Throughout the year, we hold a number of sesshin, meditation events that offer full-time opportunities to devote ourselves completely to practice. Our sesshin range from one to eight days, with part-time participation possible if necessary and if space permits. If you would like to sign up, contact the coordinator for the event you are interested in.

If you're brand new to Ring of Bone, be sure to read Taking the Path of Zen by Robert Aitken. Sesshin isn’t appropriate for everyone, and we do our best to ensure that each person who joins us is adequately prepared to make the most of what sesshin offers.

Please review the following information if you are interested in attending sesshin.

Sesshin Sign-Up Procedure

1. Heed the deadlines. Space is limited. Early submissions have priority.

2. Send a check for the full fee, your name, address, phone number, membership category, and e-mail to the coordinator. If you don't use e-mail, send a self-addressed stamped envelope. You can also use Venmo to the username @ROBZ_NC.

3. Let the coordinator know if you have a special medical condition or food allergies pertinent to this sesshin.

4. Let the coordinator know if you are unfamiliar with dokusan or meal procedures.

5. If paying the full sesshin fee poses a problem, talk with the coordinator. A fee reduction may be possible.

6. If you are behind in your membership dues, please send with your deposit/fee.

Sesshin Sign-Up Cautions

Your check will be held for deposit until after sesshin.

Refunds are offered up to two weeks before sesshin starts. In the two week period before sesshin starts, refunds are available if your spot is filled by someone from the waiting list. Once sesshin starts, no refunds will be offered, regardless of your reason for cancellation. This includes illness, smoke, and weather.

Acceptance depends on membership status and the date the coordinator receives your check and is determined at the sign-up deadline. Once accepted, the coordinator will contact you with details about the sesshin or let you know if you are on the waiting list.

Bring a sack supper to the work meeting before sesshin begins. Long sesshin work meetings begin at 5 PM. Weekend sesshin work meetings begin at 7 PM.

Plan to arrive early and stay until cleanup is finished after sesshin. Sangha relations are an important part of our practice. If you come from a long distance, please arrange your flight schedule to allow ample time before and after sesshin. We ask you to arrive no later than 2 PM to help with zendo cleanup and other sesshin setup tasks and to settle in and visit with others.

Post-sesshin is a very important time, especially when it follows a five or seven day sesshin. Plan extra time to unwind and help close down the zendo. Please do not plan to leave before 4 PM at the earliest.

Sesshin Gear Checklist

• Bag Supper

• Bowl Set

• Sleeping Bag

• Flashlight

• Slip-on Shoes

• Towel and Toilet Articles

• Dark, Solid-Colored Sitting Clothes

• Warm Clothes

• Rain Gear

• Mosquito Gear {summer)

• Tent {optional)

5-Day and 7-Day Sesshin

Ring of Bone offers five- and seven-day sesshin, the longest full-time, formal practice opportunities each year. Not to be confused with the less formal trail practice of our Mountains and Rivers Sesshin, these are silent, seated events held at the zendo proper. Using forms adapted from traditional Zen monastic life, we suspend all other matters — family, work, communications, etc. — to immerse ourselves totally in Zen training on our cushions and off.

These sesshin are rigorous and spartan in nature. We rise at 4 AM and retire at 9 PM, with short breaks after meals to attend to assigned tasks, rest, bathe, or exercise. Our meals are taken as a group, seated formally. Participants camp in the zendo meadow, sleep on pads on the zendo floor or decks or may bunk in their vehicles.

Zazenkai

Zazenkai are one-day sittings that also require advance sign-up. The daily schedule is as follows: Densho at 9:00 AM, sutras, zazen, bag lunch with sutras, silent break, zazen. Dharma assembly at 2:00 PM led by a sangha member, meadow kinhin, zazen. The Zazenkai will end at 3:50 PM with a closing ceremony followed by tea and cleanup.

Mountains and Rivers

Mountains and Rivers Sesshin are wilderness sesshin, held each spring and summer. We usually go backpacking, but have also experimented with a river-based form. Destinations vary from year to year and season to season, depending on weather, availability of water, trail conditions, etc. We don’t look for difficult circumstances, but they often find us, so it’s vital to prepare physically and to be equipped for inclement weather. For the backpacking trips, it’s a must to break in new boots beforehand and to minimize the weight of personal gear. Plan on carrying ten pounds of group food and supplies, more or less.

We limit M&R sesshin to fifteen people, so sign up early to make sure you get a place. On the day we gather, participants meet by 3 PM at the zendo (or at an assembly point closer to the trailhead or river put-in spot) to divvy up group food and supplies, eat our sack dinners, do some zazen, and go over the procedures for M&R sesshin. Come earlier than 3 PM for visiting time.

Sometimes we do backpacking M&R in an “easy wandering” mode, which entails fewer days walking under full packs than our standard trips. If you’re only interested in one of these two modes, before signing up check with the coordinator about which sort of outing it will be. If you aren’t certain whether you’re up to it physically, ask what level of fitness the route will demand.

We take planning for these sesshin very seriously, aiming for places wild, relatively untraveled, and within reasonable driving range of the zendo. Usually we do a low desert, canyon, or coastal route in the spring and a high-elevation site in the summer. We make every effort to scout our routes in advance, so if you could assist in the scouting (or have destination ideas), please contact the coordinator.

Rohatsu

The eight-day Rohatsu Sesshin commemorates the awakening of the historical Buddha. At Ring of Bone, we’ve always marked it as a working-person’s sesshin, with weekday zazen from 4:30 to 6:30 AM, and 7 to 9 PM, including dokusan with Nelson Foster. Participants maintain their practice the rest of each weekday in their homes and workplaces. On the last night, we sit until midnight, and the next morning, sesshin closes with a walk to Bald Mountain and a sunrise ceremony there. Bring hats, gloves, warm footwear, rain gear, etc. in case of inclement weather. An informal breakfast and clean-up follow.

During the weekdays, Rohatsu attendance is open to all, with or without signing up. Over the weekend, however, we keep a full-time sesshin schedule, and those who wish to attend must sign up. Weekend-only participants usually leave after Sunday supper but are welcome to depart later (e.g., after Sunday evening or Monday morning zazen). Please work out your plans for this sesshin and specify your arrival and departure times for the weekend portion when you sign up.

We welcome people from out of the area to attend Rohatsu during the weekdays as well as on the weekends. Those who wish to stay for one or more of the weekdays, however, must either spend the time between morning and evening zazen away from the zendo, possibly at the home of a sangha member or join group activities at the zendo (meals, additional zazen, light manual labor, etc.). When signing up from afar, be sure to indicate whether you’re interested in staying for these weekday activities or will be arranging to spend those hours off-site. Just hanging out at the zendo isn’t an option.