Winter Practice Period 2025

Come join us in the silence and peace of the remote, snow-covered valleys of Hokyoji, as we discover and study the neglected women Zen teachers of the past.

Hokyoji’s Winter Practice Period (Week 1, January 27-February 2. Week 2, February 3-9. Week 3 sesshin, February 10-16).

Guiding Teacher Dokai Georgesen will co-lead the first two weeks with Hokyoji Associate Teacher Onryu Kennedy. The study topic will be Bad Ass Women Ancestors: Nothing Hidden. The practice period will end with a sesshin led by Dokai. Participants can join for one, two, or three weeks.

The first two weeks of the practice period will include chōsan (meetings for study and discussion). The texts under consideration will be:

Women Living Zen: Japanese Soto Buddhist Nuns, by Paula Kane Robinson Arai

The Foundation History of the Nuns’ Order, by Bhikkhu Anālayo

The Legends of the Theris chapter in Legends of the Buddhist Saints, translated by Jonathan S. Walters, Whitman College (click Read Online; legends of the female monastics, theris, appear in Chapter IV).

Daughters of the Buddha: Teachings by Ancient Indian Women, by Bhikkhu Anālayo

First Buddhist Women: Poems and Stories of Awakening, by Susan Murcott

Before attending, please view “Women in Buddhist Monasticism: Women in Community,” a talk by Chimyo Atkinson that formed part of the SZBA year-long series “Celebrating the Voices of Women in Buddhism.” Rev. Atkinson describes her time at the Aichi Zen Monastery for Women in Nagoya, Japan. This monastery, led by Abbess Aoyama Shundō, was the focus of research conducted by Paula Arai for Women Living Zen, one of the books we’ll be considering.

If you would be interested in participating in the study discussions online, please contact Hokyoji at hokyoji@hokyoji.org for more information. Please consider making a donation (dana) as you are able for participation via Zoom.

If you would be interested in receiving credit toward the Soto Zen Buddhist Association’s (SZBA) ango requirement, please contact Hokyoji at hokyoji@hokyoji.org for more information. To receive ango credit, participation in the full three-week period is required.

Retreat Leaders:

Dokai Georgesen started practicing Zen with Dainin Katagiri Roshi in 1974 and was ordained in 1984. He received transmission from Katagiri Roshi in 1989. He is the Guiding Teacher at Hokyoji and has resided there since 2003.

Onryu “GD” Kennedy has received transmission in both the Katagiri and Uchiyama Roshi lineages. In 2019 and 2020, she attended three-month practice periods at Toshoji International Zen Center (Japan) and in 2017 at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center (California). In the Spring 2020 practice period at Toshoji she was Shuso, head monk, for the practice period. She completed zuise in January 2023, and in February 2024 her application for Kokusaifukuyoshi was approved by the Japanese Sotoshu. Throughout her life she has valued social justice work as an expression of her vow. She is currently an Associate Teacher at Hokyoji Zen Practice Community. She experiences great joy in the opportunity to learn and teach Buddhist practices.