Fall Practice Period at Green Gulch Farm

San Francisco Zen Center lists this as a nine-week fall practice period at Green Gulch Farm, running October 14 through December 15, 2026. A practice period — ango in Japanese — is a sustained residential commitment rather than a weekend retreat: participants join the community's daily life for the full length of the period. Here that includes daily zazen (seated meditation), work practice (hands-on work treated as part of training), study, lectures, classes, ceremonies, and meetings with the teacher.

The period includes multiple sesshin — multi-day intensives of concentrated meditation — among them a seven-day Rohatsu sesshin. Rohatsu is the traditional early-December intensive marking the Buddha's awakening, typically the most demanding sit of the Zen training year. Meals include oryoki, the formal Zen meal practice in which food is served and eaten from a set of nested bowls. The center's own description calls the period 'intense.'

The listing explicitly welcomes both beginning and experienced students. For a commitment of this length, that's worth noting: nine weeks of residential practice is open to people who have never done an extended sit, not only to seasoned students. The practical constraint is more likely to be two months of available time than prior experience.

Practical details

Several specifics haven't been published on the page we reviewed:

• Dates: October 14 – December 15, 2026, residential format.
• Listed price: $1,208, with no breakdown of what the fee covers — confirm with the center before registering.
• No lead teacher is named for this period yet.
• No daily schedule (wake-up time, number of sitting periods, class times) is listed.
• The registration link's address includes the word 'waitlist,' which may mean sign-ups are currently waitlisted — check with the center.