Bodhi Day Ceremony / Zazenkai Sunday, December 7th, 2025
Bodhi Day celebrates the awakening of the Buddha. It culminates the our end of the autumn training period Rohatsu retreat. The Bodhi Day ceremony is open to all, whether you took part in any of the rest of the retreat or not, and at the very reasonable hour of 8am. I would like to encourage all in the community, especially those who haven’t come to Zazenkai in while, to consider coming for this ceremony and connecting (or reconnecting) with the local sangha.
We will follow the usual Zazenkai schedule and hold the ceremony in the second half of the program. The whole morning will be broadcast via Zoom (details below).
Celebration We will follow the Bodhi Day ceremony with a casual celebratory gathering in the Tahoma Dining Hall. This is open to everyone, no participation in any of the week, or even days events required. We would like to celebrate with all in our community. We will provide hot and cold drinks and sweet and savory snacks. If you want to bring something to share, by all means please do, but just bringing yourself will suffice. We’ll be in the Dining Hall by 9:45am.
Rohatsu Retreat and Bodhi Day Ceremony November 30th-December 7th, 2025
Update 12.05.25 We have added to the schedule an Instructional Talk on the investigative method of Interrogation (huatou, koan). This will be 10am on Saturday, Dec. 6th. These techniques, of working skillfully with words, are so often approached in an ineffective manner. We will try to clearly present the technique with this talk.
Update 12.01.25 The opening talk from this retreat, given on Sunday Nov. 30th, is now available for download. This talk discussed how we approach retreat and the necessity and level of commitment we should bring to intensive practice. It concludes with the first entry from Haukin Zenji’s Rohatsu Exhortations. Download here: Approaching Retreat–Rohatsu 2025
The autumn training period culminates with the Rohatsu sesshin commemorating the Buddha’s awakening. This is always the most intense training period of the year in which one brings a years worth of training to bear. This year Rohatsu at Tahoma will run from November 30th-December 7th with extended practice during our regular schedule leading up to a stretch of full-time, practice and culminating with the Bodhi Day Ceremony during regular Sunday Zazenkai.
The Bodhi Day ceremony is open to all and at the very reasonable time of 8am. I would like to encourage all in the community, especially those who haven’t come to zazenkai in while, to consider coming for this ceremony and connecting with the local sangha. We will follow the Bodhi Day ceremony with a casual holiday gathering in the Tahoma kitchen.
The retreat will follow the pattern we have utilized in the past for Rohatsu at Tahoma where our days get longer and more intense as we go through the week as well as acknowledging the realities of practice here at this time. Likewise as is our tradition each evening of the retreat in the first period after golden hour we will read from Hakuin Zenji’s Rohatsu Exhortations (available here).
All of the practice periods during this week are open to drop-in attendance and during the full-time intensive period, residential practice. Additionally the entire retreat will be broadcast via zoom. The Zoom link will be posted on the website in the days prior and sent out in the Tahoma Events weekly mailing.
Residential Retreat Options The full time intensive training will take place December 4th-7th, with residency available. Please note that one can stay overnight any of these days, so you could, for instance, be resident from Saturday through the Bodhi Day Ceremony on Sunday for more of a weekend retreat. We need to know at least a few days in advance if you wish to stay here overnight. Please contact us if you would like to register for residential practice or if you have any additional questions.
Drop in and part time options are available as usual, please contact uswith any questions. We need to be notified in advance if you wish to stay through any meals to aid in our food preparation.
Rohatsu Daily Schedule
Day 1: Sunday, November 30th 8am – 9:30am: Zazenkai and Rohatsu opening with reading from Rohatsu Exhortations.
Day 2: Monday, December 1st 6pm: Uninterrupted Zazen; Kinhin 7pm: Rohatsu Exhortationsreading; Zazen; Kinhin 8pm: Zazen
Days 3 & 4: Tuesday December 2nd and Wednesday December 3rd 5am: Choka; Zazen; Kinhin 6am: Zazen 6pm: Uninterrupted Zazen; Kinhin 7pm: Rohatsu Exhortationsreading; Zazen; Kinhin 8pm: Zazen
Days 5-7 Thursday, December 4th – Saturday, December 6th 5am: Choka; Zazen; Kinhin 6am: Zazen 10am: Instructional Talk [Day 7] / Zazen [Day 5, 6 11am: Zazen 2pm: Dharma Talk; Kinhin; 3pm: Zazen 6pm: Uninterrupted Zazen; Kinhin 7pm: Rohatsu Exhortationsreading; Zazen; Kinhin 8pm: Zazen; kinhin 9pm: Zazen [Each day runs longer; please download the Schedule for complete details.]
Day 8: Sunday, December 7th 5am: Zazen; Kinhin 5:45am: Closing Sutras; Closing Remarks 8am: Zazenkai and Bodhi Day Ceremony 9:45am: Bodhi Day Celebration (in-person only)
This retreat is offered without charge, however there are costs to putting it on, so please consider making a donation online or in person with this in mind.
TO ORDER TAHOMA ONE DROP ZEN CALENDAR We ask $20 for each calendar picked up in person at Tahoma monastery or at any of the local One Drop Zendos.
One calendar sent to a US address is $30, including postage & packaging. 2 calendars sent to a single address costs $55.
10 calendars are available for $150 plus postage, usually $25-$30, depending on where the calendars are to be sent.
Postage rates to Canada are quite high, a minimum of around $25. That makes it necessary to ask $50 for a single calendar posted to Canada. We suggest that if you have an easy option for using a U.S. address, you use it. Mailing calendars elsewhere out of country is prohibitively expensive.
