Category Archives: Half-Day Retreat

Cultivating Emotional Balance

Dave Smith will be offering an online workshop on Cultivating Emotional Balance on Saturday November 23 from 9 am to noon.

Cultivating Emotional Balance Online workshop with Dave Smith

Emotions lead us to our greatest joys and most painful sorrows. They also provide the inspiration for what is most meaningful in our lives. When they become destructive, we are lost in the grips of anger, fear, sadness, and overwhelm. As we develop emotional awareness, we find that we are able to become honest about the difficulties in our lives. We can take responsibility for our destructive emotional episodes, diminishing guilt and regret. We learn the power of gratitude and compassion and promote positive change in our lives and in this world.

The Cultivating Emotional Balance training was sparked during a meeting between behavioral scientists, a neuroscientist, a monk, a philosopher, and the Dalai Lama as a new approach to understanding our emotional lives. Combining contemporary scientific research with contemplative practices drawn from Buddhism, this practice provides participants with tools for working with emotion and shows how mindfulness practices can be constructively integrated with emotional intelligence.

During this training, participants will:

  • Understand how emotions work and how they can work for and not against us;
  • Recognize and work with emotional triggers;
  • Deepen awareness and stabilize attention;
  • Increase compassion for the self and others;
  • Cultivate genuine happiness and mental balance.

Zen Half-Day Retreat

The Bozeman Zen Group invites you to a half-day retreat on Saturday, July 13 from 9AM – 1PM. Stabilize and deepen your meditation practice, hear the teaching and engage with Zen forms. Karen DeCotis will offer teachings from Sojun Mel Weitsman’s book, Seeing One Thing Through.

Zen half-day retreat using teachings from the book "Seeing One Thing Through" by Sojun Mel Weitsman

Retreat: Feeding Your Demons

This workshop will feature a guided exercise that uses imagery and inquiry to work with difficult parts of ourselves or our experience. Developed by Lama Tsultrim Allione (Tibetan nun, author and teacher), this exploratory practice of self-compassion has been shared with practitioners across Buddhist lineages, to powerful effect. In this morning workshop, Suzanne will offer the practice, along with guidance for how to use it safely and beneficially.

This is a helpful exercise for anything you’re finding frustrating. Beginners may want to do the practice with a low-stakes issue to see how it’s done before bringing it to higher-stakes issues or conflicts. Following the workshop, we’ll share the link to Lama Tsultrim guiding it online so you may do it again, and as often as you wish. She offers it freely.

This workshop is designed for all levels of meditation experience. All persons, identities, sizes, genders, ages, races and abilities are very welcome.

Please bring a journal.

Prior online registration is preferred, attendance will be limited to 30 attending in person. Zoom option available.

Half-day Koan Salon

This half-day Koan Salon on Saturday, April 20 with Michael Smith and Karen DeCotis is a restful, inclusive way to practice with koans. Koan is a Japanese term that refers to a legal public case. In Zen, koans are designed to give us pause, to enter deeply our own case.  We will spend the morning sitting several short periods of zazen, each with a phrase, a story, a poem. There will be walking meditation, and time after each “koan” to consider together. All are welcome. No previous experience with koans is necessary. Sliding scale of $25-$50; scholarships available. Space is limited. Please register in advance for the half-da Koan Salon by clicking here.

Koan Salon half-day retreat

About the Bozeman Zen Group

The Bozeman Zen Group provides half-day practice retreats regularly on Zoom and in-person to offer a time to stabilize and deepen our zazen practice, hear the teaching and engage with Zen forms. If you are new to retreat practice, and wish to learn more about how to participate, contact us at bznzen@gmail.com.

We are open to all who are interested in Zen and those curious about basic Buddhist practice.

We are currently affiliated with Branching Streams, an organization of sanghas in the Soto Zen lineage of Suzuki Roshi and the San Francisco Zen Center. Several of our members work with Zen teachers of other lineages. We are one of the resident sanghas at the Bozeman Dharma Center. All are welcome!

Half-Day: Inner Critic Workshop

Hosted by Bozeman Insight Community and led by Suzanne Colón, this Inner Critic workshop on Saturday, March 2, will clarify the difference between Wise Discernment and Self-Judgement. We can motivate ourselves, work toward behavior change, and hold ourselves accountable with an Inner Compassionate Voice rather than by beating up on ourselves. Register here.

Retreat: Zen Half-Day Sit

Join the Bozeman Zen Group for this half-day sit focusing on the Foundations of Mindfulness. Bozeman Zen Group offers half-day sittings appropriate for beginners who wish to try a retreat practice opportunity as well as for experienced practitioners to deepen their practice. Regular retreat practice is a cornerstone of Zen practice. Join us for periods of sitting and walking meditation as well as a dharma talk with Zen priest, Karen DeCotis. Register here.

Event: Feeding Your Demons

On Saturday, February 3, Suzanne Colón will lead a 3 hour workshop featuring a guided exercise that uses imagery and inquiry to work with difficult parts of ourselves or our experience. Developed by Lama Tsultrim Allione (Tibetan nun, author and teacher), this exploratory practice of self-compassion has been shared with practitioners across Buddhist lineages, to powerful effect. In this morning workshop, Suzanne will offer the practice, along with guidance for how to use it safely and beneficially. Register here.

Event: Zen half-day Sit

Sit with the Bozeman Zen Group on Saturday, January 20 from 9am-1pm. Bozeman Zen Group offers these half-day sittings monthly which are appropriate for beginners who wish to try a retreat practice opportunity as well as for experienced practitioners to deepen their practice. Regular retreat practice is a cornerstone of Zen practice. Join us for periods of sitting and walking meditation as well as a dharma talk with Zen priest, Karen DeCotis. Register here.

There will be 5 periods of meditation and breaks for stretching and tea.

Event: Resolutions & Intentions

Join Suzanne Colón for a workshop on New Year’s Resolutions, Intentions, and New Beginnings on Saturday, January 6 from 9AM – 1PM.

This workshop will include guided meditations, journal exercises and a meditative inquiry from Tara Brach’s book Radical Compassion. The day will be held in companionable silence to allow us to each stay tucked into our own experience. Please bring a journal. 

Designed for all levels of meditation experience and all persons, identities, sizes, genders, ages, races and abilities are very welcome.