Registrations are still being accepted to the waitlist for the "Silent Forest Retreat" hosted at Rainbow Lodge in North Bend, WA, by the UUC Zen Group. While space availability for residential participation is now at capacity, last minute changes are always possible. In addition, Zoom participation is welcome and open. You may register as either a Zen Practitioner or a Private Retreatant.

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, holding firm and fully awakening to begin teaching the middle way of relief from suffering. The retreat will be supported by visiting Zen Teachers who have been given dharma transmission by UU minister and Zen Roshi James Myoun Ford along with Rev. Janine Seitetsu Larsen, UUC's Covenanted Community Minister.

A Private Retreat Option offers 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, keeping silence 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 Friday evening December 12, UUC member Steve Johnson will present a "Way Seeking Mind" talk, sharing his spiritual path and turning points along the way. On Saturday evening December 13, we will hold the ceremony of Jukai. Four UUC congregants have engaged in study, sewn the wagessa or rakusu, and will be given the Five Precepts of Ethical Living or the full Sixteen Bodhisattva Precepts. Family and friends are invited to observe, and can register to attend the ceremony or join us via Zoom.

Click here for more information and to register.