HASTitleWhite

Cultivating Your Space for Attention, Depth, & Beauty

HASTitleWhite

Cultivating Your Space for Attention, Depth, & Beauty

A 5-day at-home retreat to transform and awaken home, self and world.

Hosted and Led by

Dragon Lake Zen & Dragon Moon Zen

June 16-20, 2025

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Online via Zoom

(including both online, synchronous practice

and offline, asynchronous practice)

Home Sweet Home. Home is where the heart is. These timeless adages carry forward trustable wisdom, but more and more, the home is no longer a refuge nor a predictable space to help us balance, regulate and connect with ourselves and each other.

 

Social, political and economic change is afoot at rates few are prepared to effectively navigate with care, elegance and wisdom, and there is a widening gap between our evolving human capabilities and the power of our exponential technologies.

 

As our attention is commoditized and monetized, we often unwittingly fall prey, trading our most precious treasure for a momentary distraction from problems, a vague, shallow sense of connection or a short-lived serotonin hit. 


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"Why leave behind the seat in your own home to wander in vain through the dusty realms of other lands? If you make one misstep, you stumble past what is directly in front of you." 

 

~ ZEN MASTER DOGEN

In these times, how is your practice, your breath, and your heart?

 

In these times, how is your practice, your breath, and your heart? 

 

For many of us, the accelerated change is overwhelming and is disrupting our capacity to effectively orient, make skillful choices, and take action coherently together. We need protected spaces to reflect, feel, release and adapt so we can better preserve and tend to what really matters. 

 

These intentional spaces enable more robust participation with the innate, evolving values that our lives are made of. And these purposeful spaces can help create more possibilities for freedom, choice and creativity for our collective future. 

 

In this moment of intensity and change, we at Dragon Lake and Dragon Moon Zen are rooting into and abiding in the timeless wisdom of Zen practice to find refuge and to cultivate greater capacity for mobilizing our compassionate action. 

 

 

You are invited to join us to bring your attention close in, to the intimate spaces of home: to consecrate the structures of body, mind, shelter, and close kin with intentional home-based practice.

 

 

Your home, the dwelling within which you wake and sleep, eat and rest, wash and dress, love and grow, work and play, serve and receive is a vital centre to your life.

 

Space has memory - it stores and expresses our intentions, values and our function. Everything from sacred spaces to haunted houses confirm that space has memory and is influenced by the rituals and intentional acts that we partake in in these spaces, from a morning cup of coffee to a family meal to our workouts and meditations. 


Depth is a principle protection needed in today’s world. The greater the change navigated, the more depth is required.

Through the Home as Sanctuary retreat, we will reclaim, fortify and vivify our familial, collective and personal spaces. We will cultivate greater depth through clear intentionality, social and mystical practices and intimate connections with others.

 

Each day, we will practice meditation and yoga together, lean into the wisdom of Zen and other traditions, and engage in interpersonal practice. We will also attend to the beauty of our homes, and imbue our daily rituals with intention and depth. We’ll create a powerful imprint to help us remember who we truly are and what we value in a world that sells distraction, long after the retreat is over.


 

"Where is home? What is my true nature, and what does it mean to be at home with it? When I don’t feel at home, where can I find sanctuary?”

 

~ ZENJU EARTHLYN MANUEL

 

"Where is home? What is my true nature, and what does it mean to be at home with it? When I don’t feel at home, where can I find sanctuary?”

 

~ ZENJU EARTHLYN MANUEL

What you will receive: 

  • 5 days of facilitated morning* meditation and community practice to liberate body and mind while growing social connectedness.
  • 5 60-minute yoga classes for deepening embodiment.
  • 5 live 60-minute teachings facilitated by transmitted Zen teachers to cultivate greater depth in yourself and your home. 
  • 5 optional Q&A sessions to support practice applications in your home. 
  • Recordings of daily teachings.
  • Morning and afternoon* office hours for individualized guidance with instructors to refine and personalize your home practice (appointments are first come, first served).
  • 5 days of committed Home-Tending time to transform one part of your home. 
  • 5 days of facilitated evening* meditation and community practice for fostering liberation and greater intimacy. 
  • Optional (?) 3-month membership to support your ongoing at-home practice after our retreat in our online practice community. 


