Cultivating Your Space for Attention, Depth, & Beauty
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
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.
"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
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 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.
- 4 days of facilitated evening* meditation and community practice for fostering liberation and greater intimacy.
*Morning, Afternoon and Evening times are based on North American time zones.
SCHEDULE
* subject to minor changes.
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:
$125 USD ~ $300 USD ~ $475 USD
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.
ABOUT THE TEACHERS
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 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.
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 social impact platform Y Solve. 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 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
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.
Refunds minus a $35 USD administrative fee will be issued up until June 2. No refunds will be issued after June 2.
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.