Bringing together three dharma friends, and one shared commitment to practice, this 6-night retreat to Stowel Lake Farm is a return to nature, depth, self-study, and deep listening.
On this co-led retreat with Melissa Seikai Berry Appleton, Elena Ansui Brower, and Matthew Kozan Palevsky, expect to be immersed in practices of zazen, samu (one hour of fresh air farm work), yoga asana, as well as time to tend to yourself, lay on the ground, walk, and sit near a body of water.
Our studies center around Buddhist Teachings and are still percolating between Melissa, Matthew and Elena. We will announce our focus very soon. The body of work we choose will be with good intent and applies to every moment of our lives, the simplicity and majesty of life as a lay practitioner, cultivating awareness, letting go of the need for attainment, while resting in just this body, and the practice of silent illumination. Retreat form will offer insights into our habitual conditioned viewpoints, cultivating an empty field, and realign our inherent luminous true nature. All of this, solid ground for everyday simple living.
Melissa Seikai Berry Appleton, MC, RCC, Chaplain
Mother, teacher, chaplain and psychotherapist. Lay ordained by Roshi Joan Halifax, serving the University of British Columbia and Stillwater Zen Community. Melissa supports healthcare workers, and the multi-faceted nature of moral injury as a compass towards compassion, rebuilding systems of trust and collective resilience. For decades Melissa has taught meditation, yoga, somatic movement, embodiment, ethical engagement and compassionate frameworks.
Melissa provides care from a holistic approach, recognizing innate goodness as a resource to meet suffering, joy, meaning and purpose. She works with people 1:1 and specializes in peer support group process and psycho-education. Warm hand to warm hand, direct in person care and connection lays the groundwork for support and restoration.
Elena Ansui Brower
Mother, artist, and author, Elena has spent nearly three decades shaping the practice of modern yoga and meditation. Author of five books including her latest, Hold Nothing (Shambhala Publications, 2025), and the widely translated Art of Attention (2012), she's taught online yoga on Glo since 2008, and hosts the podcast Practice You, now in its eighth season. Elena completed Upaya's Chaplaincy Training Program in early 2026; as a Soto Zen student, she received jukai (lay Zen vows) with Monshin Nannette Overley in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki, and serves in hospice and penitentiary settings. She's the founder of the Hold Nothing Foundation [501(c)3] supporting organizations serving girls and women globally.
Matthew Kozan Palevsky
An ordained Zen Buddhist priest, Matthew is also a lifelong activist and political organizer. He devoted himself to social justice organizing for many years in New York City, advocating primarily for workers’ rights and criminal justice reform, before taking the backward step into contemplative practice. He spent the following decade living and practicing at Upaya Zen Center, a Soto Zen residential community in New Mexico, where he ordained, served as the resident teacher, and co-founded Upaya’s Socially Engaged Buddhism Training. He currently teaches Zen philosophy at Naropa University and is co-developing Jubilee College, an experiment in returning higher education to its monastic roots.