Sanshin Zen Community
  • Home
  • Virtual practice
    • Regular practice
    • February At-Home Retreat
    • March At-Home Retreat
  • New to Sanshin?
  • Frequently asked questions
  • Sanshin style and spirit
  • Manners and customs
  • Sanshin Solo
  • Resources for small groups
  • Visiting Sanshin
    • Directions
    • Accommodations
    • Arriving at Sanshin
    • Residential practice
  • About Sanshin
    • MIssion and vision
    • Practice leadership
    • Board of Directors
    • Lineage
    • Newsletter gallery
  • Guidelines and policies
    • Ethics policy
    • Zendo guidelines
    • Sesshin guidelines
    • Dorm guidelines
    • Zendo stay/camping guidelines
    • Registration/cancellation policies
  • Scholarship funding
  • Dogen Institute
  • Sanshin video
    • Our YouTube channel
    • Shot on location
  • Giving to Sanshin
  • Sanshin Network
  • Deutschsprachige sangha
  • La sangha francophone
  • 日本語
    • パンフレット
    • Sanshin tsushinのブログ
    • 曹洞禅ネット
  • Contact us
1726 S. Olive St., Bloomington, IN 47401

SHIKANTAZA WHILE SHELTERED

4/27/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
​Local practitioner Mark Fraley recently conducted a two-day sit on his own at home.  He writes here about that experience and what he learned.

Thousands of miles away, a bat had a chance encounter with a pangolin and now residents of Indiana are sheltered in their homes.

This pandemic is a tragic reminder of the deep web of interrelations that form our reality and how inseverable our situation is from the causes and conditions that create it. The current crisis invites us to reflect on our Zen practice and consider the ways in which our distancing efforts need not separate ourselves from the suffering that pervades the interconnected world we inhabit. In this spirit, I was
inspired to convert my 150 square foot guest room into a makeshift zendo to prepare for a two-day sit in the style of sesshin practice cultivated by Kosho Uchiyama Roshi.

Following a 6am to 9pm schedule, I participated in twelve 50-minute periods of zazen (with ten minutes of kinhin in between each period) with one-hour breaks for meals. While the practice was solitary, I was not alone. Several acts of kindness conditioned my practice.
  • Hoko and the folks at Sanshin developed a web page where sangha members could share resources for maintaining our Zen practice at home. Hoko shared her experiences with intensive home practice and offered encouragement.
  • My wife supported my shikantaza by preparing meals according to a set schedule. She did this even while she was struggling with the news that an ailing colleague of hers had just contracted the virus at the hospital.
  • My supervisor and work colleagues encouraged my inclination to set aside my responsibilities for a time and commit myself to zazen.

Myriad other actors who I have never met provided invaluable gifts to support my zazen practice.  These include the people who grew and sold the food I ate, supplied the heat that warmed my home, and tended to the water supply that kept me hydrated. These people are essential to our well-being, regardless of the public health situation. Okumura Roshi reminds us that “we must appreciate that we can practice as a result of such interconnectedness” (Realizing Genjokoan).

Anyone inspired to engage in in intensive practice at home may expect some similar experiences as practice in a zendo -- hours facing a wall wading through passing thoughts, desires, and emotions with an acute awareness of boredom and backache. Practicing during pandemic may give rise to feelings of
frustration and sorrow sewn into storehouse consciousness. A solitary practice may not capture the intimacy of a communal sit. But a supportive community can enrich our mutual connections whether we sit solo or with a sangha. In the interdependent fabric of our reality, we never practice alone.

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    See the official public announcement about our response to the pandemic here.

    Virtual practice
    ​Offered via Zoom; all times listed are Eastern time in the US

    When you click the links below for Sanshin activities. you may be asked for a password.  It was provided in the original email you received from Sanshin with the link to this page.

    Getting Started in Home Zen Practice, most Tuesdays 7:30 - 9 pm  More information is here.

    Weekday morning zazen and service (6:10 am)
    Please be in your seat and ready to go by 6:05, in time for the doshi's bows.
    click here to join

    ​Weekday evening zazen with IU campus group (6:30 pm)
    click here to join

    ​
    Wednesday evening zazen and book discussion (6:30 pm)
    click here to join

    Ryaku Fusatsu: February 15, 7:30 pm:  click here to join

    Sunday morning zazen and dharma talk: (9:10 am)
    click here to join​
    • ​January 31: Gate 54: Mind as an abode of mindfulness
    • ​February 7: Okumura Roshi: Opening the Hand of Thought
    • February 14:  Gate 55: The dharma as an abode of mindfulness; Nirvana Day service 
    • February 21: Doju Layton on Buddhism and Politics II; World Peace ceremony
    Missed a Sunday dharma talk?  Many recordings are available on our YouTube channel.

    Download Sanshin's chant book for morning services (but please chant with mic muted)
    sanshin_chant_book.pdf
    File Size: 204 kb
    File Type: pdf
    Download File


    Download chant sheet for the Enmei Jukku Kannongyo
    enmei_jukku_kannongyo_english.pdf
    File Size: 92 kb
    File Type: pdf
    Download File


    Archives

    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020

    RSS Feed

All contents ©2021 Sanshin Zen Community