Events · Sesshin
Four days of focused Zen practice in the foothills of the High Sonoran Desert — zazen, dharma talks, mindful meals, and private interviews with the teacher. All levels of experience are welcome.
The essentials
Thursday 14 to Monday 18 January 2027. Arrive Thursday from 3:00 PM; the retreat closes Monday at 12:00 PM.
Spirit in the Desert Retreat Center, Carefree, Arizona — in the high desert north of Phoenix.
Residential · Meals and accommodation includedPrivate room $1,250 · Shared room $775. Both include accommodation and all meals for the length of the retreat.
If cost is the obstacle, please say so when you write. It is worth a conversation.
Anyone willing to sit. Sesshin rewards a settled practice, but no prior retreat experience is required, and first-time participants are welcomed and looked after.
What sesshin is
Sesshin — 摂心 — is usually translated as "gathering the mind." It is a period of sustained silent practice, held in a form that has been refined over centuries because it works: a day given over to zazen, walking meditation, dharma talks, meals taken together in silence, and private interviews with the teacher.
What it asks is simply that you stay. The container does the rest. Days spent this way have a way of settling what ordinary life keeps stirred up, and the desert in January — clear, cold at night, quiet — is a good place to let that happen.
Roshi David is a Soto Zen teacher in the White Plum lineage, Vice Abbot of Yokoji Zen Mountain Center, Guiding Teacher at Long Beach Meditation, and a Guiding Council teacher at the Insight Community of the Desert.
Joining
Registration is by arrangement. Write with any questions — about the schedule, travel, dietary needs, or whether sesshin is right for you at this point in your practice — and we will take it from there.
Enquire about the sesshin →There is also a printable flyer if you would like to pass this on.