City Refuge Retreat

A compact urban sesshin for people who can't leave town for a week. Three days of traditional Zen practice—zazen (sitting meditation), kinhin (walking meditation), oryoki (formal eating), work practice, and dharma talk—compressed into a weekend format and held in silence.

This is commuter-based, meaning you sit during the day and return home at night. The schedule likely mirrors a residential sesshin's rhythm: early morning starts, multiple zazen periods, work assignments, meals in the meditation hall, afternoon and evening sitting. The difference is you're coming in from your ordinary life each day, which changes the container—less immersion, but also more manageable for someone with work or family commitments, or anyone new to longer sits.

Oryoki meals (eating in formal silence with bowls at your seat) are part of the practice here, not just logistical. If you've never done this, expect to learn the form on the first day—it's part of the retreat, not a barrier to entry.