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A sesshin (接心, or also 摂心/攝心 literally "touching the heart-mind") Translation for 接心 (sesshin) is a period of intensive meditation (zazen) retreat in a Japanese Zen monastery, or in a Zen monastery or Zen center that belongs to one of the Japanese Zen traditions outside of Japan.
While the daily routine in the monastery requires the to meditate several hours a day, during a sesshin they devote themselves almost exclusively to zazen practice. The numerous 30- to 50-minute-long meditation periods are interleaved with short rest breaks, meals, and sometimes short periods of work (Japanese: 作務 samu) all performed with the same mindfulness; nightly sleep is kept to a minimum, at six hours or fewer. During the sesshin period, the meditation practice is occasionally interrupted by the master giving public talks (teisho) and individual direction in private meetings (which may be called dokusan, daisan, or sanzen) with a Zen Master.
In modern Buddhism practice in Japan and the West, sesshins are often attended by lay students and are typically one, three, five, or seven days in length. Seven-day sesshins are held several times a year at many , especially in commemoration of Gautama Buddha's awakening to full enlightenment ( anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi). At this Rohatsu sesshin, practitioners seek to relax and quiet the mind to the point of cessation of mental chatter and emotional impulse, samadhi, kensho, or satori.
Meals are taken in a formal meditation ritual of ōryōki. Work periods in westernized sesshin are sometimes scheduled and may comprise one to two hours of the day, usually in gardening, cooking, or cleaning. The sesshin schedule typically allows for four to five hours of sleep per night, though practitioners occasionally will spend much of the next-to-last night of a five- or seven-day sesshin in zazen. This is called yaza and is much revered as a particularly effective time to meditate when the thinking mind and ego lack the energy to derail practice.
It has been reported that at least three days of sesshin are usually required for the practitioner to "settle down" into the sesshin routine to a point where the mind becomes quiet enough for the deeper types of meditation and samadhi to begin.
While this may seem daunting at first, people who practice regular zazen do not usually have problems with sesshin. Heightening of senses may arise during sesshin. Sometimes practitioners report that food has incredible flavor and colors become more vivid and pronounced.Definition of the term "pranotthana": "Intensified, uplifted life energy" (Sovatsky, 1998:153), "The perception of energy movement" (Bynum, 1996: 260).
At the end of the sesshin, there is usually a meal when students are allowed to talk to others for the first time since arriving.
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