Sesshin
Three Treasures Sangha holds a 7-day sesshin twice a year at a retreat center near Seattle. The Branching Moon Sesshin is in April and the Walking Rain Sesshin is in November. Teacher Jack Duffy also offers the Ancient Bones Sesshin in July at his country retreat center, Mountain Lamp Community.Shorter in-city retreats are held at the Seattle Practice Center twice a year to balance the year with the longer retreats. Two shorter retreats are also offered by the Zen Center of Spokane.
These retreats are rigorous and quite demanding, consisting of about 10 hours of zazen (sitting meditation) per day, and are silent, except for the teacher's teisho (dharma talk) each day, and for dokusan (practice-related interview with the teacher). If you have no prior sesshin experience, you will probably want to attend one of the shorter retreats first.
See the Schedule of events and Google calendar for more information. These pictures in the Sesshin Photo Gallery and this daily sesshin schedule may give the flavor of our sesshin practice.| Time | Activity |
|---|---|
| 5:00 am | Wakeup |
| 5:30 am | Opening the day/Tea Ceremony |
| 5:45 am | Zazen/Dokusan |
| 8:00 am | Breakfast |
| 8:30 am | Work/Rest |
| 9:30 am | Sutra Service |
| 10:00 am | Zazen |
| 12:00 pm | Lunch |
| 12:30 pm | Work/Rest |
| 2:00 pm | Zazen |
| 2:30 pm | Teisho |
| 3:30 pm | Zazen |
| 4:00 pm | Long Kinhin Outside |
| 4:30 pm | Zazen/Dokusan |
| 6:00 pm | Dinner |
| 6:30 pm | Work/Rest |
| 7:30 pm | Zazen/Dokusan |
| 9:15 pm | Closing the Day |