This page tells you about the forms we follow here on Sunday mornings for zazen and dharma talks. The forms themselves are not as important as the opportunity they give us to put aside self-involvement and pay attention to our actions in and around the zendo.

Please ask questions about things you don’t understand so that you feel comfortable practicing here.  Do your best to follow along with what’s happening, but don’t worry about making a mistake.  All practitioners were once beginners too.
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Zazen

  • Enter the zendo at left side of the door, stepping in with your left foot. Bow from the waist with hands in gassho.
  • In shashu, walk along the row of cushions or chairs until you reach an open place. Face your seat and bow in gassho as a greeting to the people on either side of you (whether anyone is there or not). They will also gassho and bow.
  • Turn to the right to face the room, and gassho and bow. If someone is standing across from you, he or she will bow in response.
  • If you will be taking a cross-legged position (full lotus, half lotus or Burmese), sit down on your cushion, then turn around clockwise to face the wall.
  • If you will be taking a kneeling position (seiza), turn clockwise to face your seat, pick up your zafu or bench, kneel down on your zabuton and arrange your zafu or bench under you.
  • If you will be sitting on a chair, move around the left side of the chair and sit down.
  • Three bells will mark the beginning of the zazen period; one will mark the end. After the ending bell, bow in gassho and prepare to get up.
  • Turn to the right until you face the room, and stand up slowly, taking care if legs or feet have gone to sleep. Turn clockwise again and kneel down to quietly plump up your zafu and brush off your zabuton. If you’ve used a chair, place it close to the wall. Bow in gassho to your cushion or chair, then turn to the right in gassho. Wait in gassho until the leader initiates a bow with everyone.
  • The timekeeper will announce a ten-minute break before the dharma talk. You may wait at your place or leave the zendo informally.
A printable version of this information
​is available here.

Dharma talk

  • If you don’t have the opening chant memorized, take a chant book from the table near the zendo door. Keep it on your zabuton, or otherwise avoid putting it on the floor.
  • Stand in front of your place in shashu. The teacher will go to the altar and make an offering, and a bell will begin to sound. Gassho and turn to face the altar. Do three full prostrations with the sangha.
  • After the third bow, gassho and bow to the altar and stand in front of your place again in shashu.
  • The teacher will do a standing bow to his or her seat, turn and bow with the sangtha. Two rings of the handbell is your signal to sit down and open your chant book, if needed.
  • Hold the book upright, with the three middle fingers on the outside and thumb and little finger on the inside. If you’re not using a book, put your hands in gassho.
  • The timekeeper will lead the opening chant, which ends with a seated bow in gassho.
  • After the talk, the timekeeper will lead three recitations of the Four Bodhisattva Vows. Use your chant book as before, or put your hands in gassho.
  • The teacher will get up, do a standing bow to his or her seat, turn and bow with the sangha. Two rings of the handbell are your signal to stand up and face the altar in gassho.
  • Make three prostrations with the teacher as before.
  • A series of four standing bows ends formal practice.  At the first bell, the teacher bows to the Buddha, while the rest of the practitioners just stand in shashu and wait. At the second, s/he bows in shashu to all the practitioners, who also bow in shashu, and s/he goes out. At the third bell, all practitioners gassho and turn to bow to Buddha, then turn back. At the fourth, all bow together in shashu.
  • The timekeeper will make some announcements and then everyone helps with setup for teatime.

A few more things to know

  • It’s helpful to be in your seat at least five minutes before the zazen period begins so that you can arrange yourself.
  • If the zendo door is closed, zazen has begun.  Please wait to enter the zendo until the period has ended and the door opens.
  • Try not to move around or make noise while you are sitting zazen. If you must change your position, make a small bow in gassho to thank your neighbors for their understanding, and then move quietly. There is no need to bow after you’ve finished your adjustment.
  • Check our homepage for information about the upcoming Sunday: who’s speaking, or whether there is something else happening.
  • There is no regular Sunday practice during sesshin, but the sangha is welcome to drop in between 7 am and 11 am to join sesshin participants for zazen. You may sit for one or all of those four periods; please enter and leave the zendo during kinhin.
  • In August there is no dharma talk on Sundays.  Instead, we sit two periods of zazen and there is no teatime.