​Virtual practice activities (see schedule below) are offered via Zoom; all times listed are Eastern time in the US.  Check the time at Sanshin (in Bloomington, IN) relative to the time in your hometown here. You can join any scheduled practice activity using the green button at right.

It's better to bookmark this page than to bookmark the Zoom link itself.  Links may change and there is no way to notify every possible participant.  We assume that you are entering virtual practice through this page so that you are up to date with schedule changes and other developing information. 

context: the practice Rhythm of sanshin's calendar year

Breathing in and breathing out

While practicing at Sanshin, virtually or in-person, during sesshin or any day to day practice activity, it can be helpful to know something about the arc of our yearly practice calendar as a whole. Most of us who come to practice here, regularly or not, are not resident practitioners, and so do not directly participate in the entire range of practice activities throughout the year. Thus, our practice of wholeheartedly folding into a given activity at Sanshin is supported by maintaining some awareness of the particular point in the overall rhythm of the year at which we are stepping into the life of the community.

We can come to know and experience the practice calendar in terms of alternating phases of increasing and decreasing intensity over various periods of time. “Breathing in and breathing out” can be a useful metaphor.

In the broadest sense, it’s no coincidence that our 3-month ango (practice period) during the spring quarter offers opportunities for extended, concentrated participation in all three forms of our practice life: zazen (5-day sesshin), work (precepts retreat), and study (dharma study intensive). The fall quarter, culminating in the practice intensity of Rohatsu sesshin and our simple celebration of Shakyamuni Buddha's awakening, is similarly comprehensive, though less highly scheduled. ​On the other end of the spectrum, during February and August, in the heart of winter and summer, we carry out a simplified, less busy practice schedule (see "Why is there a simplified practice schedule in February & August?" below). Breathing in in the spring and fall, breathing out in the summer and winter.

Knowing zazen itself as our most concentrated form of practice, we also find this alternating rhythm in the year’s overall schedule of sesshin, our most intensive zazen practice container. Currently, Sanshin offers the opportunity to practice “sesshin-without-toys” on a quarterly basis: March, June, September, and December. For a few days four times a year, throughout the seasons, we have a chance to breathe in deeply; at all other times we are, in a sense, breathing out, relaxing the intensity of our daily practice. The longer sesshin (5 days in June and 8 days in December) are carried out in the busier spring and fall quarters.

While sesshin intensifies our regular sitting practice, there are also opportunities to focus in on our regular work practice. Near the beginning of summer, Sanshin holds a 5-day precepts retreat, during which practitioners dive into the precepts through daily discussions and work periods, as touchpoints for working and relating in harmony with others in the various communities of which we are a part. We hold this retreat against the background of our monthly Sunday work days, which can be understood themselves as an intensification of our brief weekday morning soji (temple cleaning) practice. In the spring and fall quarters this year, we are also offering two weekend Sangha Stewardship workshops on carrying out the work of the tenzo (head cook), ino (practice leader), and director within a practice community. Thus, in terms of our work practice, we breathe in during the warmer seasons, carrying out grounds keeping projects in the midst of workshop and retreat opportunities; we breathe out in the winter quarter, generally just taking care of day to day projects inside the temple.

The calendar also holds space for concentrating our regular dharma study. Twice a year, in May and November, we can participate (virtually only, for now) in a 10-day dharma study intensive with Sanshin’s founding teacher, Okumura Roshi. These periods of in-depth study in the heart of spring and fall (breathing in) are carried out against a more spacious background of weekly study offerings throughout the year (breathing out), such as Sunday dharma talks and the Wednesday evening dharma book discussion group.

There are many ways in which we can understand and experience periods of greater intensity or of greater spaciousness in our ongoing practice activities. Of course, whether we are breathing out or breathing in, we can always be practicing; no one season is superior to another, and the counterbalancing relations between them are important to the overall functioning of our practice year. Whether we show up to Sanshin for a Wednesday evening book discussion, a Sunday work day, or the June sesshin, we support our own practice in knowing that our participation arises from within a larger arc -- both in the life of Sanshin’s practice calendar and in the changing rhythms of our bodhisattva lives in the world.

