Winter is an opportune time of year for intensive training, and night training can be especially effective for wearing down the ego and breaking through. In commemoration of the day of the Buddha's enlightenment, a student-led Rohatsu zazenkai with US and European schedules will be held on December 5-6 (see draft schedule below):

• U.S. (CST) - Dec 5 3:00 pm - Dec 6 1:00 am

• U.K. (GMT) - Dec 5 21:00 - Dec 6 07:00

• E.U. (CET) - Dec 5 22:00 - Dec 6 08:00

Zazenkai is a good opportunity to boost your training and also helps with preparing for participation in keishin. Students will train separately at home, tethered together through the Zoom video conferencing platform. For the occasion, we suggest having a low light setup (e.g., candlelight) to sit in the stillness of the winter darkness.

To prepare, students should have received basic instruction on how to sit zazen and have been sitting online or on their own for at least a month. Students should be able to sit for 45 minutes at a time without moving and understand the basic principles of hara breathing.

If interested, please register here. Training through Chosei Zen is donation-based and open to all regardless of ability to pay. All donations are very much appreciated and help keep our dojos running! You can donate here.