Before you decide: what you should know
While it is possible to stay in our dormitory for an extended time, Sanshin is not a training temple or a "monastery" with a large residential practice program. There is no live-in community observing a daily round of zazen, liturgy, meals and work; outside of events like sesshin and retreat, guests are frequently alone in the dorm and on campus. Guest residents are expected to attend regular practice that happens early on weekday mornings. on a few evenings during the week and on Sunday mornings; they also register, pay for and attend all events such as sesshin and retreat that may be happening during their stay. In addition to these activities, they must have their own plans for productively spending their time. They are on their own for much of every day since Sanshin personnel are householders with work, school and family responsibilities. While it may be possible to meet with the abbot or vice abbot occasionally about specific questions during one's stay, individual practice direction, mentoring, study guidance, etc. is not available. The abbot is frequently completely unavailable during the months of April and October in addition to times of travel that may happen throughout the year. Guest residents should not expect to practice or study closely with him. Participating at Sanshin as a guest resident does not contribute toward ordination requirements. Day-to-day direction and guidance come from the guest manager, work leader, vice abbot and director of the Dogen Institute, all of whom are rarely or never physically present. The guest manager is away all day and sometimes overnight, neither the work leader nor the vice abbot has an office on campus, and the DI director lives in Pennsylvania. Nonetheless, residents are responsible for getting assignments, authorizations and guidance from the appropriate person as needed, often by email, phone or Skype. Be aware that our dormitory facilities are intended to facilitate guests' concentrated practice, not to serve simply as an inexpensive hospitality venue for people visiting Bloomington. Dormitory accommodations are basic and space is limited. Residents may find themselves sharing a sleeping room with up to three other practitioners and a kitchen, shower room and laundry facilities with up to seven others. Meals are not provided; residents buy their own groceries and prepare their own meals. Thus they need some means of transportation, whether Bloomington Transit or personal vehicle. Know why you're here
With all of the limitations described above, before deciding to come to Sanshin as a guest resident please ask yourself candidly what you expect to gain from the experience. There may be other dharma centers with fully developed residential programs that would better meet your needs. Sanshin is not a place to come for a Zen vacation or to idly pass the time between other commitments. If you're spending the time and financial resources to be here, and if Sanshin is making itself available to you, you must have a purpose and the intention to carry it out. There is a suggested daily schedule above which you can use to determine where you will be putting your time. As part of our intake process you will be asked to describe what you plan to be doing all day. Your plan need not be extremely detailed, and you can certainly be flexible about it once you're here. No one will be monitoring you. The objective is that you've done enough discernment to arrive fully prepared to occupy yourself in a meaningful way, with all of the equipment, resources, information, etc. necessary to carry out your plan. You'll need to be clear about why doing these activities as a guest resident at Sanshin is the best opportunity for you. |
Suggested daily schedule
04:40 am Wakeup 05:10 Zazen 06:00 Kinhin 06:10 Zazen 07:00 Liturgy 07:20 Soji (temple cleaning) 08:00 Breakfast 09:00 Intellectual work: individual study or Dogen Institute projects 12 pm Lunch 1:30 Physical work: buildings and grounds projects or individual exercise/body practice 03:45 Personal time 05:45 Dinner 06:30 Zazen/evening practice 09:00 End of day How to get started
Your first step is to fill out our residential practice application. You must submit the form no later than one week before you plan to arrive Do not make travel plans or send money for your accommodations until you get the go-ahead from us. After we receive your form, we will determine whether accommodations are available for your proposed dates and ask the work leader and/or DI director to contact you to plan for work projects if you've indicated interest. Once things are in place (or if we can't accommodate your request), our administrative assistant will contact you to finalize your plans. You'll need to register separately for any practice events such as sesshin or retreats that will be happening at Sanshin during your stay. Registration and payment for all such events must be completed before you arrive. You may wish to review the dorm guidelines and zendo guidelines before submitting your form to ensure that you're willing and able to comply. It's also helpful to look over the FAQ for additional information and the sesshin/retreat guidelines if you'll be participating in these events while you're here. |
Living in a practice community
Some of the most important eye-openers in residential practice come as a result of simply living in community. This container distills and concentrates our experience of interconnection and interdependence. We realize on a day-to-day basis that our actions, however skillfully and wholesomely intended, have consequences -- sometimes unexpected ones. Unilateral decisionmaking, especially as it relates to procedures and without all of the relevant context, quickly becomes a problem in obvious ways. Communication is vital, as is consideration of the needs of the other practitioners with whom you share space. Even if you're living alone in the dorm at any given time, you are still part of a larger community and what you do affects others.