Monthly practice opportunities

Ryaku fusatsu: Monday evenings closest to the 15th of each month at 7 pm (Jan 13th). Our monthly ceremony of renewing our aspiration to follow the precepts. Everyone is welcome, regardless of whether or not you've formally taken precepts. 

Getting Started in Zen Practice: Fourth Tuesdays each month from 7 - 8:30 pm ​(Jan 28th). ​More information & registration here.

Resources

"Nyoho 9-patch": This chart, available for download below, may be useful to you during our year of Tangible Thusness, exploring nyoho teachings & practice throughout 2025.

nyoho_9-patch.pdf
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Chant book (for weekday mornings and Sundays):

sanshin_chant_book.pdf
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​​Shobogenzo Zuimonki (for weekday mornings):

​On weekday mornings we read from Okumura Roshi's published translation of the Shobogenzo Zuimonki. A free (though different) translation is available for download from Sotoshu, here. The correlation between the chapters of the Sotoshu text and Okumura Roshi's text is available below.

zuimonki_concordance.pdf
File Size:	47 kb
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Why is there a simplified practice schedule in February & August?

During February and August at Sanshin, the regular practice schedule becomes quieter, less busy, and more focused on zazen. We let go of chanting services and Shobogenzo Zuimonki readings on weekday mornings, most Sunday dharma talks (which are replaced by one more period of zazen), and all evening practice activities (except for our Getting Started in Zen Practice sessions, to keep open a meaningful access point during this quieter time for folks who are new to the practice or community).

​This seasonal practice rhythm is related to Uchiyama Roshi's sesshin schedule at Antaiji, where a sesshin was held each month except for February and August, marked as the coldest and hottest months of the year. Though we have access to centralized heating and air conditioning in the zendo at Sanshinji and likely at home, we can acknowledge the facts of winter and summer by deeply settling into these two months of quieter, simplified practice activities. We can approach our activities in the zendo with a similarly quiet and focused attitude as maintained during sesshin, with a less intensive schedule -- and we can carry this attitude into our day to day activities and reflections outside of the zendo.

 In the overall rhythm of our practice year, we might think of these two months in terms of deeply 'breathing out,' in contrast to the 'breathing in' of the busier, more highly scheduled 3-month ango (practice period) in the spring and of the activities in the fall quarter leading up to our longest sesshin of the year (Rohatsu), commemorating Shakyamuni Buddha's awakening in December. See a further description of Sanshin's calendar year as a whole, beneath the weekly practice schedule listed below.

Regular weekly practice

Sunday mornings: Zazen (9:10 am ET) & dharma talk ​(10:10 am ET)​​​ ​  ​​​​ ​​​​

• Jan 19: Esho; talk followed by World Peace ceremony
• Jan 26:​ Koun Franz

​​​​Missed a Sunday dharma talk?  Many recordings are available on our YouTube channel.​​ ​

Weekday mornings
6:05 am  Doshi enters
​6:10 am  Zazen
7:00 am  Kinhin
7:10 am  Zazen
8:00 am  Robe chant
8:05 am  Chanting service
8:30 am  Reading from Shobogenzo Zuimonki, announcements, ​soji (cleanup)
​8:45 am  Bow out​

Weekday evening zazen
Wednesdays: 6:30 - 7:00 pm 

​Wednesday evening book discussion (7 - 8 pm): The Structure of the Self in Mahayana Buddhism by Shohaku Okumura

Throughout 2025 we'll undertake an exploration we're calling Tangible Thusness​, a deep investigation of the teachings of nyoho: things done or made according to the dharma. LEARN MORE

​See our Schedules and Calendars page for upcoming sesshin and retreats offering virtual participation.

Gifts of financial support
​are gratefully accepted.  Thank you!