Day of the Dead Revisited

This daylong retreat will explore attitudes and teachings about death and dying through meditation, ceremony, writing, music, and movement. People celebrate the Aztec/Mexican “Dia de los Muertos” by making elaborate altars, feasting, singing and telling jokes making light of death. The Japanese/Zen Buddhist “Sejiki” ceremony similarly involves by making a special altar-offering of food and drink to the “hungry ghosts,” ritually invoking their presence to wish for their peace and ease. Our retreat will incorporate elements of these ancient practices – everyone will be invited to create a small altar with photos and/or mementos of loved ones who have passed on. We will honor our ancestors with ritual and song. We will meditate on and discuss conditioned beliefs and emotions that arise with respect to death and dying, as well as Buddhist teachings that aim to meet and soothe our fears of death. We will also move together in the ancient forms of qi gong. Both the light-heartedness of the Dia de los Muertos and the soberness of the Sejiki ceremony will be in the room. Our leaders aim to create a day that is meaningful and supportive to everyone present. That said, this retreat may not be suitable for the recently bereaved.