*Morning, Afternoon and Evening times are based on North American time zones.

SCHEDULE

*Schedule to change.

Monday - Thursday, MDT:

 

1st Practice Period: 7:30-9:00 am 

  • Guided meditation
  • Small group connection
  • Silent meditation


Office Hours: 9:00-10:00 am 

  • 10 min 1:1 meeting with a teacher, by appointment

Yoga (all levels): 10:30-11:30 am 

 

2nd Practice Period: 12:00-1:00 pm 

  • Short Meditation
  • Teaching from a Sensei

Optional Q&A: 1:00-1:30 pm 

 

Office Hours: 2:00-3:00 pm

  • 10 min 1:1 meeting with a teacher, by appointment

 

Tending Home: 3:00-5:00 pm

  • Self-directed, focused work period cultivating sanctuary space in your home
  • Designed in peer exercises during practice periods and/or 1:1 meeting with teachers

 

Office Hours: 6:30-7:30 pm

 

3rd Practice Period 7:30pm-9:00pm

  • Small group connection
  • Silent meditation


Friday: Same schedule as above, ending at 1:00 pm MDT

Monday - Thursday, CEST: 

 

Possible Peer-Led Practice Period: 7:30-9:00 am

  • Small group connection
  • Silent meditation

 

Tending Home: 10:00 am - 12:00 pm

  • Self-directed, focused work period cultivating sanctuary space in your home
  • Designed in peer exercises during practice periods and/or 1:1 meeting with teachers

 

1st Practice Period: 3:30-5:00 pm 

  • Guided meditation
  • Small group connection
  • Silent meditation


Office Hours: 5:00-6:00 pm 

  • 10 min 1:1 meeting with a teacher, by appointment

Yoga (all levels): 6:30-7:30 pm 

 

2nd Practice Period: 8:00-9:00 pm 

  • Short Meditation
  • Teaching from a Sensei

Optional Q&A: 9:00-9:30 pm 


Friday: Same schedule as above, ending at 9:00 pm CEST



Monday - Thursday, HST: 

 

Yoga (all levels): 6:30-7:30 am 

 

1st Practice Period: 8:00-9:00 am 

  • Short Meditation
  • Teaching from a Sensei

Optional Q&A: 9:00-9:30 am 

 

Office Hours: 10:00-11:00 am

  • 10 min 1:1 meeting with a teacher, by appointment

 

Tending Home: 11:00 am - 1:00 pm

  • Self-directed, focused work period cultivating sanctuary space in your home
  • Designed in peer exercises during practice periods and/or 1:1 meeting with teachers

 

Office Hours: 2:30-3:30 pm

 

2nd Practice Period: 3:30pm-5:00pm

  • Small group connection
  • Silent meditation

 

Possible Peer-Led Practice Period: 6:30-8:00 pm

  • Small group connection
  • Silent meditation

 


Friday: Same schedule as above, ending at 9:00 am HST



Who is this for? 

This retreat is for individuals who: 

  • Are stressed or overwhelmed by our world’s accelerating change. 
  • Value their homes becoming greater sources of protection, growth and intentionality. 
  • Desire to make committed changes to beautify and ritualize their home spaces, but have not found the time or expertise to do it. 
  • Want trustable instruction to refine at home yoga and/or meditation practice. 
  • Yearn for a community of collective action they can root into and benefit from. 
  • Need a retreat from invasive technologies, dysfunctional media ecosystems and/or overly superficial communities. 

PRICING

Please choose the price that works for your current financial context. All those paying higher amounts will ensure opportunities for those with financial constraints:  

$155     ~     $355    ~    $555 USD

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Registration deadline: Friday, June 13th

A limited number of partial scholarships are available for those in circumstances and parts of the world that limit your means. Payment plans also available upon request.

