Sesshin

Sesshin at Sanshin

Sesshin at Sanshin is an opportunity to practice zazen intensively in a refined, shared practice container. We set aside the usual activities – or entertainments – of temple life, like work periods, meetings with teachers, liturgy and dharma talks, and approach the whole sesshin as one seamless period of zazen, inclusive of the basic practical tasks and ritual forms necessary for functioning together without trouble. We practice in complete silence following a 5 am to 8 pm daily schedule that consists simply of twelve 50-minute periods of zazen with one-hour periods for oryoki meals and a bit of personal time.

This sesshin-without-toys style of practice was created by our founder's teacher, Kosho Uchiyama Roshi, and practiced at Antaiji in Kyoto, Japan. We carry on and offer this tradition of our lineage here at Sanshin. We look forward to practicing together!

Note: Registration for the upcoming 3-day September sesshin (Sep 3 - 6) is now closed.

Understanding Sanshin style sesshin

It's not hard to look up the definition of the word sesshin and the meaning of the kanji (接心). 接 means to touch or bring together and 心 is the heart/mind. What we’re bringing together is not just our individual hearts and minds in an attempt to focus and let go of our own distraction. It’s just as important that sesshin brings the community together into a unified whole that moves and acts together in a synchronized way, allowing us to set aside our small-self point of view and deeply realize that we are part of something much larger than ourselves.

During sesshin, we don't do anything as individuals, even as we each remain completely responsible for our own practice.

This is the opportunity we are afforded by sesshin as one continuous period of zazen without drama or distraction. Since we're not required to take action on our thoughts, it's a safe place to simply see what's happening without chasing or avoiding, stay with zazen, and not lose the connection with the self that is only the self. This is not the same as using the mind to stop thinking, which isn't really possible since that's just another thought. Returning to zazen is enough. – Hoko

We encourage you to take some time with the resources we make available about the nuances and opportunities of this style of sesshin HERE.

Deciding to participate in sesshin

practicing in community: Previous experience & what you need to know in body and mind before sesshin

Practitioners sometimes get the wrong idea of what sesshin at Sanshin is about when they see that the day is made up solely of eating, sleeping and sitting. Here are some things it's not:

a way to get better at zazen
an individual pursuit toward a peak experience
an opportunity to learn zendo forms and functioning
an escape from the stress of daily life
an endurance test to show your commitment to practice
an event hosted by some people for some other people

Sesshin is first and foremost an experience of completely selfless and seamless immersion in community. It’s a deeply intimate activity and not a room full of individuals doing their own thing, even though we're each minding our own practice and no one can practice for anyone else. Everyone matters, and everything we do affects others, so it's incumbent on all participants to make sure they understand the nature of sesshin and know how to carry it out.

Thus it’s not enough simply to know how to sit zazen. We must also know how to practice closely and intimately with others for an extended period of time. We have to be familiar enough with basic zendo functioning and everyday forms that we can communicate with and respond to each other without words. Figuratively, sesshin participants are in a circle holding hands and both generating and containing the energy of practice-realization. If someone lets go and wanders away, the integrity of the circle is broken, the energy dissipates, and everyone wobbles a bit.

When you register for sesshin, we assume you already know:

how to properly enter the zendo
how to properly arrive at and depart from your sitting place
how to sit a 50-minute zazen period
when and how to do proper hand positions (gassho, shashu, isshu, hokkaijoin (the mudra during zazen))
how to do kinhin, including properly leaving and re-entering the line
what to do first thing in the morning during doshi rounds
what to do when we ring out the doshi
for Rohatsu sesshin: how to hold a sutra book properly and how to do full prostrations

It's okay if sesshin will be your first time using oryoki for meals, though we do request that you engage with the meal practice recordings available below ahead of time. We go through meal procedures together in person following the welcome meeting.

In general, the welcome meeting at the beginning of sesshin simply covers items that may be particular to sesshin at Sanshin as opposed to other dharma centers (and it's true that some of the forms listed above may differ slightly from place to place), or things that may have changed since the previous sesshin. There is an opportunity for asking brief questions, but it's not a comprehensive introduction to Sanshin, sesshin or Zen practice. (In some years, we devote a 1-day workshop to introducing sesshin).

How do you acquire these everyday forms prior to sesshin? By far the best way is through regular and frequent practice in person with a sangha. This is how we come to embody Buddha's teaching and express the dharma with body and mind. If that's really not possible for you, an alternative (though much less effective) method is to participate regularly and frequently in Sanshin's virtual practice in the months leading up to sesshin. Join us on weekday and Sunday mornings, watch closely and follow along with what we do and how we do it, at the same time making reference to the pages linked from the Manners and Customs page on Sanshin Source. Simply watching us on TV a couple of times or dropping into your local dharma center once or twice will not be enough. Regular and frequent are the key terms here, as in at least a few times a week, or daily if possible.

