5-Day ZEN Silent Course—Carnival Retreat: "The Fool Within Us"

You will be staying at the youth hostel in Mondsee, in a simple single room.
The cost is approximately 200 euros for the entire stay, and the hostel is within walking distance of the ZEN room.
We’d also be happy to reserve more upscale accommodations for you if you’d like. Double rooms can only be occupied by couples or people who know each other personally.

Meals are an integral part of mindfulness and are served in the ZENraum.
Breakfast consists of fresh grain porridge.
Lunch is consistently vegetarian to vegan, and for dinner, a wholesome Ayurvedic soup is served.
We’re happy to accommodate individual dietary requests. Please let us know before the course begins.

Sample Daily Schedule

7:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. Morning meditation (active)
8:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Breakfast
9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Structured Zen meditation with short breaks
1:00 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. Lunch
2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Break and individual one-on-one sessions
4:15 PM to 4:30 PM Tea ceremony
4:30 PM to 7:00 PM MBSR meditation session with short breaks
7:00 PM to 7:30 PM Evening vespers
7:30 PM to 8:15 PM Walking meditation
8:15 PM to 9:00 PM Evening meditation (Metta, Tonglen, Nadabrahma, heart meditation)
9:15 PM BEDTIME

Key Components
the sitting meditations of the Vipassana tradition
Exercises to cultivate self-compassion
the body scan
walking meditation
active meditations
METTA meditation
The individual practice sessions (sitting, lying down, and mindful yoga exercises) rarely last longer than 45 minutes.
The morning active meditations last 60 minutes, alternating between movement, breathing, and stillness.

Seminar Leaders:
We are Marion and Bernhard Hötzel, and we each have 45 years of meditation experience, 20 of which we have spent working as meditation teachers.
We teach at our own institute, as well as serving as guest instructors at other institutes and as lecturers on NEURO-Meditation at the TH-Campus Vienna. We have received traditional training in Asia, the U.S., and Europe, and are very familiar with humanistic psychology and the realities of our modern world.

You can travel to Salzburg by car, train, or plane.
If you’re driving, take the route via Munich or Passau, Salzburg, Vienna, or Linz, and take the Mondsee exit.

If you’re traveling by train, arrive at Salzburg Central Station and take the Postbus No. 140 to the Mondsee bus station. From there, you can walk to your accommodations.
From the airport, take City Bus No. 2 to the central station.