Sesshin – a silent, residential, Zen meditation retreat involving a 24-hour communal schedule – is an extremely valuable way to deepen your Zen practice. I discuss why I strongly encourage you to participate in sesshin, but also why – if you can’t do so – it isn’t necessary. Then I talk about several of the benefits and Dharma lessons of sesshin. I have many more such benefits and lessons to share, but I’ll have to cover them in a future episode.
Quicklinks to Article Content:
Brief Review of What Sesshin Is
Caveat: Sesshin Is Both Essential and Not Necessary
Temporarily Giving Up Everything
Getting off the Hamster Wheel, or Sesshin As the Ultimate Vacation for Your Brain
I just got back from Rohatsu sesshin, so I figured I’d do an episode celebrating sesshin. I gave a pretty thorough description of sesshin – a silent, residential, Zen meditation retreat – 168 episodes ago, way back in Episode 21. There I talked about what a typical day in sesshin is like, and many of the challenges and rewards you may experience while participating in one.
Sesshin is such a central part of Zen practice, though, that it seems strange to have only devoted a single episode to it so far. In this episode, I want to begin a discussion of why sesshin is so valuable, and why it’s usually the first thing I recommend if someone who is already sitting zazen asks me how to deepen their Zen practice. If you haven’t already listened to Episode 21 (Sesshin: 24-7 Silent Meditation Retreats), I recommend you do so before listening to this one, because I don’t want to repeat too much of what I’ve already said.
Brief Review of What Sesshin Is
However, I will review a few things from Episode 21 just to frame our discussion.
In all Zen lineages – that is, all the “meditation school” lineages descended from Chan, which arose in China – there is a practice of sesshin. These 5-7 day meditation retreats involve a daily, 24-hour communal schedule that includes 6-8 hours or more of zazen broken up by periods of chanting, formal meals, work, and rest. Silence is maintained at all times except when it is absolutely necessary to communicate something. You avoid eye contact and exchanging social niceties with others, even silently. You are surrounded by people but you are on your own, except for occasional one-on-one interactions with a teacher.
As I discussed in episode 21, the sheer quantity of seated meditation can be very challenging physically and mentally. Some people also find the silence and lack of social interaction tough. However, doing sesshin is, in some respects, like running a marathon: It’s not easy, and can be quite exhausting, but in the end it is rewarding to have done it. Zen folks wouldn’t have kept sesshin practice alive for a thousand years if it didn’t have benefits. I discussed a few of these in Episode 21:
- You have to meditate whether you like it or not (and inevitably during sesshin there will be times you really would rather not), and this challenges you to take your meditation to the next level.
- The sheer quantity of zazen over many days means your mind settles down somewhat, no matter how inadequate you think your meditation skills are.
- Facing physical discomfort, boredom, drowsiness and various other challenges without your usual escapes and coping mechanisms builds your endurance and your tolerance for discomfort, building your confidence that you can face things and be okay.
- Without your usual activities and distractions, you are left alone to witness the arising and passing away of your karmic patterns, such as judgement and reactivity, and thereby learn more about your habits of body and mind and how you might become freer from them.
I won’t repeat discussions of the previous list of sesshin benefits in this episode. Instead, I’ll share some additional ones, and hopefully also convey why it is sesshin can be so valuable to your practice.
Caveat: Sesshin Is Both Essential and Not Necessary
Before I get to additional benefits of sesshin practice, however, I want to add an important caveat to this whole discussion: Sesshin is both essential to the path of Zen, and not necessary. This is Zen, after all, you’re not surprised that there’s an apparent paradox here, right?
First, why is sesshin essential? The Japanese term sesshin is made up of the character setsu, or “collecting,” and shin, which means “heart-mind.”[i] In English, we consider the “mind” – our consciousness, perceptions, thoughts, etc. – separate from the “heart” – our emotions, intuitions, aspirations, etc. Sure, we understand that the mind and heart can influence each other, but we generally conceive of these capacities as functionally separate, with different purposes. Shin, on the other hand, refers to all of these capacities taken together as one. This invites us to consider a non-dualistic approach to our experience of being.
When you combine setsu and shin in Japanese, you get “sesshin.” (Note: This should be pronounced se-sheen, not se-shin-rhymes-with-pin, but we use the term so commonly now in English-speaking places that people usually just pronounce it as we would an English word and say se-shin.) So sesshin means “collecting the heart-mind.” What is this? It’s a very beautiful concept, and practice.
Another word commonly used for sesshin is “retreat,” and it does indeed involve temporary retreat from the activities and responsibilities of our usual daily lives. Such retreat gives us space to take stock, return to zero, and get in touch with what is most important in life. Amidst the challenges and distractions of regular life, our heart-mind ends up scattered and divided. We are caught up in activities oriented toward the future, and we dwell on the past. Our responsibilities require us to think about other people, other places, and all the things that might happen. Our daily meditation helps keep us sane, but in the midst of all the things we need – or want – to pay attention to, our heart-mind gets pulled into anticipation or trepidation about the future, or what’s happening elsewhere.
