Residential practice at Sanshin is designed to offer an intensive investigation of interconnectedness as it manifests in community.  One of the most important elements of that investigation is a deep understanding of non-reliance.  What are we relying on to drive our practice, and what are we relying on our practice for?  As part of your discernment, please become thoroughly familiar with the information on this website about Sanshin's style of practice, beginning with the elements on our homepage.  We will shortly have a booklet available for free download that provides an in-depth look at our style of practice.

Residents follow a full daily schedule of zazen, work, and study and fully participate in all sesshin or other practice events.  The intensity of the practice coupled with the emphasis on non-reliance means that residency requires a significant degree of personal and practice maturity.  Residents are expected to be able to take on a certain amount of leadership in the community and to embody a commitment to the Sanshin style of practice as an example to others.  However, while residents frequently practice with experienced lay and ordained practitioners, there is no set system of ongoing mentorship, training or direction, such as regular interviews with teachers or assigned topics for personal study.  Since Sanshin is not a "monastery" or a training temple, practicing in residence here is not aimed toward receiving credentials.  Residents simply live and practice together following the daily and weekly schedule.  Residency provides a concentrated space and time of studying and practicing one’s own bodhisattva life, in close daily connection with others engaging this same exploration through each day’s activities.  The expectation is that following a term of residence, practitioners return to their bodhisattva work in the world.

The first thirty days of one’s term are considered an aspirant period, following which residents will meet with one or more practice leaders to check in and mutually evaluate continuation as a full resident.  A maximum of three practitioners may be in full residence at any given time; additional temporary residents may be participating for up to 30 days at a time.  Full residency is for a term of six months, and practitioners may be able to renew for an additional term depending on demand.  Residency is designed to provide activities in all three areas of our practice: zazen, work and study.  In ten months of the year there is either a sesshin or a study retreat and in most months there is a work day; these events are in addition to the activities of the regular daily schedule.

Qualifications

Previous experience
At least one of the following must apply:
• Received precepts (lay or novice)
• 5 years of regular and consistent practice with a sangha
• Significant residential practice somewhere

Application components
• Online application form
• Resume
• Teacher’s recommendation

Typical daily schedule for residential practice

Weekdays 5:10 am Zazen
6:00 am Kinhin
6:10 am  Zazen
7:00 am  Robe chant
7:05 am  Service
7:30 am  Reading from Shobogenzo Zuimonki, announcements, soji 
​7:45 am  Bow out
8:00 am Breakfast
9:00 am Shared text study or Dogen Institute work (group discussion Fridays)
10:10 am Work period
12:00 pm Lunch
1:00 pm Work period (dormitory cleaning Fridays 2:30 – 3:30)
3:30 pm Personal time
5:30 pm Dinner
6:30 pm Zazen/evening practice

• Sangha book discussion group Wednesdays 7:00 – 8:00
• ​Ryaku Fusatsu one Monday each month 7:00 – 8:00

7:30 pm Open zazen/dorm quiet time
9:00 pm End of day

Saturday: Day off

​Sundays
9:10 am Zazen
10:10 am Dharma talk
~11:30 am Teatime
Open afternoon/evening ​

Applying for residency

Applications are accepted and reviewed at any time, but new residents enter at four particular times during the year for terms of six months.  Terms begin in January, April, July and October.  The terms available at any give time are are listed within the application form.

​Once your application materials are received and reviewed and we've determined that you're a viable candidate for residency, we'll schedule a Zoom conversation with one or more of our practice leaders to answer our questions and yours.  You'll be notified of the outcome as soon after that as possible.

When applying, please plan ahead and set a reasonable timeline for yourself.  We don't respond overnight and both you and we need to make a plan for your arrival and term. We need to know that you've thought this through carefully, understand the nature of residential practice at Sanshin, are fully prepared and intending to participate, and that your application is not a sudden impulse or a flight reaction to difficult conditions at home. We also need to know that you have somewhere to go after your term is up and that you will indeed be moving on from Sanshin at that time, so you must have a concrete plan beyond your stay here.

Some things to know before making any final decisions about whether or not to apply for residency

​Physical and mental health are critical.

• Residents are expected to fully participate in the practice schedule.  The only exceptions are sickness or injury; otherwise, the default is that everyone shows up for everything. The schedule is not a menu of activities from which we pick and choose. 
• The daily work period involves a couple of hours of physical labor, usually related to groundskeeping. No one is asked to go beyond what their bodies can do, but practitioners need to be able to contribute meaningfully to these efforts. 
• This practice can be intensive. While practice leaders are certainly here to help and answer practice questions, we are not therapists or counselors. Your mental and emotional health must be stable before you arrive.  We are not trained to provide health care or to help in a crisis.
• Our practitioners are lovely people and we're all grownups here, but in a human community there is no escaping the occasional disagreement or difference of opinion.  Practitioners need to have the maturity to manage conflict gracefully and not be knocked over.
• Residents are expected to be fully vaccinated and may be asked to test for COVID as circumstances arise.
• Meals are vegetarian.  Food allergies and medically necessary dietary needs can be accommodated within reason.

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There are costs to being here.

• The monthly fee for staying in a room in the residential facility is $475.  It does not cover food (outside of practice events) or personal expenses.  Residents take turns cooking meals and all contribute to grocery costs.  
• As a resident, you will not be charged additional fees for practice events that happen at Sanshin during your residency.
• Laundry facilities are available at Sanshin on a dana basis.
• Sanshin Zen Community aspires to accommodate all those accepted for residential practice regardless of their ability to pay.  If you are unable to pay the full cost of your term, please contact the Sanshin program assistant to inquire about fee reductions or waivers.  If you are interested in such financial aid, please make your application for residency at least three months before your proposed term begins in order to allow time for necessary approval processes.
• It may be possible to secure limited paid work outside of the temple in support of your practice here.  Previous residents have done online tutoring and local farm work for a few hours a week.  It's vitally important that such work doesn't substantially affect your ability to participate in daily communal practice, and Sanshin does not make work arrangements for you.

Other things to know:

• The point of communal practice is to give up one's preferences and go along with what's being done. That means eating what's served, doing the tasks assigned, behaving appropriately and folding in seamlessly. Attachment to our ideas about what practice "should" be or what experience we "should" be having get in the way of investigating what community is. 
• You will not be spending significant time with Okumura Roshi.  He's rarely in the zendo these days and spends most of his time in his quarters or in his office working on writing and translation. It is possible to set up a meeting with him, however.
• ​Dormitory rooms contain a bed, a desk, a chest of drawers, and a small closet with limited storage capacity.  Residents share bathroom and kitchen facilities.
• If you have a car, you can park it at Sanshin.
• Laypeople typically don't wear practice robes here, though if you have them and wish to wear them, you may.  Rakusu or wagesa (if you have one) and modest street clothes are the usual lay attire.  Ordained sangha are welcome to wear their robes.  For more information on clothing, please see our FAQ: What should I wear at Sanshin?.
• Saturdays are days off, and you are free to come and go and to use the day in any way you see fit unless we're in sesshin/retreat or there is a special event or ceremony that day. If we're busy on Saturday, we designate some other day as the day off for that week.  Sunday afternoons and evenings following the public dharma talk and tea are also unscheduled, unless it 's a sangha work day or a special event is happening.
• For everyone's wellbeing, we reserve the right to ask residents to leave before their terms are up in the event of inappropriate behavior, irreconcilable differences, violations of the ethics policy or other issues.
• See our FAQ for other important things to know.

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Please also send your resume and teacher's recommendation to us; these will make up part of your application.

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