From May 8th to May 10th, the Laughing Teabowl Zendo in conjunction with the Great Mountain Zen Center (Lafayette, Colorado) will be holding a spring sesshin. Roshi Gerry Wick and Sensei Shinko Perez of the Great Mountain Zen Center will be coordinating this event.
Unfortunately I won't be able to go. The fee of $100 is reasonable but completely outside of my range these days and I would feel guilty about leaving Bevin alone all weekend with Eliza while I was out enlightening myself.
So, I figured that I could at very least explain what a sesshin is and why it is important in Zen practice. A sesshin (接心, 摂心, 攝心), literally means "gathering the mind", and is a period of intensive meditation (zazen) usually within a Zen monastery. However, they can take place anywhere. Daily routine in a Zen monastery or Zen center usually requires monks to spend most of the day in zazen with periodic breaks for kinhin (walking meditation), dharma talks/combats and samu (working meditation) all devoted to in the same manner one would devote themselves to seated meditation. In the traditional sense, a sesshin is meant to mimic the period of time the historical Buddha spent in meditation before his awakening on December 8th (I have no idea where that date comes from, so don't ask).
While monks are used to this routine, most lay-persons do not have the ability or time to practice in such a manner so they are afforded the opportunity during a sesshin (basically, "pretend to be a monk" day) with the added benefit of deepening their own practice.
Basically, you are looking at rising at dawn. Eating a traditional meal for breakfast and then about 6-7 hours of meditation in some form while not talking at all with some punctuated breaks and dokusan (or personal meetings with a Zen Master).
It seems rough and it is for the most part. But that roughness has a point. The sesshin, in typical Rinzai style, is meant to be stressful and strenuous. I know a few monasteries that do not utilize controlled environments at all during their practice. So if it is cold then it is cold, if hot then it is hot, and just hope that it doesn't rain. All in all, it is psychological torture but just a little bit.
Our most defining moments in life are those that require some amount of change. They tend to be painful and stressful because we are afforded little ability to prepare for them. Marriage, births, changing jobs or death are all examples. And from these experiences we grow in some way. These events happen infrequently (in the case of death and job change, we are happy that they do not happen too often) but as our static lives continue we grow complacent. A sesshin provides that small amount of stress to affect some amount of change within ourselves. It hurts to meditate all day and it is hard to not speak (especially when you are in a group of people) and dokusan are NOT easy and should challenge your thought.
In the end, you are affected by a small amount of change and discomfort to deepen your practice and understanding. It is like trail by fire but only with a small flame.
Sesshin can be traumatic and so are usually not recommended for novices and some can last 3, 6 or 9 days. Personally, I only attending one sesshin is college and it lasted a weekend and that was hard enough. Some also attend summer or month long sesshins but I believe these are called something else.
Anyway, this is explaining a typical "Westernized" sesshin. Click here for a description of a typical Rinzai "Traditional" sesshin and be properly warned. You need to read this. It is awesome. The words "Cracker Jack Nuts" was used and that in and of itself makes it awesome to me. However, the fact that the Zen Mountain Retreat (which I am familiar with) didn't TELL the kid what he was in for is absolutely reprehensible. He shouldn't have been allowed to do the sesshin in the first place without some amount of training first (and more than one day sitting). You need to build your stanima up first before attempting anything like that described in the link.
Also, there are fanatics and loonies in every group (religious group or not) and sometimes the people that are willing to do 100 day sesshins may just be that...crazy.
The sesshin offered in the Black Hills is nothing like that and from what I am told is quite enjoyable. It should be stressed that the horror stories in the link above is from a traditional Rinzai zen monastery. The words traditional and Rinzai together will ALWAYS equal stress and pain. That is what they do and it is why it was so popular with the samurai back in the day.
Cheers,
PostScript: I reread this and I was thinking some more on the pain aspect of some sesshins and I thought that it relates to martial arts practice in many ways. Especially in the context of a belt examination or some such test. My yellow belt test was an all day affair from 8-4. Sparring, locks, sweeps, kata, recitation and throws. Intermixed with periods of meditation (my sensei was a practicing Buddhist and any time spent not in the physical aspects of the test was spent in meditation).
I looked at the link to the sesshin experience at Mountain Zen center and much of what he was feeling through out the week; I experienced during my day long belt test. I don't actually think that there is much difference. The idea being that the goal of the ordeal is to bring your practice, whether or meditation or a martial art, to another level of understanding and appreciation. It just takes longer to achieve that in Zen.
I definately had that feeling of "what the hell am I doing here" and "why am I doing this" at my belt test and I still get it when I sit at home or in the zendo. I think that the sesshin does bring the "why" out for you. It just is somewhat painful. Although, you should NEVER feel as if you need to be pushing yourself beyond your limits. I can't do a full lotus anymore so I don't even try and if I knew I was going to be meditating for a week long sesshin, you KNOW I would be doing the easiest posture I could do. I would skip on the chair though. Still too full of pride for that just yet.
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