Introduction to Zen Training Weekend

This is a traditional introductory sesshin — a structured retreat format used across Zen centers to give newcomers a direct experience of what formal practice looks like. You sit zazen (Zen meditation) in periods, usually 25–40 minutes each, separated by kinhin (walking meditation) and meals taken in silence. Chanting and work practice are woven into the schedule as part of the training.

An introduction weekend typically means a gentler pace than a longer sesshin: fewer sitting periods, more instruction, and time to ask questions. You'll have a dokusan (private meeting with a teacher) to discuss your practice and what brought you to retreat. This relationship — student and teacher meeting one-to-one — is central to Zen training, and this retreat invites you to see what that looks like.

Zen Mountain Monastery sits in the Catskill Mountains upstate, rural enough to feel removed but within reach of the New York area. The setting matters: a mountain monastery offers the kind of quiet and structure that makes sitting easier, especially for your first formal retreat.

By the end of the weekend, you'll have instructions for establishing zazen at home — sitting on your own, which is where most of your practice will happen. This retreat seeds that practice and connects you to the lineage and community of the center.