Radiant BIAPOC Zazenkai

Zen Mountain Monastery's Radiant Zazenkai is a dedicated practice day for Black, Indigenous, Asian, and People of Color students—a deliberate holding of space within formal Zen training. In Soto Zen, zazenkai means "gathering for zazen," a full day of seated practice with the structure and intensity of sesshin condensed into a single session.

The day follows traditional sesshin rhythm: periods of zazen (sitting meditation) alternating with kinhin (walking meditation), communal meals in oryoki (formal eating practice), chanting, and dokusan (private face-to-face teaching with senior monks). This compressed schedule gives you a real taste of what longer residential sesshin demands—not a sampler, but the actual practice shape.

Described as "designed for experienced students," this zazenkai assumes familiarity with basic Zen practice. It's also explicitly positioned as a preparatory step toward sesshin, which means it's usefully calibrated: rigorous enough to challenge your sitting, accessible enough as a single day, and positioned within a community of practitioners navigating similar terrain in American Zen training.