Zen Practice Across the Long Arc: Zazen, Koan, and the Deepening of Zen Life

Zen teachers consistently observe that the first years of Zazen and the tenth year feel entirely different — not because the instruction has changed, but because the practitioner has. Understanding what deepening practice actually looks like, how the tradition has mapped the arc of development, and what sustained engagement requires is the territory of this course. By the end of this course you will be able to articulate how Zen teachers describe the stages of practice development, understand the function of the koan curriculum in the Rinzai tradition as a long-term training framework, examine the concept of everyday Zen and how the quality of Zazen is meant to pervade conduct and relational life, and engage critically with scholarship on advanced Zen practitioners and what their accounts reveal about contemplative development. What you will learn: - How the Zen tradition maps stages of practice: the ox-herding pictures (jugyuzu) as a classical framework and how modern teachers interpret them - The Rinzai koan curriculum: how a student moves through sequences of koans and what each phase of that curriculum addresses - Satori and kensho: what these terms actually describe in traditional Zen, how they differ from each other, and why they are not the goal that popular accounts suggest - How extended periods of dry, unremarkable sitting are described by teachers as essential rather than problematic — the concept of "just this" practice - The ethics of Zen: how Dogen and subsequent teachers understood the relationship between Zazen and conduct in the world - Long-term Zen practitioners in the West: what academic accounts and first-person narratives reveal about sustaining practice across decades - Sesshin (intensive retreat) as a periodic acceleration within long-term practice — its function and effects as described by participants - A structured reflection framework for reviewing your own practice history, identifying patterns, and articulating your current orientation This course draws on classical Zen texts, modern teacher commentaries, and academic studies of long-term Zen practitioners. It is organized around deepening questions rather than introductory concepts. Reflection prompts are pitched at the level of someone with genuine sitting experience, asking for honest engagement with what is actually happening rather than conceptual description. This course is designed for practitioners with at least two years of regular Zazen practice and some exposure to Zen teaching. It is not an introduction to Zen or meditation. This course is educational in nature and is not a substitute for practice within a lineage tradition or the guidance of a qualified Zen teacher.