Daylong Zen Retreat with Roshi Rachel Mansfield-Howlett

# Daylong Zen Retreat with Roshi Rachel Mansfield-Howlett

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Please join us for a day of meditation and conversation with Zen Roshi Rachel Mansfield-Howlett (Vegetarian Lunch Included)
Join us at Sky Creek Dharma Center for a daylong Zen meditation retreat with Rachel Mansfield-Howlett on April 25th 2026, 9am-3pm. Open to the Public, welcoming beginners, no previous meditation experience is needed! Suggested Donation $50, sliding scale entry, no one turned away for lack of funds.
Rachel is multifaceted, being both a skilled horticulturalist as well as a koan master in the Pacific Zen School lineage. For decades she has provided vital nourishment for flowers – especially human ones – which have flourished under her care. She is the founder and senior teacher at CityZen in Santa Rosa CA. Rachel’s deep insight into Zen koans enables her to help others build sturdy connections between silent meditation and everyday life. She will be accompanied by senior student Gary Brandt Sensei, composing a dynamic duo sure to warm the heart.
There will be both sitting and walking meditation and we will all be keeping company with a koan – a long-time friend who you might be meeting for the first time. The only experience you need is the one you are currently having. Bringing a curious mind and an open heart helps encourage fresh growth and surprise blooms.
Rachel Mansfield-Howlett Roshi will also be offering one-on-one meetings (Dokusan) during the day. A marvelous opportunity that seldom comes our way.

Schedule
8:45 Arrive and find a seat (cushions and chairs available)
9:00 Welcome and info
9:15 Meditation Begins (25 min sitting periods followed by 5 minute walking meditation)
One-on-one meetings (Dokusan) available
10:30 Dharma Talk followed by some time for questions and answers followed by meditation
12:00 Lunch
1:00 Meditation begins
One-on-One meetings (Dokusan) available
Period of outdoor walking meditation (weather permitting)
3:00 Closing

About Rachel –
A 40-year practitioner of Zen, she was authorized to teach Zen and koans in 2003 and received full transmission, Inka Shomei, in 2009 in the Pacific Zen School lineage from John Tarrant Roshi.
In 2011, she founded City Zen In Santa Rosa, CA. She is a contributor to The Book of Mu: Essential Writings on Zen’s Most Important Koan and The Hidden Lamp, Stories from Twenty-Five Centuries of Awakened Women.
Rachel Mansfield-Howlett has degrees in botany and law. She is a public benefit environmental attorney, law professor, cook, gardener, and grandmother. Complimentary to her environmental law practice, she teaches a western style of Zen that emphasizes social justice, environmental, and community values.
Born into a family of ranchers, farmers, and schoolteachers in rural Oklahoma she moved with her family to southern California in the 1960s, attended college in Chico and settled in Sonoma County in the early 70s. Rachel traces her Chickasaw heritage through her maternal grandfather, a descendant of former Chickasaw leader Daugherty (Winchester) Colbert.
Rachel’s style of Zen practice helps us to awaken to the joyful spring of our life and to recognize the interconnectedness of all beings. Bringing this awakening and recognition into our daily lives is central to the practice.

About Gary –
Gary is a Santa Rosa native and writer of fiction. He has worked as a bartender, bookseller, editor, and teacher, and holds a B.A. in Liberal Arts. A 30-year practitioner of Zen, Gary first doing koan work with John Tarrant Roshi and Joan Sutherland Roshi. He began practicing with CityZen in 2011 and received authorization to teach as Sensei from Rachel Mansfield-Howlett Roshi in 2023. Gary was given the dharma name Community Dragon.
He is keenly interested in the way the koan curriculum—an uncanny literary tradition in its own right—enlists the imagination to route us back to our native joy. He believes Zen is essentially a practice of the heart.
You can find more information about Rachel, Gary and CityZen at: http://www.cityzensantarosa.com
For questions about the retreat contact:
Jan Black
[janfblack@comcast.net](https://mail.google.com/mail/?view=cm&fs=1&tf=1&to=janfblack@comcast.net "https://mail.google.com/mail/?view=cm&fs=1&tf=1&to=janfblack@comcast.net")
707-206-8222