Through the Gateless Gate

This retreat brings together two powerful paths: end-of-life doula wisdom and Zen Buddhism. While each offers a distinct lens, both invite participants to explore the deepest questions of human life: Who are you, really? What does it mean to die? And how can you live, and even die, with a strong sense of meaning?

The end-of-life doula perspective offers a grounded understanding of life from its final vantage point, illuminating what people often wish they had known sooner, done differently, or held more closely. Zen Buddhism, meanwhile, turns attention inward through meditation and direct inquiry into self, mind, and reality, encouraging experience over belief. Together, these traditions create a meaningful way to meet fear, soften attachment, and awaken to one’s true nature.

What is the Gateless Gate?

The Gateless Gate comes from the Zen koan collection known as the Mumonkan, or “barrier with no gate.” Each koan presents a challenge to intellectual understanding, revealing that we cannot pass through by thinking alone. When this is seen clearly, the barrier disappears. On a deeper level, the gateless gate points to the realization that the divisions we imagine between self and other, or life and death, are illusions. There is only this moment, this life, this reality. The retreat explores what “just this” means and how to live it through the combined practices of doula work and Zen meditation.

Over the four days you will:

• Use guided imagery to reflect on impermanence in your life
• Take part in creative practices that reveal the shape of your life and your core values
• Write legacy letters to yourself and to important people in your life
• Honor losses through journaling prompts
• Work in pairs and small groups through experiential exercises focused on meaning
• Practice Zen-style meditation, including koans, to explore the nature of mind and self
• Use ritual to release what no longer serves you
• Take mindful walks in nature and connect with something larger than yourself
• Offer compassionate presence to fellow participants as part of the shared journey
• Have the opportunity to meet privately with the teacher for personal guidance

At the close of the workshop retreat, participants will make personal vows to carry their insights, discoveries, and renewed sense of meaning back into daily life. They will also commit to continuing meditation practice at a level that fits their goals, responsibilities, and lifestyle. Over the following six months, two online evening meetings will provide space to reflect on the vows and meditation practice, as well as any obstacles encountered and ways to move through them.

Schedule:

Monday, August 17

• 3 pm Check In
• 3:35 - 5:45 pm Afternoon Working Session, Exercises, Nature Meditation, Creative Practices
• 6 - 7 pm Dinner
• 7:15 - 7:25 pm Meditation
• 7:25 - 9:15 pm Evening Session, Exercises & Discussion
• 9:15 - 10 pm Opportunity for Private Interviews with Teacher (Dokusan)

Tuesday, August 18 - Thursday, August 20

• 7 - 7:25 am Zazen (Sitting) Meditation
• 7:25 - 7:40 am Kinhin (Walking) Meditation
• 8 - 9 Breakfast
• 9:15 - 10:15 am Morning Teaching Session
• 10:15 am - 12:15 pm Guided Imagery, Small Group Exercises, Creative Practices
• 12:30 - 1:30 pm Lunch
• 1:30 - 3 pm Rest, Journal Time, Personal Practice, Opportunity for Spa Session
• 3 - 3:25 pm Zazen Meditation
• 3:25 - 3:35 pm Kinhin Meditation
• 3:35 - 5:45 pm Afternoon Working Session, Exercises, Nature Meditation, Creative Practices
• 6 - 7 pm Dinner
• 7:15 - 7:25 pm Meditation
• 7:25 - 9:15 pm Evening Session, Exercises & Discussion
• 9:15 - 10 pm Opportunity for Private Interviews with Teacher (Dokusan)

Friday, August 21

• 7 - 7:25 am Zazen (Sitting) Meditation
• 7:25 - 7:40 am Kinhin (Walking) Meditation
• 8 - 9 Breakfast
• 9:15 - 10:15 am Morning Teaching Session
• 10:15 am - 12:15 pm Guided Imagery, Small Group Exercises, Creative Practices
• 12:30 - 1:30 pm Lunch and Checkout

*Please note this schedule is subject to change.

About the Teacher:

Henry Fersko-Weiss

Henry Fersko-Weiss, LCSW, has been a leading voice in the contemporary end-of-life doula movement for more than 20 years. In 2003, he created the first fully developed end-of-life doula program at a hospice in the United States. He has supported hundreds of dying people and their loved ones and brings deep experience, compassion, and insight to this retreat.