Awakening & Cessation

Self-Paced Home Meditation Retreat

Online, Virtual Retreat

This self-paced retreat includes material for a 6 or 7-day home meditation retreat.

This retreat is a deep dive into the practices of awakening through teaching and guided meditations, opening to the Absolute awakening to itself in kenshō.

We will embark on a profound exploration into the manifest Absolute—characterized by pure, unconditioned love, non-conceptual awareness, and the essence of pure presence or being. In addition, we will enter the rich, boundless blackness of vast absence, accompanied by deep peace and the profound, primordial stillness of Cessation.

What’s Included

Enough material for a 6 or 7-day home retreat
Reference material for preparation
2 Handouts
6 Talks
10 Guided Meditations
1080p HD Video Quality

The recordings are from Mugen’s first self-hosted meditation retreat titled “Awakening & Cessation”; it was hosted in Newaygo, Michigan in September 2023. The original retreat was seven days. The sixth day was an integration day and was when silence was broken. The seventh day included the transfer of merit and was also a travel day.

Talks include student questions. Students weren’t mic’d, but their voices are generally audible and Mugen often repeats the question before answering.

Example talks and meditations from this retreat are available on YouTube in this playlist (more videos coming in September 2025).

Course Outline

Welcome
- Welcome to the Course!
Preparation
- Preparing for the Retreat
- Learning Innate Goodness Meditation
- Innate Goodness Instructions
- Learning Shikantaza
- Shikantaza Instructions
- Handouts
Day 1
- Opening Talk & Precepts [26:57]
- Bodhidharma – One Mind Precepts (Generative Version)
- Opening – Guided Meditation [42:59]
Day 2
- Peace & Stillness – Guided Meditation [1:00:19]
- Letting It All Go – Guided Meditation [44:55]
- Definition of Awakening – Dharma Talk [37:21]
Day 3
- Surrendering to Presence – Guided Meditation [1:01:16]
- Deep Stillness – Guided Meditation [47:18]
- Map of Zen Awakening – Dharma Talk [1:01:45]
Day 4
- Love of the Absolute – Guided Meditation [1:00:59]
- Ocean – Guided Meditation [49:22]
- Theravada Map of Awakening – Dharma Talk [57:52]
Day 5
- Into the Blackness – Guided Meditation [1:03:02]
- Peace & Stillness – Guided Meditation [51:50]
- Atonement & Forgiveness Practice [31:37]
Day 6
- Final Talk & Meditation [49:27]
Day 7
- Transfer of Merit [3:56] (this is short enough that students can include it on day-6 of a home retreat, if desired)

Investment

Sliding scale:

$200 – Subsidized
$250 – Sustaining
$300 – Supporting

Students who are part of a mentoring program receive a $50 discount from above prices (coupon code is found within your mentoring course on a page called “Discounts”).

Scholarships are available to support your participation. Please apply at least 7 days in advance.