Playing Zen:
Exploring Spontaneity and Creative Expression

March 12-14, 2025

Improv, like play, is spontaneous expression that is governed by a set of loose rules. The rules support us, help us embrace unpredictability, and offer the freedom to respond. During this Urban Sesshin, led by Shuso Guy Ryugin Barash, participants are invited to encounter themselves through the lens of improv. We will go on an outdoor expedition, allow ordinary things to inspire us, and use all the ingredients available to us to cook creative works of poetry, music and dance.

Mornings will follow a traditional schedule of sitting, walking and service. Late mornings and afternoons will be dedicated to workshops. Evenings will return to our traditional schedule.

Workshops will be offered in person only. Online participants will receive prompts for independent inquiry in parallel to the in-person workshops.

Winter Ango Study Text:

— Eihei Dogen, “Instructions for the Cook” or Tenzo Kyōkun (1237) [downloadable]
— Bernie Glassman, Instructions to the Cook: A Zen Master’s Lessons in Living a Life That Matters (1996)
— Another recommended translation is by Thomas Wright in How to Cook Your Life: From the Zen Kitchen to Enlightenment, with commentary on Dogen’s text by Kosho Uchiyama

Wednesday, March 12: Play with Words

For the first day of the Urban Sesshin, Gesshō will lead a workshop exploring the questions, “what are words?” and “how do we cook with them?” Approaching language playfully and improvisationally, the workshop will include an outdoor word-gathering expedition and an introduction to some simple ways we can put our new-found ingredients to good use.

Participants are asked to bring pen and paper.

Sal Gesshō Randolph is an artist and writer who lives in New York and works between language and action. She is the author of The Uses of Art, a memoir of encounters with works of art, and is co-founder of dispersed holdings, a publishing project. She is a senior student at the Village Zendo.

Thursday, March 13: Play with Sound

On the second day, Joshin Roshi, Tokuyu Sensei, and Ryugin will share from their eclectic musical backgrounds, and lead a workshop exploring play and improvisation in music-making. Letting go of previous musical training, participants will engage in deep listening, learn alternative methods of organizing sound, and set their words from the first workshop to music.

Participants are encouraged to bring sound-making devices.

Barbara Joshin O’Hara, co-founder of The Village Zendo, has been an educator for 30 years, and loves the improvisational element of Zen. She composes electronic music in her free time.

Jeremy Tokuyu Manasia serves as the Village Zendo’s liturgy master. He is a performing jazz pianist and teaches piano, improvisation and ensembles at the Manhattan School of Music.

In his music, composer Guy Ryugin Barash commonly juxtaposes improvised materials with composed ones, inviting performers and listeners to embrace uncertainty. 

Friday, March 14: Play with Movement

In the culminating workshop, led by award-winning choreographer and dancer Keely Rakushin Garfield, participants will concoct recipes made of movement, breath and stillness. Using all the ingredients of our lives and mixing with the flavors produced in the previous two workshops, we will serve up delicious dances to nourish us along the way.

Participants are asked to wear comfortable clothing and have pen and paper on hand.

Rev. Keely Rakushin Garfield is an ordained Buddhist Chaplain, and is currently the Director of Spiritual Care and Palliative Care Chaplain with Northwell Health. She is an acclaimed choreographer and dancer, a Guggenheim Fellow, Artistic Director of her own company, Keely Garfield Dance, and was a dance professor at The New School for over a decade.

Schedule

Regular morning and evening programs will take place as usual in person at the Village Zendo and online at our regular Zoom link.

7:30am Zazen
7:55 Verse of the Kesa, Stretch
8:00 Zazen
8:25 Morning Service

Breakfast (Optional, BYO)

10:00 Zazen
10:25 Stretch
10:30 – 12:00pm Workshop

Lunch (BYO)

1:30 Zazen
1:55 Stretch
2:00 – 4:00 Workshop

Dinner (Optional, BYO)

6:30 Zazen
6:55 Kinhin
7:00 Zazen
7:25 Kinhin
7:30 Zazen
7:55 Four Vows

THURSDAY EVENING – March 13

5:30 Zazen
5:55 Kinhin
6:00 Zazen
6:25 Four Vows

Please note that Zazenkai on March 15 and Shuso Hossen on March 16 require separate registration. Use the buttons below for details and registration.