Fundamentally, we're each responsible for attuning body and mind to the dynamics of communal practice such that we notice when our actions are out of alignment, and simply adjust accordingly. Even with good preparation, mistakes will be made. That's part of the practice, and we don't dwell on fumbles and false starts -- we let go of them and return to what's happening here and now.

Physical and mental health

While everyone is welcome at Sanshin, the reality is that this kind of sesshin is not right for everyone at all times. Attendees should be generally healthy in body and mind in order to have a meaningful sesshin experience. Sanshin's style of sesshin is one of the most intensive available, and while participating in sesshin is not a matter of endurance, it is a matter of resilience. Challenges, both physical and psychological, go with the territory, and participants need to be able to bounce back on their own easily enough to carry on. That resilience comes from maturity of practice, life experience, physical and mental health, and self awareness. We need to understand what's happening when we're feeling resistance to discomfort or potential discomfort, including whatever comes with sitting still, minimal new stimulation, lack of social interactions, and encountering the parts of ourselves that we'd rather avoid. The response to experiencing physical pain or a negative emotion during sesshin cannot be to express an opinion to friends, change the environment, go do something else, or create a distraction by eating, drinking or watching a video. If panic is the result when these options are removed, sesshin is not a good idea for you.

Before making the decision to participate, it's important to ask yourself some questions, and answer yourself honestly.

Will my physical health be adversely affected? Sesshin can be painful for the fittest of human bodies. If you're recovering from surgery or an injury or have back or joint issues, digestive or dietary conditions, problems sleeping, etc. that may be exacerbated by eating, sleeping and sitting during sesshin, consider carefully whether you really want to take this on.
Will my mental health be adversely affected? If you're under the care of a therapist or other mental health professional, discuss whether a sesshin like this is contraindicated for you before you decide to register. If not but you have emotional or mental health concerns, be candid with yourself about whether you're prepared to sit calmly with whatever may arise, and to do so for 14 hours a day, day after day. While practice leaders are here to help with practice questions, we are not therapists who can respond to mental health crises.

If after talking things over with yourself you've realized that now is not the time for sesshin at Sanshin, there are other options available to you for deepening your practice and perhaps continuing to prepare for an eventual sesshin here. Ideas include:

Registering for one day of the sesshin, rather than the full event. If that one day goes well, you can attend more of the next sesshin.
Participating virtually from home.
Attending sesshin with a sangha whose style is less intensive and which may have support resources available.
Working with health care professionals to resolve issues of body and mind before deciding to attend sesshin.

Sanshin is concerned for everyone's wellbeing during sesshin, and relies on participants to make mature decisions about their attendance. While we recognize that unpredictable things happen during sesshin, heading off crises and early departures makes the sesshin go more smoothly for everyone.

Mental health considerations

For the good of everyone, we urge you to consider which activities are most appropriate for you in your current circumstances. This style of sesshin features solitude and lack of interaction, moving us toward letting go of our self-concepts and our stories about who we are. In the zendo, if we're stable and healthy, we can safely take a vacation from "me." If we're experiencing some forms of disorder, that can feel like dissociation or annihilation and can be upsettingly disorienting. The reality is that the intensive style of sesshin we do here is not a good idea for those who have current psychiatric disorders such as psychoses, mood disorders, anxiety disorders and identity disorders. If you are new to practice and have a substance addiction or personality disorder, a sesshin at Sanshin is also likely not the best place for you to start. We recommend that first you discuss your wish to engage in zazen with your therapist or doctor, and once you've established a regular daily zazen practice. you begin by participating in a shorter and less intensive retreat. There are many such retreats offered by dharma centers around the country that are designed to introduce newer practitioners to the schedule, forms and experience of more prolonged zazen practice.

If you are not under the care of a mental health professional but feel drawn to sesshin as an escape from stress, a space for making life decisions, a dose of instant peace or a means of managing challenging emotions, sesshin is likewise not for you. Please seek help to sort out your troubles from people and organizations that are trained to offer the real resources you need. Not only will sesshin not serve your purpose, it may well make things feel worse. We are not mental health professionals, and while we can answer questions about practice, we will not be able to help you navigate psychological disturbances that may arise from intensive zazen.

Many sesshin participants do not live locally or practice regularly with our sangha; thus practice leaders don't always know them well or have familiarity with their situations. Likewise, while participants trust the container and the practice, they may not have any established relationship with our practice leaders. If mental health considerations are a part of your discernment about attending sesshin, you may be well advised to participate in a retreat being held by a sangha with which you can practice regularly in person and led by a teacher with whom you can build a relationship. The teacher can make recommendations about your practice path after getting to know you and can help you choose the best activities for you. The stability of a familiar sangha can be a real support to your practice.

info for travelers

For those traveling to Sanshin from out of town, note that Sanshin can provide neither guest rooms nor transportation to and from the temple each day. You may sleep in the zendo with your own bedding or camp in the yard with your own gear if you wish. See our zendo stay and camping guidelines here. Some may prefer to rent a nearby hotel room or other temporary housing.

