Clouds and Water Zen currently meditates together on Saturdays from 8am to 10am PT. Other meditation times are also available on request - please reach out to Raka to schedule another time.

During our Saturday morning sit, we begin at 8:15am with 40 minutes of sitting meditation, announced by the sounding of the kesu bell three times. The end of zazen is announced by one bell, at which point we bow to one another. 

We conclude our meditation with the chanting of a sutra or sacred text. The chants are available here.

• Maka Hannya Haramita Shin Gyo (The Heart Sutra)

• Enmei Jukku Kannon Gyo (Ten Line Sutra of Avalokiteshvara's Boundless Life)

• Song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi

• The Identity of Relative and Absolute

• Daihishin Dharani (Great Compassionate Heart Dharani)

After the chanting, we engage in a council practice.

Need meditation instruction or more information? Let us know!

Soto Zen founder Eihei Dogen explained how to do zazen simply: "Think not thinking. How? Non-thinking." In his classic text, the Fukanzazengi (Principles for Seated Meditation), he writes: 

"For the practice of Zen, a quiet room is suitable. Eat and drink moderately. Cast aside all involvements, and cease all affairs. Do not think good, do not think bad. Do not administer pros and cons. Cease all the movements of the conscious mind, the gauging of all thoughts and views. Have no designs on becoming a Buddha. The practice of Zen (sanzen) has nothing whatever to do with the four bodily attitudes of moving, standing, sitting, or lying down.

At the place where you regularly sit, spread out a layer of thick matting and place a cushion on it. Sit either in the full-lotus or half-lotus posture. In the full-lotus posture, you first place your right foot on your left thigh and your left foot on your right thigh. In the half-lotus, you simply press your left foot against your right thigh. You should have your robes and belt loosely bound and arranged in order. Then place your right hand on your left leg and your left palm facing upwards on your right palm, thumb-tips touching. Sit upright in correct bodily posture, inclining neither to the left nor the right, leaning neither forward nor backward. Be sure your ears are on a plane with your shoulders and your nose in line with your navel. Place your tongue against the front roof of your mouth, with teeth and lips both shut. Your eyes should always remain open. You should breathe gently through your nose.

Once you have adjusted yourself into this posture, take a deep breath, inhale, exhale, rock your body to the right and left, and settle into a steady, unmoving sitting position. Think of not-thinking. How do you think of not-thinking? Nonthinking. This in itself is the essential art of zazen.

The zazen I speak of is not learning meditation. It is simply the Dharma-gate of repose and bliss. It is the practice-realization of totally culminated enlightenment. It is things as they are in suchness. No traps and snares can ever reach it. Once its heart is grasped, you are like the dragon when he reaches the water, like the tiger when he enters the mountain. You must know that when you are doing zazen, right there the authentic Dharma is manifesting itself, striking aside dullness and distraction from the first."

From "The Heart of Dogen's Shobogenzo", translated by Norman Waddell and Masao Abe

Clouds and Water Zen is facilitated by Raka (Hogen) Banerjee. Raka is a student of Sensei Genzan Quennell and has been studying in the Zen tradition since 2016. She is an associate clinical social worker and a graduate of the Buddhist Chaplaincy Training Program at Upaya Zen Center. Her practice is a braided faith of non-dual spiritual traditions - alongside her Zen practice, Raka is an initiated devotee in her root tradition of Advaita Vedanta as taught by Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa.