rohatsu sesshin

buddhist and especially zen practitioners world over commemorate the traditional enlightenment of the buddha on dec 8th (eighth day of the twelfth month to be precise in a lunar calendar) by sitting in intensive retreats (sesshins). went to the minneapolis zen center across from lake calhoun and sat from 30th through 2nd and then returned on the last day. this was a tough retreat both on the body and the mind but there were number of things to make it luminous and numinous- the formal oryoki meals (more on this later), watching lake calhoun across the road in various stages of freezing, watching it snow all day, the wonderful macrobiotic food and just being there and steeping in the silence generated by the retreatants, a paradoxical notion perhaps. also had a wonderful opportunity to practise qi gong during the evenings, exactly what the body needed after long sessions of forty minute sits. leaving it in the middle after 3.5 days was a simultaneous feeling of a sadness and joy. did try and minimize talk and emails (yes, to twice a day) during the three "regular work" days and tried to sit a couple of hours of zazen. it was good practice and an interesting opportunity to glimpse into the nirvana-samsara duality. tough.




lake calhoun recalled that mysterious ocean solaris- its various moods and its influence on the consciousness of the retreatants who were watching it as they sipped tea during breaks. on friday, it was frozen about 15 feet from the shore. it snowed all day saturday but the water melted all falling snow as it accumulated on the ice. late sunday, the entire lake froze.



one of the retreat leaders had encouraged me to attend the sesshin by remarking that there was something special about the rohatsu sesshin and likened the zendo to a warm container, surrounded by cold and snowy silence. it was indeed a unique experience. of course, each sesshin is different and despite sitting and staring for long hours at the same stucco wall or wood paneling, it changes the mind subtly. the practice is indeed subtle and works slowly- like water on rocks, chipping away one atom at a time, one thought at a time, one moment at a time.