nico will be co-leading a New Year’s seminar at Crestone Mountain Zen Center in Colorado with Seishin Laurie Nusbaum Sensei.

Sangha is profoundly imperfect. It’s full of difficult people, misunderstandings, disappointments, conflicting needs, and all the ordinary messiness of human relationships. And yet, perhaps this is precisely why sangha is the perfect life. This seminar explores that paradox: sangha as both an imperfect human community and a profound expression of the path. What if this messy, demanding, inescapably relational life is not an obstacle to awakening, or even a preparation for it, but awakening itself?

Over five days in the rhythm of monastic practice, we’ll share zazen, walking meditation, work period, dharma talks, and discussion. On New Year’s Eve, we’ll enjoy a festive dinner and a dance party, then sit through the last hours of the year and ring the densho 108 times until midnight.

Experienced practitioners and those new to retreat are both welcome. If you haven’t practiced at CMZC before, the center asks for a brief conversation first: guestmanager@dharmasangha.org.

Learn more and register at Crestone Mountain Zen Center’s website.

In Person Retreat