Introductory Four-Day Sesshin

This four-day sesshin is San Francisco Zen Center's entry point to residential practice. Green Gulch Farm, the center's monastery in Marin County, sits in open farmland north of the city—a deliberate remove from urban noise. The retreat is explicitly designed to make intensive practice accessible: it's shorter than a full seven-day sesshin, explicitly welcomes people new to this format, and also serves practitioners returning to refine their foundational work.

A traditional sesshin schedule means early mornings (usually 5:00 or 5:30 a.m. wake), multiple zazen (sitting meditation) periods throughout the day, walking meditation (kinhin) between sits, communal meals, and periods of work practice. Formal chanting and bowing are part of the daily rhythm. The schedule is structured and silent—meals, movement, everything happens with attention and without conversation. If this is your first sesshin, the rhythm takes adjustment; by day two or three, the pattern clarifies.

Soto Zen practice emphasizes just-sitting (shikantaza)—zazen without a specific object of focus—as the central practice. There are no koans or private meetings with a teacher (dokusan) in this format. The teaching comes through the schedule itself, through silence, and through sitting with others in the same commitment.

Residential means you stay on site in simple accommodations. Meals are included and often feature produce from Green Gulch's gardens. Bring warm layers (even May mornings are cool in Marin) and anything you need for personal hygiene; the center provides cushions, robes, and basic bedding.