All Day Sitting with Everyday Zen

A single day of practice at Green Gulch Farm, the San Francisco Zen Center's rural monastery north of the city. The format is straightforward: seated meditation (zazen), a silent meal eaten in the formal oryoki style, a Dharma talk with discussion, and individual meetings (dokusan) with the teachers.

Zoketsu Norman Fischer is a senior Soto Zen teacher and former abbot of SFZC. Soto practice emphasizes shikantaza—simply sitting—as the complete expression of practice, without the koan work or dramatic breakthroughs associated with Rinzai. The all-day format gives you a taste of sesshin structure in a day: you'll experience the rhythm of multiple sitting periods, the quiet of noble silence, and the particular quality of practice in a group.

Green Gulch itself is worth noting. It's a working farm in Marin County with gardens, animals, and land—not a urban meditation hall. The setting shapes the day. Bring layers; Bay Area weather shifts easily.