Then there are the particular circumstances that go with being a religious organization. Procedures, expectations and activities that make perfect sense in other kinds of nonprofits may be inadvisable or unworkable in a temple. Practitioners come to Sanshin specifically to put themselves into a container not of their own making in order to practice with non-discrimination and put aside habitual picking and choosing, so absolute comfort and control might not be possible or even desirable. Learning happens by observation and with the body as well as the mind, and efficiency is not necessarily the goal of all activities. It might be more important to experience the process of observing, learning and carrying out functions that are not familiar and don't come easily. Before attempting to change a system on your own on the assumption that you know better, ask a practice leader why things are the way they are. There's probably a good reason, and it's usually not necessary to build a better mousetrap.
Being familiar with practice forms
If you're not familiar with zendo forms, you'll need to attend a Getting Started session as soon as possible after you arrive. (It may also be helpful to review this page on Sunday forms, as well as this page on sesshin forms if you'll be doing sesshin while you're here.) The number of people participating in morning practice is small, and there may not always be someone for you to watch and follow as the ino and doshi are doing things differently from other practitioners. When there are others present, observe what they do and how they do it, and learn as quickly and thoroughly as you can.
Guest residents, whether ordained or not, may receive a fair amount of direction and correction about forms, approach and context under the assumption that one of the reasons they're undertaking practice here is to receive such guidance. It may happen in front of others so that everyone can learn something, but it is not personal and should be taken as an opportunity rather than as criticism, punishment or humiliation. It means we value your practice and believe you are as capable as anyone else of doing things fully. When you hear someone else receiving correction or instruction, pay attention and try to learn something yourself
Taking on work assignments
As part of your activity plan it's likely that you will choose to take on some work assignments. Work, along with zazen and study, is one of Sanshin's three main activities, and unless your intention is to arrive with one or two significant projects of your own, you will otherwise have trouble filling the days of your stay with meaningful activity.
One option is to indicate on the residential practice form your willingness to work with the Dogen Institute on transcribing, editing, cataloging and other tasks related to preparing online and printed publications. You will need your own laptop to engage in this work; Sanshin has a WiFi connection available. You may choose to do this as the study portion of your day.
If you'd like to take on some work projects related to Sanshin's buildings and grounds you can also say so on the form. There's a place to indicate any particular skills you may have, but you may be asked to take on any kind of work that you can safely perform. This is a good opportunity to put aside discriminative thinking and simply do what's asked. Genuine helping is taking on the work that actually needs to be done rather than accepting only the tasks we want to do.
You may certainly suggest projects to the work leader if you arrive, see a need and have the skills to help. However, please do not undertake these things on your own without getting appropriate authorization. Zendo or dorm reorganization, construction or landscaping projects, building items for the Okumura family, etc. -- all need the blessing of the work leader, who has the final say on priorities, budget and aesthetics. Telling the abbot about your idea is not the equivalent of getting the required authorization, as he will assume you have already talked with the appropriate leader(s). Unauthorized expenditures will not be reimbursed.
Sanshin no longer has a work-study program and work cannot be used to offset event or accommodation fees.
Finally: why you may want to practice as a guest resident
Practitioners have various dreams and ideas about residential practice, and in order to dispel illusions and misperceptions it's important for us to be clear about what they will not find at Sanshin before they commit time and money. However, there are some meaningful things to be experienced by staying here for an extended period.
Some of the most important eye-openers in residential practice come as a result of simply living in community. This container distills and concentrates our experience of interconnection and interdependence. We realize on a day-to-day basis that our actions, however skillfully and wholesomely intended, have consequences -- sometimes unexpected ones. Unilateral decisionmaking, especially as it relates to procedures and without all of the relevant context, quickly becomes a problem in obvious ways. Communication is vital, as is consideration of the needs of the other practitioners with whom you share space. Even if you're living alone in the dorm at any given time, you are still part of a larger community and what you do affects others.
