The sesshin day
In the training temple (senmon sodo) in Japan, there are two patterns of intensifying and relaxing our practice. One is in the two practice periods (ango) held each summer and winter. These are three-month periods in which we remain in the temple and focus on our practice by carrying out a more intensive schedule. During the spring and fall quarters our schedule is a bit more relaxed and we can enter and leave the temple as necessary. Thus periods of more intensive practice are alternated with periods of more relaxed practice.
The other pattern is in the monthly sesshin. For three, five or seven days each month we shorten our liturgy, put aside work periods and other activities and increase the number of zazen periods on the daily schedule. Taken together, the regular inward intensive focus alternated with the more relaxed approach are like breathing in and out, creating a practice life that is neither too strict nor too loose. This is the regular rhythm of life for a community of practitioners who already live and practice together every day.
In many Western dharma centers, sesshin is a sort of re-creation of the average day in the training temple. It includes liturgy, formal meals, work periods, dharma talks, dokusan and other things. Although this would be an unremarkable day to someone living in a training temple, it becomes a special event for householders who don't usually spend all day at the dharma center engaged in practice. It's an opportunity to participate in many kinds of activities during a short space of time, so rather than reducing the number of daily activities, it can feel like the increased intensity comes from the full and busy schedule.
Sanshin style sesshin is not like this. We do only three things during sesshin: eat, sleep and sit. Since our sesshin is completely silent, there's no liturgy or other chanting, no dharma talks and no dokusan. Uchiyama Roshi calls this style "sesshin without toys." We don't get to play with anticipating a beautiful service, getting the work assignment we want or putting our dharma questions to a teacher. We've got only the cushion, the wall, the bell, and our own hearts and minds, without the distraction of the elements of the life we would be living in the training temple.
The sesshin day at Sanshin
Sesshin may be three, five, or in the case of Rohatsu sesshin in December, seven days long. On the opening day, participants gather for announcements and a review of mealtime procedures. Following some final dharma words from the sesshin leader, we begin our silent practice with several periods of zazen and end the day.
The daily schedule during sesshin is very simple. Maintaining complete silence throughout the day, we begin sitting at 4:10 am and sit two 50-minute periods with a 10-minute period of kinhin in the middle. Servers quickly set up low folding tables in the zendo and bring in the containers of food, and we gather with our bowls for breakfast. There is no chanting; the jikido signals us with the clappers when the doshi is ready for the steps of opening bowls, getting our food, eating and cleaning up. Following the meal, the servers put away the tables, the cleanup person starts work in the kitchen, and everyone else tends to personal business for half an hour or so before the next block of zazen periods begins at 7:10.
Five more periods of zazen alternating with kinhin take us to noon, and it's time for lunch. Once again, at the end of zazen, servers prepare the tables and food and we eat another silent meal. Half an hour of personal time is followed by five more periods of zazen beginning at 1:10 pm, dinner, brief personal time, two more zazen periods, and the end of the day. Participants take out their bedding and sleep in the zendo, or camp on the grounds, or go home for the night and return in the morning.
On the final (Sunday) morning, we practice as usual through breakfast. After that, we break silence and prepare to welcome the rest of the sangha for our usual Sunday zazen period, dharma talk and informal teatime. Following practice and reconnection with the larger sangha, participants make their way home.
It's important to know that the simple and repetitive schedule is intentional in itself, and is not the result of anyone disliking various other activities, finding them meaningless, or not knowing how to carry them out. The second of Sanshin's six points of practice, keeping forms simple so we know what we're doing and why, is relevant here. There are times and places for morning liturgy, for instance, but this sort of sesshin is not one of them. Stripping our activities down to the essentials and keeping forms simple during sesshin allows us to let go of relationships, helping us to return to the self that is only the self. Without distraction, we have the opportunity to see more clearly what's going on in our hearts and minds -- without interacting with whatever is happening there.
The other pattern is in the monthly sesshin. For three, five or seven days each month we shorten our liturgy, put aside work periods and other activities and increase the number of zazen periods on the daily schedule. Taken together, the regular inward intensive focus alternated with the more relaxed approach are like breathing in and out, creating a practice life that is neither too strict nor too loose. This is the regular rhythm of life for a community of practitioners who already live and practice together every day.
In many Western dharma centers, sesshin is a sort of re-creation of the average day in the training temple. It includes liturgy, formal meals, work periods, dharma talks, dokusan and other things. Although this would be an unremarkable day to someone living in a training temple, it becomes a special event for householders who don't usually spend all day at the dharma center engaged in practice. It's an opportunity to participate in many kinds of activities during a short space of time, so rather than reducing the number of daily activities, it can feel like the increased intensity comes from the full and busy schedule.
Sanshin style sesshin is not like this. We do only three things during sesshin: eat, sleep and sit. Since our sesshin is completely silent, there's no liturgy or other chanting, no dharma talks and no dokusan. Uchiyama Roshi calls this style "sesshin without toys." We don't get to play with anticipating a beautiful service, getting the work assignment we want or putting our dharma questions to a teacher. We've got only the cushion, the wall, the bell, and our own hearts and minds, without the distraction of the elements of the life we would be living in the training temple.
The sesshin day at Sanshin
Sesshin may be three, five, or in the case of Rohatsu sesshin in December, seven days long. On the opening day, participants gather for announcements and a review of mealtime procedures. Following some final dharma words from the sesshin leader, we begin our silent practice with several periods of zazen and end the day.
The daily schedule during sesshin is very simple. Maintaining complete silence throughout the day, we begin sitting at 4:10 am and sit two 50-minute periods with a 10-minute period of kinhin in the middle. Servers quickly set up low folding tables in the zendo and bring in the containers of food, and we gather with our bowls for breakfast. There is no chanting; the jikido signals us with the clappers when the doshi is ready for the steps of opening bowls, getting our food, eating and cleaning up. Following the meal, the servers put away the tables, the cleanup person starts work in the kitchen, and everyone else tends to personal business for half an hour or so before the next block of zazen periods begins at 7:10.
Five more periods of zazen alternating with kinhin take us to noon, and it's time for lunch. Once again, at the end of zazen, servers prepare the tables and food and we eat another silent meal. Half an hour of personal time is followed by five more periods of zazen beginning at 1:10 pm, dinner, brief personal time, two more zazen periods, and the end of the day. Participants take out their bedding and sleep in the zendo, or camp on the grounds, or go home for the night and return in the morning.
On the final (Sunday) morning, we practice as usual through breakfast. After that, we break silence and prepare to welcome the rest of the sangha for our usual Sunday zazen period, dharma talk and informal teatime. Following practice and reconnection with the larger sangha, participants make their way home.
It's important to know that the simple and repetitive schedule is intentional in itself, and is not the result of anyone disliking various other activities, finding them meaningless, or not knowing how to carry them out. The second of Sanshin's six points of practice, keeping forms simple so we know what we're doing and why, is relevant here. There are times and places for morning liturgy, for instance, but this sort of sesshin is not one of them. Stripping our activities down to the essentials and keeping forms simple during sesshin allows us to let go of relationships, helping us to return to the self that is only the self. Without distraction, we have the opportunity to see more clearly what's going on in our hearts and minds -- without interacting with whatever is happening there.