When we retreat to sesshin, we vastly simplify our lives. All unnecessary work and activities are set aside for the duration. For the most part we don’t have any significant decisions to make; choosing how much food to put in your bowl at lunch, or whether to take a shower after dinner, is about as complex as your decisions get. Otherwise, you just follow the schedule (whether you like it or not). You don’t feed your brain any new material through entertainment, news, or conversations.
In the spaciousness, simplicity, and silence, you have a chance to collect your heart-mind such that much more of you is in the here-and-now than tends to be the case at other times in your life. At the same time, this collectedness is not just the ease you might feel on a pleasant vacation, because that is dependent on your conditions being peaceful and relaxing. Such peace and relaxation are great, but they’re likely to fade quickly when you get back to regular life. Sesshin is a set of conditions too, of course, but it’s not designed with your pleasure, relaxation, and comfort in mind! The collectedness we experience in sesshin can happen no matter the state of our heart-mind, or our life. We learn the practice of collecting the heart-mind even if we’re in mental or emotional pain, bored, sick, or we’re facing major challenges in our life outside of sesshin.
I’m going to go into more detail about the various benefits of sesshin in a bit, but in summary I want to say that sesshin is essential for deepening your Zen practice because, for most of us, most of the time, we need the supportive container of a silent retreat in order collect the heart-mind enough to explore new territory in our practice. The truth surrounds us at all times, but it is obscured from our perception because of all the noisy activity in our heart-mind. The Dharma is infinitely deep, so there is always more to explore, open to, and align ourselves with. However, we are very unlikely to perceive subtle, challenging, and sometimes unnerving new Dharma territory when we’re caught up in the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Eventually, after many years of sesshin practice, you become less dependent on the container of retreat for Dharma growth, but only because of what sesshin has taught you.
After saying all of this, how can I then state that sesshin is not necessary in Zen practice? Let me phrase this another way: Sesshin is an extremely valuable practice tool, and you are strongly encouraged to participate in sesshin if you want to go deeply in Zen. However, if you want to go deeply in Zen but are unable to do sesshin – for health reasons, financial reasons, family or work obligations, or a lack of opportunities for sesshin – don’t for a moment let that discourage you in your practice. The Buddha Way is not dependent on any particular practice tool. What we seek to awaken to in sesshin is right before your very eyes, right now. If you learn to collect the heart-mind and grow in the Dharma in the midst of your everyday life, you will have a very strong practice. You might think of this as being a plant that has to grow outside, without the protection and warmth of a greenhouse. Your growth may be a little slower, but your practice will be resilient and able to thrive in the conditions of the real world.
One final note about whether and how to participate in sesshin: Since COVID, many Zen communities now offer the opportunity to participate in their retreats online, even if those retreats have an in-person component. There’s nothing like sitting, physically, in a silent Zendo in the energetic presence of 30 other people, and being unable to escape the schedule and discipline of sesshin, but participating online can be a powerful and rewarding experience too. Online retreat can offer many of the same benefits as in-person sesshin, especially if you can take time off work, refrain from reading the news or watching TV, and/or be in a place of silence and solitude. A significant collecting of your heart-mind can occur even if you need to attend to some work or family responsibilities, or if you need to adapt the schedule or sitting positions for health reasons. A surprising amount of discipline and support can be accessed by participating in a sesshin by Zoom, where your virtual presence is noted by others, and you can take part in the sesshin schedule.
Temporarily Giving Up Everything
Okay, so finally on to a further discussion about the benefits of sesshin. Keep in mind that everyone is different, and therefore you might have a different experience of sesshin than I do! You may not experience everything I describe, or you may experience other things.
The first benefit that comes to my mind is related to the first challenge I face when the time for sesshin is approaching. To go, you have to give up almost everything you love, enjoy, and find comfort in. Sure, only temporarily, but even this degree of renunciation can strike me, before retreat, as unappealing at best and crazy at worst. I love spending time with my husband. I love cuddling with my dog and being in my comfortable home. I enjoy playing music, eating delicious food, working among the native plants in my beautiful yard, watching an intriguing foreign detective series on Netflix, and sipping on a margarita. My calling is serving my Zen Sangha, giving Dharma talks, and writing podcast episodes. I love nothing better than to be absorbed in my projects, such that my so-called “free” time is simply devoted to projects I don’t usually get around to.
Why leave all of this behind to spend a whole week in relative austerity? No husband, dog, friends, music, entertainment of any kind, alcohol, or reading (some retreats allow reading, but not traditional, rather hard-core ones I prefer). The food may or may not be good, and you have to eat whatever you’re given or not eat at all. Sweets and snacks are rarely made available, and then at unpredictable intervals. All personal projects are suspended, and any attempt to work on them in my mind – such as brainstorming topics for podcast episodes in the middle of zazen – are contrary to the whole point of sesshin. Pleasures and coping mechanisms are limited to cups of tea, naps, showers, personal yoga, and walks. You can end up feeling grateful so much time is spent in meditation, because what else are you going to do?