"The roots of deep Zen practice, long standing friendship, and relational embodiment from the teachers at Dragon Lake and Dragon Moon Zen is fresh and compelling. They're fostering a real community of practice that will last long after the retreat itself. If you feel drawn to sit retreat and are able, go! I can't think of a better way to invite more aliveness into your life."

~ ALDEN DANIELS 

The Senseis at Dragon Lake & Dragon Moon Zen are extraordinary in their care, compassion, humor and humanity. The retreat participants were incredible, and it was like being immersed in another world for a week where everyone was able to engage in deep listening and care for each other. It's honestly hard to describe it. You need to experience it.” 

 

~ INEKE MUSHOVIC 

 

"I truly appreciated the blend of rigorous practice in your tradition with embodied and interactive opportunities to explore aliveness, particularly in relationship. This strengthened the possibilities for community-building as well as adding courageous, supportive, and welcoming practices to this 'art of aliveness.'"

 

~ ERIC MILLER

“The four Senseis of Dragon Lake and Dragon Moon Zen bring an exquisite dance of traditional practice, creative expression, and developmental learning to the path. Their attention to nuance and subtlety create an environment of playful exploration and precision in learning. I feel more at home, and stretched, here than I have in any other sangha in my years of practice.”

 

~ BARTON DAININ CUTTER

“There is a very potent and precious space created by the skillful and heartfelt facilitation, as well as the collective of co-participants. It's hard to capture just how special this "field" is, and how transformative it is to swim in it for a week. To be met in this way has a quality of magic, and this magic is rare. I'll definitely be returning to drink in the nourishment of such grounded, and profound, goodness.”

 

~ LINDSAY SWORSKI




“Dragon Lake and Dragon Moon Zen retreats are a powerful way to approach Zen, its forms and method, and integrate them into the current world and the way we live these days.” 

 

~ LAURA TETSUKO GARCIA

"The giant hearts and deep skill of the teachers created the conditions for profound transformation. This sangha is truly special. I can't remember an experience that has cracked me open and deepened my wisdom as much as this retreat did." 

 

~ CHRIS KOZAN GAITHER

ABOUT THE TEACHERS

Lisa Genki Gibson headshot

Lisa Genki Gibson Sensei has been practicing with Diane Musho Hamilton Roshi in the Soto Zen lineage since 2008 and received Dharma transmission in 2023. As a Zen teacher and committed student of reality, she is passionate about the potency of Zen practice to deepen our expression of wisdom, compassion and joy in everyday life. Based in Vancouver, Canada with her family on the unceded ancestral lands and waters of the Squamish, Musqueam and Tsleil-Wauthuth Nations, Lisa works as a coach, facilitator and educator, to support the wholehearted engagement of a more just, caring and sustainable world.

Brooke McNamara headshot with glasses

Brooke Teisui McNamara Sensei is a Zen teacher, lineage holder, and poet. She has practiced as a student of Diane Musho Hamilton Roshi since 2010, receiving monk ordination in 2012 and Dharma Transmission in 2023. Prior to 2010, she was a student of nondual teacher and poet, Dorothy S. Hunt. Brooke has published two books of poems: Bury the Seed and Feed Your Vow, and has taught at Naropa University in Yoga Studies and CU Boulder in Dance. She holds an MFA, and teaches in-person and online courses and retreats to facilitate the awakening of innate wisdom, compassion, artistry, and play. She lives with her husband and two sons in Boulder, CO.

Rob Daishin McNamara headshot

Robert Daishin McNamara Sensei is a transmitted Zen teacher, advisor, consultant and executive coach. He is the author of three books, most recently Powerful Listening. He is a co-founder of the advisory and consulting firm Delta Developmental. Rob serves on faculty at the Ivey School of Business’ LIFT Advanced Coaching Program, Real LIFE Programs and is a former Harvard University Teaching Fellow teaching adult development at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. McNamara currently advises, trains, and coaches executives and teams addressing organizational viability risks. Rob’s passion supports leaders to better navigate complex organizational and civilizational challenges vital to current and future institutional capabilities.

