Thursday Evening Zazen
Weekly - In-Person - Boundless Heart Sangha
At the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship on Thursdays 6:00-7:00 PM
Monday Morning
Zazen
Join us for online zazen on Monday mornings.
A Boundless Heart Sangha Non-Residential Retreat
March 26 (evening Dharma talk), 27- 28
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Winston Salem, NC
Rooted and Responsive: Contemplative Practice and Social Action
With Joshin Byrnes and Jissan Nicolle
A retreat in the Zen Peacemaker tradition hosted by the Boundless Heart Sangha featuring teacher, Sensei Joshin Byrnes, from the Bread Loaf Mountain Zen Community in Vermont.
Additional details and signup form will be available in Fall 2025
In a world shaped by urgency, division, and change, how do we stay rooted in presence and care while responding to the suffering around us? This two-day retreat explores the dynamic relationship between inner stillness and compassionate action. Through periods of silent and guided meditation, shared reflection, and embodied practice, we will ground ourselves in contemplative awareness and examine how it informs—and is informed by—our engagement with the world.
Drawing on Zen Buddhist teachings, real-world stories, and our own lives, we’ll ask: How can care, courage, and clarity arise from silence? And what forms of healing action arise when we listen deeply, stay close to suffering, and trust our interconnection?
Open to people of all religions and faiths or none, as well as social action practitioners, caregivers, and anyone seeking a path of responding rooted in stillness, this retreat invites you to show up in wholeness for the world as it is.
“The Sixth Patriarch, Hui-neng, said: “To sit means to gain absolute freedom and to be mentally unperturbed in all outward circumstances, be they good or otherwise.” 1 In other words, sitting is just letting what comes up come up, then letting it fall away again, neither playing with thoughts nor trying to eliminate them. The very attempt to eliminate them would just be another form of conceptualization. Let them come up and let them go. We have many devices to help us do this, or rather to help us let this happen. You can concentrate on your breathing, on the letter A or the word mu, on anything. Concentrating on one thing eventually develops the samadhi of no-separation. Without such concentration, it’s almost impossible not to be distracted by thoughts”— Infinite Circle: Teachings in Zen by Bernie Glassman
