In Person and Online

Urban Sesshin: The Whole Works

March 7 & March 13

The Death of the Buddha (Parinirvana), Gandharo 3rd C.

The Whole Works

Investigating Birth and Death, and Undivided Activity

Saturday, March 7th, 10am to 3.30 pm – Virtual Workshop
Friday, March 13th, 10am to 4.30 pm – In-Person Workshops

Chaplain-led immersive exploration on Dogen’s Shoji and Zenki – The Whole Works: Investigating Birth and Death, and Undivided Activity.

Workshops are open to all. Please wear comfortable clothing and bring a pen and some paper or journal for writing.

Virtual Workshop
Saturday, March 7
10:00am to 3:30pm

Being Free from Birth and Death:

Raising the Sails and Embracing the Way of Emancipation

Birth and Death bow to each other, two currents flowing in the same river. In the dynamic arc between these tides, living and dying are manifested moment to moment. Seeing this clearly invites us to become fully present, discovering the pulse of life itself and encountering impermanence as a compassionate guide. In this experiential workshop, through reflection, writing, deep listening, breathing, and movement, we cultivate intimacy with the fleeting nature of existence, investigating what matters most to realize the freedom we have to live unconditionally right now.

Workshop led by Keely Rakushin Garfield with facilitation by Village Zendo chaplains Willie Mukei Smith, Sherri Jyākuen Posey, Anne Jisei Reigeluth, and Marjorie Chogaku McCoy.

Schedule:

10am — Zazen
10.30am to 12.30pm — Online Workshop Part 1
12.30pm to 1.30pm — Silent Lunch & Writing Activity
1.30pm to 3.30pm — Online Workshop Part 2

In-Person Workshops
Friday, March 13
10:00am to 4:30pm

The World of the Boat:

Undivided Activity of Birth, Death and Myriad Things

This three-part workshop series is an invitation to inhabit the openness of each moment and actualize our lives through dynamic presence, taking up Zen Master Dogen’s call to throw our body and mind into the house of the buddha. In this shared field of practice, encompassing our awareness of birth and death, we awaken compassion and the quiet courage for true, authentic expression. By bending and stretching towards dancing, singing, and making art, we will discover the infinite wonder and possibility in being in the boat and going with the flow.

Workshops led by Palliative Care Chaplains and artists, Keely Rakushin Garfield, TJ Douglas, and Soren Glassing.

Schedule:

7.30am to 8.30am — Regular online sitting
10am — Zazen, in-person

10.30am to 12pm — Workshop # 1
Undivided Activity of Dancing with Rakushin

12pm to 1pm — Lunch

1pm to 2.30pm — Workshop #2
Undivided Activity of Songwriting with TJ

2.30pm to 3pm — Break/Set Up Zendo

3pm to 4.30pm — Workshop #3
Undivided Activity of Making Art with Soren

4.30pm to 5pm — Reset Zendo

Workshop Leaders

Keely Rakushin Garfield’s broad professional engagement encompasses her work as an acclaimed dancer and choreographer, a dance professor, a wellness specialist, and an ordained and board-certified chaplain. A snapshot of her career includes leading the Sitting with Dying programs for Visting Nurse Service (VNS), serving as clinical coordinator for Urban Zen Integrative Therapy (UZIT) at Saint Damien’s Pediatric Hospital and Orphanage in Haiti, and teaching Reiki for Yoga Journal NYC. Rakushin is a popular yoga teacher and yoga teacher trainer and regularly teaches yoga for Village Zendo retreats. She is the artistic director for her company, Keely Garfield Dance, and is the recipient of New York Dance and Performance Awards (a.k.a. “Bessies”) and a Guggenheim Fellowship in Choreography. As a chaplain, she previously worked at Mount Sinai Morningside Hospital and NYU Langone Hospital Brooklyn. Rakushin currently serves as the director of Spiritual Care and Palliative Care chaplain with Northwell Health.

