Other Activities
Sesshins
 Sesshins, or retreats, offer us the opportunity to deepen our meditation practice and strengthen the awareness we carry into our everyday activities by setting aside time away from work, family, and other commitments to simply sit in silent meditation. The schedule consists of zazen, seated meditation; kinhin, walking meditation; work practice; rest periods; lectures; and private meetings with the teacher. We offer one to seven day sesshins (retreats). Most are held at our Center in Oakland, CA but we sometimes offer them at other locations. During our regular sesshins, people who do not live within a 30-minute drive from the Center, sleep at the Center or are housed with our local members.
Multi-Day Sesshins
Sesshin lasting from two to seven days offer a more sustained experience thus deepening our practice. Newcomers are sometimes apprehensive about attending a multi-day sesshin, but if you have done a one day, it is not so different to do a multi-day— just do it one day at a time.
With all our sesshins, we are flexible with the needs of individuals. If you have questions, please call the Center and ask to talk with a sesshin director or call our teacher, Diane, during telephone practice discussion times.
Can’t Sit For The Whole Sesshin?
Sometimes it is impossible to take time off from work and family to attend sesshins full time, so we are opening our sesshins so that people may join and sit with sesshin participants for a few periods. Anyone may join the sitting for the morning block of sitting before breakfast and leave directly after service and/or during the evening sitting block after snack. There is no fee for joining people in sitting in this way. Since people participating in this way will not be considered participants in the sesshin itself, there is no need to sign-up ahead of time. Just enter the zendo and take a place that is not already taken by a sesshin participant. All other sesshin activities will be open to regular sesshin participants. This only applies to multi-day sesshins.
Practicing with Aging Parents Group
Every eight weeks, members who are involved with the care-taking of aging parents or relatives meet to share their experiences in this form of practice. Topics for discussion such as open listening, fear of aging, death, anger, and whatever else emerges out of the group’s experience. The following are some comments by members:
 "At first, I thought everyone's situations were so different that they were hardly relevant to my mother and me. But I quickly began to feel that it was important to simply be having the conversation: elderly people are so marginalized in our culture that even talking about caring for them is quite unusual (in my experience) and rarely discussed in depth. Gradually, as a group, we began to focus less on the practical situation and more on observing ourselves within our relationships with our parents."
"When I was in an intense or difficult interaction with my mother, I noticed I was observing or inquiring into it as if I were going to report back to the group (whether I actually did or not). I began to observe each situation, and my reaction, in great detail, and often had the image that our whole group was right there sharing the moment with me."
"I found that there was a shift that reflected my mother’s sudden (to me) departure from a landscape that has been common to us both for the past 70 years or so. It began one day when for a few moments I realized that she didn’t know who I was or who the “nice looking man” in the photo on her night stand was (my father)….There’s been a small fissure in someone’s universe."
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If you are a member of Bay Zen Center and would like to join us, please call the Center or check this website for the next date and time. At present, we haven’t figured out a way to involve members living at a distance, but we’re working on it.
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