Sesshin

I just returned from the LovingKindness Sesshin, led by Chozen.

Sesshin is a 6 Day intensive meditation retreat in the Zen tradition. The schedule usually includes about 8 hours a day of sitting meditation. It is completely silent. No talking, save for a Dharma talk each day by the teacher, and an opportuntiy to receive Sanzen, a brief face-to-face interview with the teacher to talk about what's going on for you on the cushion. Sesshin is powerful transformative technology, and we learned dozens of ways to practice LovingKindness, or Metta which I have come to characterize as "Buddhist power tools".
I have so much to share. I am not sure if I am up to articulating it just yet. I am looking forward to writing about it, but we will see how far I get today on Camp Laura Day. I think I am about to start some laundry and take a nap.

So for now, here is a poem I wrote last month for Hogen. I don't know anything. But right now I am pretty sure that Sesshin practice is crucial.


On the Occasion of My Teacher's 60th Birthday

My teacher has been sitting Zazen

for more years than I have been alive.

(Go to Sesshin)

How does one accumulate this

amount of practice?

(Go to Sesshin)

An entire life eventually

completely oriented to Dharma.
(Go to Sesshin)

Ironically, he spent his first Sesshin

hoping for some catastrophic respite.
(Go to Sesshin)
So I can feel his deep empathy

for my own struggles.

(Go to Sesshin)
He keeps pointing to something
really important.

(Go to Sesshin)

And I think he says it over and over, patiently,
every time, like the first time.

(Go to Sesshin)
I am so grateful, and want to take action

to honor his teachings in some way.
(Go to Sesshin)

He might encourage me to practice

and go to Sesshin.