One Continuous Thread: Home Practice Intensive

This is an experiment in bringing sesshin home — the intensive residential retreat format adapted for people who can't step away from work or family for a week. You sit in your own space, on your own schedule, but tethered to a live webcast of the formal sesshin happening at Zen Mountain Monastery. The idea is structure without containment: you get the shape of practice (set sitting times, access to teaching, the thread of a week-long arc) while keeping your ordinary life intact.

Soto Zen sesshin traditionally runs on a tight schedule — early morning sitting, walking meditation (kinhin), work period, meals in silence, private meetings with a teacher (dokusan), rest. Here, you receive the webcast of that schedule and adapt it to your home. You might sit with the broadcast, or use the timing to frame your own sitting blocks. The live connection means you're not isolated; questions and teaching are happening in real time somewhere else, and you're part of that container even if you're in your living room.

At $10, this is accessible entry to ZMM's teaching. The catch: you're relying on self-direction. No bells, no schedule enforced by walls, no communal dining or work assignments. This works best for people who already have a sitting practice and want to deepen it, or who have tried sesshin before and want to do it again but can't travel. If you're new to sitting, a residential sesshin — where the environment holds you — is usually clearer.