With Guo Gu

Dates: November 3 - 8
Retreat Application Deadline: October 6 for in-person | October 25 for online
Suitability

Experienced practitioners who have some familiarity with Chan/Zen Buddhism.

Please note that your retreat application does NOT guarantee acceptance into the retreat. Participants will be notified of acceptance by October 12.

Description

What changes when we begin to experience our lives as inseparable from the world around us? How might this understanding soften our sense of isolation, loosen fixed ideas about ourselves and others, and deepen our capacity for compassion?

Join Chan teacher Guo Gu for a five-day retreat exploring the profound teachings of Huayan Buddhism and the nature of interdependence. This important Chinese Mahāyāna tradition has deeply influenced Chan/Zen Buddhism and helped shape Thich Nhat Hanh’s contemporary teaching of “interbeing.”

Huayan offers a rich vision of reality in which all things arise in relationship, each inseparable from the whole. Its teachings invite us to explore interdependence not simply as an idea, but as a way of understanding and experiencing our lives.

Although Huayan has played a central role in the development of East Asian Buddhism, its teachings remain relatively unfamiliar to many Western practitioners. Terms such as “interconnection” and “interbeing” have become widely used in Western Buddhist communities and popular culture, yet their roots in Huayan philosophy often receive little attention. This retreat offers an opportunity to explore those roots and discover their relevance to our practice and daily lives.

During the retreat, Guo Gu will provide a newly translated Huayan source text to guide an exploration of this rich teaching of interdependence.

Retreat Leader

Guo Gu (Dr. Jimmy Yu) is the founder of the Tallahassee Chan Center, the founder of the socially engaged intra-denominational Buddhist organization, Dharma Relief, and a professor of Buddhism and East Asian religions at Florida State University. He studied under the late Master Sheng Yen for over 30 years, nine of which as his attendant monk and most senior and closest disciple. He is the author of The Essence of Chan(2012),Passing Through the Gateless Barrier(2016), and Silent Illumination(2021).

Fees

The fees are $450 for overnighters, $350 for commuters and $175 for online. The registration fee will be fully refunded to those not admitted to the retreat.

FCM aspires to support the retreat experience for all who are on this path, and thus retreat scholarships are available and encouraged if it would support your participation. Please click here to see FCM ’s Retreat Scholarship Policy and for an application, which needs to be submitted prior to the registration deadline for this retreat. 

The Retreat Manager will be sending additional information to registrants closer to the retreat start date.

Retreat Logistics

The retreat will begin with orientation and dinner at 5:00 pm on Tuesday, November 3 and end at 12:00 noon on Sunday, November 8. There will be a group photo after that, as well as lunch offered at 12:30 for those that wish to attend.

Please note: 

• Application Deadline: October 6 for in-person; October 25 for online.
• Acceptance & Instructions: In-person applicants will receive an acceptance letter by October 12 with retreat preparation information. Online participants will receive instructions by October 28.
• Payment Deadline: The full fee for in-person participants is due by October 19 to secure your spot. After October 19, unconfirmed spots will be offered to other applicants. The online retreat fee is due by October 25.
• Please click here to read FCM's Retreat Cancellation Policy.
• If you are not familiar with our campus, you may enjoy this short video tour.
  
• New to retreating with FCM? Please visit our FAQs page.

The teachings are offered in the Buddhist tradition of Dana, wherein the teachers freely give of themselves to the students out of gratitude for what they ’ve received from their teachers and a desire to be of service. The student’s response is also based on Dana, i.e., generosity that naturally flows from a sense of appreciation of the value of Dharma and gratitude to the living lineage.

Questions?
Please contact Rita at ritaanna727@gmail.com for any logistical questions.