Joining the sangha regularly for meditation and services helps to provide context and support for individual practice. Group practice provides a container within which it is easier to focus, since outside distractions are minimized and everyone is sharing silence. It is a powerful experience to spend time with a group of people all cultivating concentration, mindfulness, and silence. Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings are the best-attended events. Services start on time. If you’re new, come 10-15 minutes early for orientation from the Greeter.
Chanting services provide more ways to share body practice—with our voices, which depend on breath and the whole body, and by bowing, to practice humility and devotion with our bodies. Like zazen itself, practicing with group meditation and services is most fruitful when done regularly. As The Precious Mirror Samadhi chant reminds us each Sunday morning, “Just to do this continually is called the host within the host.” Zazen and services are held on Wednesday evenings, Sunday mornings, and in early mornings on Wednesday-Friday and most Saturdays. A midday zazen is offered during Ango.