraged, part-time or commuter attendance may be possible. Zoom participation is also offered.

For Zen Practitioners - These will be days of intensive introspection, inspired by the days and nights the Buddha is said to have sat in meditation under the Bodhi Tree, reaching down to touch the earth in boundless awakening on the morning of December 8. Several UU-friendly Zen Teachers in James Ford's Empty Moon Zen lineage will support our practice, including silent meditation, dharma talks, and Zen-style spiritual direction.

Private Retreat Option - This is an opportunity to design your own private retreat to attend to the spirit: reading, sleeping, walking in the woods and breathing fresh air on your own schedule, in comfortable surroundings, with natural beauty right outside your door and someone else cooking and cleaning. Private retreatants may join the UUC Zen group any time for regular meditation periods, dharma talks, and Zen-style spiritual direction, or drop by the "open Zendo" anytime for silent sitting.

On Saturday evening December 13, we will hold the ceremony of Jukai. Several of our UUC Zen practitioners have engaged in study and sewn the wagessa or rakusu, and will be given the Five Precepts for Ethical Living or the Sixteen Bodhisattva Precepts and receive Dharma Names. Family and friends are invited to observe, and can register to attend the ceremony or join us via Zoom.

Accommodations are comfortable private or shared rooms. Need-based partial scholarships may be available to UUC members and friends registering for the Zen retreat.

Click here for more information and to register.