Sitting With Us

Anyone is welcome to sit with us, however if you have no prior meditation experience we strongly recommend that you contact us prior to your visit to arrange a short orientation session with one of our more experienced practitioners.

If you do have prior meditation experience, but have never sat with a Zen group before, you will probably still find an orientation session useful. This is because shared ritual and form is an important part of our practice. We ask that you follow the form as best you are able when you sit with us – but please don’t feel anxious about making mistakes!

The Basics

Here are some basics to get you started.

  • When we sit togther, we wear plain, dark colours to minimise distraction.
  • Silence is a key part of our practice. If you need to talk while others are sitting, please keep your voice low.
  • You don’t have to sit on a meditation cushion – stools and chairs are also available – however we commonly sit with our hands in the zazen mudra: it is held with the back of the right hand on the lap, the back of the left hand on the right palm, and both thumbs lightly touching to form a circle.
  • Our sitting periods are timed by a time keeper using bells and wooden clappers. We all sit at the same time, and we all do kinhin (walking meditation) together. Our sitting cycle is 25 minutes sitting, 5 minutes kinhin, 25 minutes sitting, 5 minutes kinhin, etc.
  • If you want to sit through kinhin, that’s OK; however if you do so, please wait until the next kinhin period to stand, or to leave the dojo.
  • If you need to enter or leave the dojo during group zazen, please do so during kinhin.
  • The first round of zazen at our weekly sits begins with a short period of chanting.
  • Our ritual also includes some bowing practice.

Further information

To learn more about ritual and form, please see our page on Zen Practice, and/or download a more detailed set of Orientation Notes.

For information about our sitting times, please see When and Where and the calendar for an overview of events in the coming year.