City Center Spring 2026 Practice Period: Nothing Lacking, Continuous Practice, Residential 4/27–5/30

Practice Center
Date / Time
Apr 27, 2026 / 7:15pm - May 30, 2026 / 5:00pm
Event Type
Practice Periods
Description

Nothing Lacking, Continuous Practice
 

Use this page to apply for RESIDENTIAL participation (living at City Center). To visit the Online/Commuter Practice Period page and register, click here.

Invitation to An Inquiry

This five-week practice period invites you into the heart of Zen through the legendary poetic contest between Masters Shenxiu and Huineng of Tang Dynasty China. Their verses frame a living koan that has resonated for centuries: Is awakening something we cultivate through effort, or something already complete?

We will engage this inquiry not as a philosophical debate, but as a lived experience—listening closely to how these teachings show up in our sitting, our relationships, and the ordinary activities of daily life. Through sustained practice, shared reflection, and the living texture of Zen stories and inquiry, we will let this koan illuminate our own experience of the path.

The Guiding Poems

   The body is the bodhi tree
   The mind is like a bright mirror’s stand.
   Time and again, polish it diligently—
   Do not let dust alight.
   — Master Shenxiu (606–706)

   Bodhi is fundamentally without any tree;
   The bright mirror also has no stand.
   Originally, there is not a single thing—
   Where could dust alight?
   — Master Huineng (638–713)

Are these two opposite views, or different expressions of the same truth, spoken from different vantage points?

The Arc of Exploration

The practice period is designed as a deepening arc, moving from foundation to integration. Weekly classes and Dharma talks will offer guidance and support along the way.

Topics include:

  • The historical landscape: the split between the Northern School of gradual cultivation and the Southern School of sudden awakening.
  • Continuous practice: Cultivating moment-to-moment awareness and working with habit energy.
  • Nothing lacking: Practicing from the ground of original completeness.
  • Ordinary mind Is the Way: Integrating realization into everyday life.

The Container of Practice

The practice period includes:

  • Daily sitting practice
  • Weekly classes and Dharma talks
  • Check-ins with practice leaders and small groups
  • A one-day sitting to begin and an 5-day sesshin to conclude the practice period

Practice Period Schedule

Orientation: Monday, 4/27 7:30 pm (part of the first class)
Classes: 4 Mondays (4/27, 5/4, 5/11 and 5/18) 7:30-8:45pm
Dharma talks: Wednesdays 7:30-8:30pm and Saturdays 10:00-11:30am
1-Day Sitting: 5/2
5-Day Sitting: 5/26-5/30

Application Deadline: Sunday, April 7, 2026.

Fee Information

Full Schedule Resident:

The student participates in all aspects of life in the Temple including being on a Temple work crew.

  • Benefactor $1,595
  • Sustaining $1,275

Limited Schedule Resident:

The student participates in the practice schedule and community jobs such as dish shifts and house jobs but is free to do their own work outside of the Temple and is not on a Temple work crew.

  • Benefactor $2,325
  • Sustaining $1,860
Registration Information

Application Deadline: Sunday, April 7, 2026

Practice Period Application

Or call 415-354-0360.

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