Brian Butsudo Turner

Brian Butsudo Turner Sensei has been practicing Zen in the White Plum branch of the Soto lineage for over fifteen years. He received monk ordination in 2012 and Dharma Transmission in 2023 from Diane Musho Hamilton Roshi. He does his best to present the Dharma with warmth, humor and pragmatism. Butsudo loves the forms and rituals of Zen practice provided they are inhabited with intention and relaxation.  He lives in Erie with his wife and daughter and has two adult children.  Brian has a Ph.D. in physics and currently works as an engineer in an optics manufacturing company.

 

"We need beauty because it makes us ache to be worthy of it.”

 

~ MARY OLIVER

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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Yes, you are welcome to participate even if you can’t make all the sessions live.

Recording of daily teachings are provided and the program is designed for you to enhance your home practice on your own. 

Participants are asked to commit to a practice schedule for the week that works with their schedules.


This retreat is designed to benefit a range of practitioners from beginners to advanced practitioners.

There will be opportunities to learn the basics of seated meditation. Adaptations for the yoga practice are provided in the instructions to help you calibrate to your own levels of readiness.

You do not need to clear your entire schedule for this retreat. However, the more you are able to place your attention inside of the retreat without distractions and participate in our live sessions the greater the opportunity you will have to advance your home practice, build new rituals and refine spaces within your home that protect you, your intentionality and capability to meaningfully engage with your life.  

 

Please check the schedule for your time zone to ensure you can participate at the level you desire. 



  • For the online sessions, you will need a computer with a web camera and access to a stable internet connection.
  • For meditation practice, you need either a chair or sitting cushion.  A quiet, distraction free space is optimal.  We ask that your camera is turned on during sitting in order to support the entire group.
  • For morning yoga, you will need a mat, blanket or towel and clear floor space that is at least 6 feet by 8 feet.
  • A core practice for the week is to bring attention, depth and beauty into your home. We ask that you designate a spot, corner or room that can be devoted in the long term to hold, cultivate and express your deepening practice intentions.

Although having other family members home during practice hours may be distracting, it is a valuable opportunity to carve out practice even in the midst of the busyness of home life. We recommend setting up expectations ahead of time with your family members or roommates about when you will be practicing. If possible, practice in a separate room with a door that can be closed to support your focus and engagement with the retreat.



We welcome any person willing to deepen their relationship with themselves, the care they nurture in relationship and community and a greater intimacy with reality as a seamless-feature-filled whole. 

 

Your instructors are transmitted Zen Buddhist lineage holders. While you will experience some of these influences, all are welcome. There is no expectation or requirement to adopt any religious doctrines, dogmas or belief systems. 



Yes! 

 

We invite participation from any time zone or location in the world. While this may impact your ability to attend the live sessions, we value the diversity of a global practice community. Regardless of where you live, we look forward to deepening your at-home practice. 



Here are some guidelines for how to get the most of this at-home retreat:

  • Be curious and available.
  • Be welcoming and supportive of your fellow retreatants.
  • Give yourself permission to ask for clarifications and questions.
  • Participate wholeheartedly.
  • Notice how the practice is not separate from your life.

Make time to rest and integrate during and after the program.

A limited number of partial scholarships are available.

Please contact us if you would like to apply for a scholarship. 

Payment plans are also available upon request. 

Contact us at DragonLakeZen(at)proton.me for more information.

 

"Our true home is in the present moment… We only need to find ways to bring our body and mind back to the present moment so we can touch what is refreshing, healing, and wondrous, within us and around us.”

 

~ THICH NHAT HANH

 

"Our true home is in the present moment… We only need to find ways to bring our body and mind back to the present moment so we can touch what is refreshing, healing, and wondrous, within us and around us.”

 

~ THICH NHAT HANH

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REGISTER

Dragon Lake Zen uses Zeffy for course registration, a free service provided to charitable organizations such as ours. Pricing is in US dollars.

Please choose the price that works for your current financial context. All those paying higher amounts will ensure opportunities for those with financial constraints.


On checkout, you will be asked to make a voluntary contribution to support Zeffy: note that this optional contribution goes directly to Zeffy, not to Dragon Lake Zen.