Embracing the Leader Within

Join us for a women-led retreat! This retreat is application-only this year; please read details below.

Holy Wisdom Monastery
Middleton, Wisconsin

October 3 – 6

Retreat Leader

Vicara Mary Connelly Roshi

Join us for an in-person sesshin led by women!  This continues the tradition that was started in 2013 by our now deceased Dharma sister, Daju Suzanne Friedman. All genders are welcome to apply and attend, although priority will be given to applicants who identify as women.

This will be a silent in-person residential retreat, and we will focus on issues that may subtly or explicitly be preventing women from realizing the leader within. Vicara Roshi will offer teisho and dokusan, and there will be dharma talks by women practitioners. 

This year we are fortunate to have received a Women in Buddhism Grant from the Frederick P. Lenz Foundation for American Buddhism. This support enables us to hold the sesshin at Holy Wisdom Monastery and covers almost all the cost of the retreat for attendees (a $450 value based on 2022 retreat costs).

Because of the nature of the grant, priority will be given to:

  • Women who are actively participating in Zen practice communities and have an interest in stepping into roles of leadership in their Zen practice community and empowering other women to deepen their practice in the face of Zen’s traditional cultural patriarchy
  • Second, women who wish to attend a meditation retreat led by women
  • Third, men, who are aware of the cultural patriarchal nature of classical Zen, interested in addressing its impacts on themselves, facing their own biases, and functioning as allies for transformation in Zen sanghas. 

Applications for the retreat will be accepted from April 1 – May 15. If accepted, you will be asked to register with a $25 fee to cover administrative costs. All other costs will be paid by the grant.

If you have any questions, please contact Vicara Roshi (vicara@hollowboneszen.org) or Reishin (reishin@hollowboneszen.org).