Willie Mukei Smith is a senior student at The Village Zendo, leads The People of Color Sitting Group and is a novice Zen priest. He is a trained psychoanalyst and trained multi-faith chaplain who has worked in numerous settings ranging from medical to correctional facilities. Mukei is part of the zendo’s Sing, Sing team. He is a Spirit Holder of the Zen Peacemaker Bearing Witness Projects

Anne Jisei Reigeluth is a retired Hospice Chaplain living in South Burlington, Vermont. She previously served as a staff chaplain at the Kaplan Family Hospice Residence – Hospice of Orange and Sullivan in New York, providing compassionate spiritual care and counseling to patients, families, and staff. Her work extended to on-call support, telehealth services, bereavement counseling, and individuals in private homes and group care facilities. In addition, she facilitated monthly volunteer training sessions. Her professional formation includes four years of intensive training at the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care at Beth Isreal Hospital in NYC. Jisei served as a chaplain with Palliative Care Consultation Services and supported multiple units at Beth Israel Hospital. She feels deeply fortunate to continue the work she finds meaningful as a volunteer with the University of Vermont Medical Center and UVM Home Health & Hospice.

Marjorie ChoGaku McCoy joined the Village Zendo in 2017, receiving Jukai in 2018. Her dharma name means “Lucid Study.” ChoGaku is a former social worker in the child welfare/juvenile justice/field and a retired lawyer. Following retirement, ChoGaku became a Hospice volunteer, which led her to the Zendo’s Foundations in Contemplative Care training in 2010-2011, and eventually to a chaplaincy residency at Albany Medical Center. ChoGaku has served as a volunteer chaplain with Albany Med, the Capital District Red Cross Emergency Response Unit and Greene Correctional Facility. ChoGaku has been a member of the Zendo’s Lifelines to Solitary since 2018 and is a founding member of Grace and Grit. She lives in an intentional and green elder community in Chatham, New York.

Jyākuen Sherrilynn Posey lives in New York City and has worked as a watchmaker in the luxury timepiece field since 1996. After 2 years of study at One Spirit Interfaith Seminary she was ordained an Interfaith Minister in 2008 and started meditating at Insight. From 2010 to 2015 she studied Buddhist Chaplaincy/Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) at New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care and Interfaith Chaplaincy/CPE from 2015 – 2016 at New York Presbyterian Columbia University Medical Center where she has also worked as a per diem Buddhist chaplain since 2012. Jyākuen is a formal student of Roshi Enkyo O’Hara (now Abbess Emerita of Village Zendo) and is currently a senior student of Village Zendo – True Expression Temple in NYC under Abbot Shinryu Thomson. As a member of Village Zendo she received Jukai (a ceremony of taking refuge and received the name JyāKuEn, meaning PERFECT STILLNESS) in 2016 and was ordained as a Buddhist chaplain, by Roshi O’Hara, (in the Soto Zen tradition) in 2021.

TJ Douglas (they/he) is a hospital chaplain, folk singer, and writer based in Peekskill, New York. Rooted in the contemplative and poetic traditions, TJ’s ministry centers on presence — the sacred act of deep attention to another’s life, grief, and story. TJ serves as a palliative care chaplain in Westchester County, accompanying people through serious illness, dying, and loss. Before entering chaplaincy, they spent over a decade as a touring folk musician, releasing music that explores the intersections of love, mortality, and the search for belonging. Their approach weaves together theology, art, and embodied listening — treating every encounter as a place where something holy might appear. They draw inspiration from mystics, poets, and prophets who hold the tension of being human — from James Baldwin to Thich Nhat Hanh, from Nina Simone to Thomas Merton — and from the quiet wisdom of those they sit with each day. Their most recent album, Dying, was released in 2024 by Team Love Records, and is a collection of meditations drawn from their chaplaincy work.

Soren Glassing is a hospital chaplain, Buddhist monk, and artist. He graduated Suma cum laude from Pratt Institute with a BFA in drawing. He worked in graphic design and illustration for a few years before entering a Zen Buddhist monastery living as a monastic for nearly thirty years. Subsequently, after leaving the monastery, he trained as a chaplain and has been working at a major NYC hospital for 14 years. He brings art to the bedside and uses art therapy to help the dying create legacy work, and psychiatric patients to find meaning and spirituality through creative expression. He is interested in the intersection between science and art, astronomy, alchemy, and physics. His art can be described as a snapshot of objects in motion, suspended in an imagined space. He is fascinated by color, texture, hexagons, cones and how we perceive artwork.

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