As you read this, I am on the first day of a seven-day Zen Buddhist Rohatsu Sesshin at the San Francisco Zen Center. Sesshins are daunting challenges, painful or beautiful depending on your state of mind.
Forty other Zen students and I will not speak, use our smartphones, read, watch TV, listen to music, eat meat, drink wine, text, email, or enjoy exciting conversations for the next seven days.
“And you do this voluntarily?” you might ask.
Yes. I have done a number of these Rohatsu Sesshins — I’d say about twelve. They are all challenging; they are all different, and each one is a Rorschach test on the state of my mind at the time. I sometimes call these sessions retreats, as most people are unfamiliar with the term sesshin. But a sesshin is not a retreat from life.