The Zazenkai practice event is back.

The zazenkai started at 7:30 AM with the setup of the zendo.  Everyone was seated doing zazen (meditation) by 8:25 AM and after two periods of zazen, with kinhin (walking meditation) chanting was done to start the day.  Next a recorded talk given by a lay teacher in the Mountains and Rivers Order was played.  Two more periods of meditation and kinhin was done with a subsequent silent lunch break.  Everyone brought their own lunch.

After the noon break, at 2 PM two more periods of zazen were done with kinhin, with a following liturgy service, one more peroid of zazen, and ending with chanting the Bodhisattva Vows and ending bows.  All together there were in this day of practice seven periods of zazen, six periods of kinhin, a recorded talk by an official teacher in the order, a liturgy service with a break in the middle.  There were 11 people who attended.  

Besides the Tuesday night program which, at most, will have three periods of zazen and our monthly half-day Saturday zazen intensives (which has at most only six periods of zazen), the zazenkai is the most intense practice opportunity yet offered by the Buffalo Zen Dharma Community.  The only prerequisite  for the participant is to have received beginning zazen instructions and instructions on kinhin.   It allows for practitioners to take their spiritual practice to a deeper level which is not possible during shorter practice periods to help them seen into their true nature and reduce suffering for themselves as well as others.​