Journal
Schedules, preparation, and what actually happens when you sit a real retreat in your own space.
You don't need a monastery or a sesshin calendar. Zazen works in a corner of your apartment. What it needs: something to ring the bell.
June 21, 2026The technique is the same. The schedule is the same. What doesn't travel is everything that made the 10 days survivable. Here's how to bring it home anyway.
June 19, 2026Both traditions are available for home practice. What you're sitting determines the form. Here's what each one actually looks like.
June 19, 2026The teacher at a retreat center doesn't watch you sit. The schedule does. Here's how to bring that structure home.
June 19, 2026How to do a solo home retreat with family in the house. Creating real separation when the people inside are ones you love — not walls but agreements.
June 17, 2026How to do a silent meditation retreat at home. Noble silence works because it removes a decision, not because it's strict. Here's the structure that holds it.
June 14, 2026The most common mistake is choosing too long. A retreat you complete teaches you something an abandoned one doesn't.
June 9, 2026The form travels. Zazen works on a cushion in an apartment. The one thing that doesn't travel: you can't manage the Han and sit beneath it at the same time.
June 2, 2026You know what the 4am gong does before your mind has agreed to anything. That recognition is what you're trying to sit at home.
May 22, 2026Time goes strange. The mind tries to clean the apartment. An orchid you've walked past a hundred times becomes worth looking at.
May 12, 2026The schedule isn't the hard part. The hard part is what happens two hours in, when the mind arrives dressed as responsibility.
May 1, 2026