Beginner's Mind Weekend Meditation Retreat

The sesshin on Tonglen in May 2024 was my second retreat at Great Vow. The first was a Beginners Mind retreat in May 2023. It is a beautiful facility - Who would have thought an elementary school would make such an amazing Zen Monastery? The people here are beautiful as well. And the sesshin on Tonglin will stay with me forever.

Overall, the sesshin was very good. The dharma talks and instructions during sitting were extremely beneficial for me. I chose to participate online due to health concerns. Some aspects of online participation could be enhanced. Unless speakers were using a microphone I could not hear the instructions for what was happening. At times it was quite confusing. Also, it would have been preferable to receive individual sanzen just as in person participants do.

I understand that this Inner critic retreat/workshop has been recently re-worked/updated and was, I believe, the first time offered in this new iteration. I found the content very good and the co-leaders were committed to supporting the group towards helpful outcomes! It was quite worthwhile and I plan on reviewing/doing further work. It brings a deeper understanding of my mind in new insightful ways. I loved the musical aspects and the different chanting we did. I appreciated hearing from others. I do have a few suggestions:

Group exercises: Have a worksheet handout for each exercise listing the given questions w/room to write responses, so people can use this to help prompt their inquiry and also have something to review or use further afterwards.

Tools and Resources: have a take-away handout for terms written on the whiteboard during this presentation/discussion, with brief, basic definitions for each, and possibly also 1-3 references to websites or books, or other leads to seek further info post-workshop.

The co-leaders sometimes spoke too fast for me in delivering new content.

I have gotten so much from practicing with ZCO. It's given me a whole new life. I have come to trust these teachers more and more over time.

Not only are their retreats powerful and wonderful, but they're extremely reasonably priced.

I think this place is underrated. I highly recommend it.

🙏🙏🙏