Although you are welcome to sign up to participate in a selection of full days, planning to leave early on the last day is strongly discouraged as it can have a significant adverse effect on the sesshin community. It’s important for the group as a whole that participants stay together and finish strong because having the energy and spirit of fellow practitioners is a vital support to everyone’s practice.

If your flight, train or bus departure would require you to leave on the last day before the official close of the sesshin, consider staying for another night, getting some good rest and leaving for home the next day. The sesshin peters out with a whimper when participants trickle quietly away before cleanup and close—not to mention that all of the work assignments fall to the few who remain.

virtual participation

A virtual drop-in option is available during the sesshin. Simply go to our virtual practice page and click on the green button to join for scheduled periods of zazen. No registration or fee payment is required, though gifts of financial support are welcome and appreciated. Please go to this page to make your donation rather than using the registration buttons.

Please note that virtual participation begins with the first zazen period on the opening evening -- the opening welcome meeting listed on the schedule simply covers logistical considerations relevant to those practicing at Sanshinji in-person.

Food practice during sesshin

oryoki meals

During sesshin at Sanshin, we carry out meals in the zendo using oryoki. We sit at low tables and follow the procedures used at Antaiji. This video introduces the steps of the meal (though some details have changed since it was recorded), and this one shows the use and handling of the oryoki set for breakfast. There are various other oryoki-related resources available online, which you can find and study on your own.

After the welcome meeting on the opening afternoon of sesshin, we take some time to (re)orient ourselves to oryoki practice at Sanshin, moving through the steps of formal meals together, with opportunities for discussing details and refinements before the complete silence of sesshin. If you have your own oryoki set you're welcome to bring it, but we have plenty of (lay) sets for use by participants during the sesshin.

how we source food for practice

Relating to the local community and environment through the basic necessity for food has been a given in sanghas across the world through most of Buddhist history. In our modern context of supermarkets, industrial-scale agriculture, and deep and widespread environmental degradation, it takes intention to participate in this long tradition -- and to do our best to avoid some of the harms to living beings inherent throughout much of the global food system in which we're all currently enmeshed.

Engaging as best we can with smaller-scale contemporary food structures like CSA (community supported agriculture), farmers' markets, and backyard and community gardens, we begin to step back into the long and joyful tradition of Buddhist sangha embeddedness in the land and communities that have always sustained life and practice.

Learn more about the dharma context and practicalities of our local food practice endeavors here at Sanshin.

Our temple vegetable garden opening ceremony, at a Bloomington Community Garden plot, May 2025.

Picking up sesshin produce at Stranger's Hill Organics in Bloomington. September, 2023

You can learn more about our approach to nyoho food practice, and its relation to sesshin at Sanshin, here.

3-day September sesshin
Sep 3 - 6, 2026 - Registration closed.

Daily schedule

Please note that virtual participation begins with the first zazen period on the opening evening.

Thursday, Sep 3
3:00 pm - Welcome meeting followed by oryoki meal orientation
5:10 - Opening comments and zazen
6:00 - Dinner & personal time
7:10 - Zazen
8:00 - End of day

Sunday, Sep 6
5:00 am - Participants in seats
5:05 - Doshi enters
5:10 - Zazen
6:00 - Breakfast
6:45 - Temple cleaning/reset
7:30 - Closing chat & break

Participants are encouraged to join our regular public Sunday practice which immediately follows sesshin:

9:10 am - Zazen with the sangha
10:00 - Break
10:10 - Dharma talk by Hoko followed by Q & A
~11:15 - Informal social tea & snacks

Friday & Saturday, Sep 4 & 5
5:00 am - Participants in seats
5:05 - Doshi enters
5:10 - Zazen
6:00 - Kinhin
6:10 - Zazen
7:00 - Breakfast & personal time
8:10 - Zazen
9:00 - Kinhin
9:10 - Zazen
10:00 - Kinhin
10:10 - Zazen
11:00 - Kinhin
11:10 - Zazen
12:00 pm - Lunch & personal time
1:10 - Zazen
2:00 - Kinhin
2:10 - Zazen
3:00 - Kinhin
3:10 - Zazen
4:00 - Kinhin
4:10 - Zazen
5:00 - Kinhin
5:10 - Zazen
6:00 - Dinner & personal time
7:10 - Zazen
8:00 - End of day

Upcoming sesshin opportunities

Registration typically opens a month and a half ahead of each sesshin. Register for bolded dates above.

7-day Rohatsu sesshin (Nov 30 - Dec 8)
3-day Uchiyama Roshi memorial sesshin (Mar 4 - 7, 2027)
5-day June sesshin (June 1 - 6, 2027)