Then there are the particular circumstances that go with being a religious organization. Procedures, expectations and activities that make perfect sense in other kinds of nonprofits may be inadvisable or unworkable in a temple. Practitioners come to Sanshin specifically to put themselves into a container not of their own making in order to practice with non-discrimination and put aside habitual picking and choosing, so absolute comfort and control might not be possible or even desirable. Learning happens by observation and with the body as well as the mind, and efficiency is not necessarily the goal of all activities. It might be more important to experience the process of observing, learning and carrying out functions that are not familiar and don't come easily. Before attempting to change a system on your own on the assumption that you know better, ask a practice leader why things are the way they are. There's probably a good reason, and it's usually not necessary to build a better mousetrap.
Being familiar with practice forms
If you're not familiar with zendo forms, you'll need to attend a Getting Started session as soon as possible after you arrive. (It may also be helpful to review this page on Sunday forms, as well as this page on sesshin forms if you'll be doing sesshin while you're here.) The number of people participating in morning practice is small, and there may not always be someone for you to watch and follow as the ino and doshi are doing things differently from other practitioners. When there are others present, observe what they do and how they do it, and learn as quickly and thoroughly as you can.
Guest residents, whether ordained or not, may receive a fair amount of direction and correction about forms, approach and context under the assumption that one of the reasons they're undertaking practice here is to receive such guidance. It may happen in front of others so that everyone can learn something, but it is not personal and should be taken as an opportunity rather than as criticism, punishment or humiliation. It means we value your practice and believe you are as capable as anyone else of doing things fully. When you hear someone else receiving correction or instruction, pay attention and try to learn something yourself
Taking on work assignments
As part of your activity plan it's likely that you will choose to take on some work assignments. Work, along with zazen and study, is one of Sanshin's three main activities, and unless your intention is to arrive with one or two significant projects of your own, you will otherwise have trouble filling the days of your stay with meaningful activity.
One option is to indicate on the residential practice form your willingness to work with the Dogen Institute on transcribing, editing, cataloging and other tasks related to preparing online and printed publications. You will need your own laptop to engage in this work; Sanshin has a WiFi connection available. You may choose to do this as the study portion of your day.
If you'd like to take on some work projects related to Sanshin's buildings and grounds you can also say so on the form. There's a place to indicate any particular skills you may have, but you may be asked to take on any kind of work that you can safely perform. This is a good opportunity to put aside discriminative thinking and simply do what's asked. Genuine helping is taking on the work that actually needs to be done rather than accepting only the tasks we want to do.
You may certainly suggest projects to the work leader if you arrive, see a need and have the skills to help. However, please do not undertake these things on your own without getting appropriate authorization. Zendo or dorm reorganization, construction or landscaping projects, building items for the Okumura family, etc. -- all need the blessing of the work leader, who has the final say on priorities, budget and aesthetics. Telling the abbot about your idea is not the equivalent of getting the required authorization, as he will assume you have already talked with the appropriate leader(s). Unauthorized expenditures will not be reimbursed.
Sanshin no longer has a work-study program and work cannot be used to offset event or accommodation fees.
Finally: why you may want to practice as a guest resident
Practitioners have various dreams and ideas about residential practice, and in order to dispel illusions and misperceptions it's important for us to be clear about what they will not find at Sanshin before they commit time and money. However, there are some meaningful things to be experienced by staying here for an extended period.
- Consistency: Guest residents maintain a regular practice schedule that includes 11 50-minute periods and 3 30-minute periods of zazen plus five services per week in addition to other events and activities.
- Meet a variety of practitioners: Local practitioners engage in regular weekly practice, while sesshin and retreats attract participants from all over the world.
- Increased focus: Practicing away from home allows for setting aside the responsibilities and distractions of usual daily life. The regular practice schedule plus the activity plan fill the day with opportunities to concentrate on zazen, work and study.
- Learn specifics as well as context: There are opportunities to investigate the larger culture and context behind the forms and implements of our practice as well as to become more familiar with the details and refinements that go beyond a surface understanding. Those who are in residence long enough may be able to train to fill practice positions like jisha or jikido.