RETREATS

Winter Rohatsu- December 1-9

Rohatsu is a Japanese word for “December 8th”. Rohatsu is a Zen holiday celebrated as the anniversary of the historical Buddha’s attainment of enlightenment. It is said that on December 8th, Siddhartha Gotama, after several days of intense meditation sitting under the Bodhi tree, caught a glimpse of the morning star (the planet we know as Venus) and attained enlightenment.


As the number of Zen practitioners in America and in the West in general continues to grow, we start to become more exposed to previously foreign concepts like “rohatsu.”


In fact, there’s a growing body of journalism documenting the rise of Buddhism in the West — both as a religion, but more importantly, as a practical philosophy for daily living. The December 2005 issue of National Geographic, for instance, features a lengthy article and multimedia slideshow on the phenomenon. Ironically, while ambassadors for Buddhism like H.H. the Dalai Lama go around telling people not to become Buddhist, many are doing it anyway. People are quickly realizing that the Eastern practice of meditation is one of the best ways to balance out the oftentimes stressful and and overwhelming Western lifestyle.


For rohatsu, most Zen centers spend the first eight days of December in sesshin, an extended period of intense practice and meditation.


Daito Zenei Thompson, spiritual director ASPEN GOLD DHARMA CENTER