It’s very easy to talk yourself out of going to sesshin when you contemplate leaving behind everything you’ve worked so hard to arrange for yourself in your life, especially when you contemplate the inevitable discomfort you’ll experience (as opposed to leaving home to go on some fantastic vacation). However, just choosing to do sesshin is an opportunity to explore your relationship to everything on which your happiness usually depends. After all, you will eventually lose all of it. Then what? Who are you, and what is the nature of life if it isn’t simply pursuing pleasure and then holding on to it as long as you can? Through the practice of sesshin we can remember a deep, unconditional ease and joy. Then, when we return to our lives, we can embrace what we love with gratitude and appreciation instead of grasping it tightly because we’re dependent on it for happiness and meaning, and because we’re afraid of eventually losing it.
Getting off the Hamster Wheel, or Sesshin As the Ultimate Vacation for Your Brain
The second benefit of sesshin I want to discuss is how it is a vacation for your brain, even if it’s not the most enjoyable vacation physically speaking. Everyone is familiar with the value of taking a break in terms of leisure time or going on a vacation. You set aside your work, and hopefully your worries as well, and absorb yourself in enjoyable activities that relax or nourish you – or, at the very least, provide a temporary distraction from your stress. Leisure, rest, and breaks can be very restorative.
However, most of our leisure or rest time is not that much of a break for our heart-mind. We may disengage from our usually activities and responsibilities and thereby simplify the field of subjects we need to pay attention to. We may absorb ourselves in a leisure activity that displaces our usual stress and mental ruminations. But, generally speaking, our heart-mind stays busy, filling every space with self-referential thinking. This is just what our brain does! Modern psychology has demonstrated that when people’s brains aren’t otherwise occupied by demanding activities or entertainment, we usually use the entirety of our spare mental bandwidth to think a wide variety of self-referential thoughts. We evaluate our circumstances, make plans, fantasize, analyze relationships and past events, try to make sense of things happening in the world, rehearse potential interactions with people that may never happen, and worry – among other things!
There’s nothing inherently wrong with self-referential thinking, also called our “default mode.” Clearly, to some extent, such thinking is adaptive. The problem is that it becomes a compulsion, and we find ourselves unable to stop it even if we want to! At the very least, functioning more or less on autopilot while our brain is in default mode means we’re not noticing or appreciating what’s actually going on around us. At the worst, our brain gets stuck in negative and self-perpetuating loops like catastrophizing, resentment, or self-criticism. These loops can be very painful, and even endanger our health. Whether our default mode thinking is helpful, innocuous, or negative, it’s a lot of endless work for our brain. It’s like our heart-mind is in a constant state of vigilance or agitation, convinced it needs to be busy every waking moment (or even in our dreams) protecting us from threats and looking out for our well-being.
The heart-mind deserves a break sometimes. It can actually be extremely difficult to convince it to rest because its compulsion for self-referential thinking is so deeply rooted! However, every aspect of sesshin is designed to invite your mind to rest. You are constantly reminded to be present in the here-and-now. You are asked not only to literally set aside your work, projects, concerns, worries, and dramas, but to set them aside mentally and emotionally as well. Of course, sometimes mental and emotional issues arise during sesshin, but when they do, they are the work of this moment. They have to do with the current state of your heart-mind. You don’t engage them the way you usually do, outside of sesshin. You just sit with them, be with them, and let things unfold.
Giving the heart-mind a real vacation in sesshin is deeply restorative, but it also teaches us an important Dharma lessons. We may recognize the deep delusion we’re usually laboring under: That the point of life is around the next corner, once this or that happens, or once this or that is achieved or resolved, or once we become such-and-such kind of person. I often feel, as I settle into sesshin, like I am a hamster who has just gotten off one of those exercise wheels. I see how there is nothing wrong with my everyday activities and concerns, but there ends up being a compulsive and deluded quality about my effort – as if I’ve got to keep going and going nonstop because I’m going to get somewhere. In sesshin I remember in a visceral and personal way that there is nowhere to get but here. I don’t want to live my life thinking only of the future. I don’t want to engage with people and things only as means to get to that future.
Another Dharma lesson we learn by giving our heart-mind a real vacation is that our ceaseless self-referential thinking and self-concern is not necessary. Okay, occasionally it’s important to evaluate what’s going on and make plans. But if we honestly calculate how much of our self-referential thinking is useful versus how much of it is pointlessly repetitive and ridiculously speculative, we begin to suspect our brain rather overestimates its own importance and effectiveness. Sesshin can help us explore and better understand the nature of our own heart-mind, and the relationship between our default mode and the way we really want to live. We can discover a way of being which remains grounded in the here-and-now while also being perceptive and responsive. When things come up, our best response arises, no anticipation required. Even if we can’t live in this open and liberated way all the time, we become freer of the compulsion of self-referential thinking because we no longer believe such thinking is a life-or-death matter.
Endnote
[i] Fischer-Schreiber, Ingrid, Franz-Karl Ehrhard and Michael S. Diener (Michael H. Kohn, Translator). A Concise Dictionary of Buddhism and Zen. Boston: Shambala Publications, 2010. (Original copyright 1991.)
