half-day sesshin

I was a few minutes late this morning for the half-day sesshin starting at 7 a.m. I experienced more clock weirdness, so I had to choose between a bowl of matcha or punctuality.

So I made my matcha, and arrived at the dojo during what sounded like the incense ceremony (meaning I was just barely late). So I sat in seiza on the porch outside the dojo so as not to interrupt the first zazen period.

Note: Sitting in seiza on bare wood is a noticeably different experience from sitting on a relatively comfy zabuton.

What must've been about half an hour later, someone opened the door and I entered to join in kinhin. For the next several hours we practiced zazen, kinhin, samu, just a little liturgical ceremony, and mondo (question/answer). Zazen was the main practice, and samu was for a few hours following a (simplified oryoki) breakfast of genmai and tea (not to be confused with the tea genmai cha, which I also happen to enjoy).

Noble Silence was broken for a tasty lunch and plenty of conversation ranging from the serious to the outright zany.

I am quite impressed with the newcomers to zen who stuck it out through several hours of what must have been very challenging effort. When I started doing this a little over a decade back, I weaned myself onto it gently enough for the most part, with sitting sessions ranging from ten minutes to an hour. These were some real troopers!

I intend to participate with this sangha regularly.

I feel that this group and tradition are both well-suited to me in a variety of ways. I believe this will prove the case over time and will support my home practice considerably.