Winter Practice Period

Winter Practice Period Commitment

Winter Practice Period 2026 is February 21 - March 8.  This is a period of time with additional programs offered at Shao Shan Temple.

It is not required to make any particular commitment to participation.  However you are invited to consider what practice commitment(s) you would like to make for this period of time.  Your practice commitments to yourself may include participating in Temple programs and/or other practice elements that you feel are currently important for you.  What practice commitment would you like to make for these 15 days?

Winter Practice Period Topic

The theme of this year's practice period will be the “Self Receiving and Employing Samadhi” – an excerpt from Dogen Zenji’s Bendowa (Wholehearted Way).  

This will be the basis for most of Tuesday and Saturday Dharma Talks and will be part of our services.  We will chant it daily in the afternoon program and in Sunday's Full Morning Service.

Here is the text broken down by dates for the Dharma Talks: Self Receiving and Employing Samadhi(with dates)

Winter Practice Period 2026 Visiting Teachers

Dharma Talk: ONLINE – Tuesday evening, February 24th, 2026

Rev. Jisho Sara Siebert is a Soto Zen Buddhist priest who was led to Buddhism by the suffering around her and in her work to prevent domestic and sexual violence.  Her path to understand suffering and joy led her to Los Angeles – where she first met her teacher, Gengo Akiba Roshi, then to Papua New Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Uganda, monasteries in Japan, and Haiti.  She is recognized as an International Zen Teacher (Kokusaifukyoshi) by the Soto Shu and teaches at Zen Fields in Ames, Iowa.  Rev. Jisho is part of Shao Shan Temple’s “Soto Zen Council” and has been to Shao Shan Temple numerous times.

Dharma Talk: IN-PERSON – Saturday morning, February 28th, 2026

Rev. Seiso Paul Cooper: Formally transmitted teacher in the Soto Zen lineage of Dainin Katagiri, Roshi; He is a member of the Soto Zen Buddhist Association and the American Zen Teachers Association; Co-founder, Director, Former Guiding Teacher: Two Rivers Zen Community in Narrowsburg, N.Y.; and Lincoln Zen Center, Lincoln, Faculty: Nalanda Institute for Contemplative Psychotherapy and California Institute for Integral Studies, Rev. Seiso maintains a private psychotherapy practice in Montpelier, Vermont. He currently organizes, facilitates, and leads silent retreats in the formal Soto Zen style at retreat centers and online.  He recently started the Barre Zen Center.

Winter Practice Period Weekly Schedule

If you do not receive the weekly Temple emails, be sure to call/email to confirm before coming to in-person programs.

Sun - Fri morning         7am  - online meditation followed by service (Sunday longer program; in-person option)

      Mon - Fri afternoon             4:00-4:45pm  - (online -or- in-person)

      Tuesday evening 7pm - online meditation followed by Dharma Talk & discussion

      Wednesday mid-morning 10am  - in-person sitting meditation, liturgy, dharma discussion

       Friday evening 7pm  - in-person sitting and walking meditation

       Saturday morning 7:10am  - in-person meditation, liturgy, dharma talk (online option)

Special Events during the Winter Practice Period

     February 22 - Zazenkai (1/2 Day  Meditation Retreat)  Zazenkai sign-up

     February 28 - Movie Night

     March  6 - Temple Day (please email Temple to sign-up)

     March 6-8 - Sesshin (Meditation Retreat)  Sesshin sign-up 

Schedule in spreadsheet form