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3
Introduction
Ven. Jinmyo Rengo osho
The Retreat Handbook was written as a guide for students sitting a retreat at Dainen-ji, initially to
provide an outline of the schedule. Over time, it has been expanded to include details concerning
the forms of our practice (ways of sitting, standing and walking), some excerpts from teisho
presented by Ven. Anzan Hoshin roshi as well as notes on such matters as “functional talking”.
The schedules and activities that take place at Dainen-ji vary from day to day and so the Retreat
Handbook provides individual descriptions of each day of the week. Retreatants do not need to
read the entire Handbook if they are sitting a one or two day retreat, but instead can just turn to
the sections that are applicable and read the supplementary notes. In fact, if you read this
handbook from cover to cover, you will be reading the same things over and over with minor
variations. Just go to the section you are concerned with and hopefully any questions you might
have will have been addressed there.
For those sitting a retreat at home, some of the information contained in the Retreat
Handbook concerning the forms can be adapted to home practice and over time a separate
Handbook will be written specifically for students practicing at a distance. 
Sitting a retreat is a wonderful opportunity to intensify and deepen one’s practice as it
gives us a longer period of time to work with the habitual states and tendencies that come up for
us. Sitting for half an hour once a week or once a day, or even sitting several rounds each day will
not provide the same kind of continuity of practice that is possible when we sit a retreat. 
Associate and general students who attend sittings at Dainen-ji can schedule a retreat by
sending an email to schedule@wwzc.org. We request a week’s advance notice of your plans as
meals must be planned, food purchased, and the monastics responsible for daisan, practice
interviews, meal preparation and preparing practice rooms must arrange their own schedules to
accommodate students. 
Public students can make arrangements to visit Dainen-ji to sit a retreat, or if that is not
possible, may make arrangements with a practice advisor or a Dharma Teacher to sit a retreat in
the own homes. This would also require a week’s advance notice as the student and the Dharma
Teacher or practice advisor they have been corresponding with would need to discuss the
student’s sitting schedule, meal preparation, samu (caretaking practice) during the day and make
arrangements to discuss the student’s practice by telephone or email. 
When you are planning a retreat, be sure to avoid choosing a date that coincides with a
sesshin or an O-sesshin to be held at Dainen-ji (a period of intensive practice for monastics and
senior students). During sesshin and O-sesshin practice advisors and Dharma Teachers do not
meet with students, answer telephone calls or write emails unless there is an emergency. So plan
your retreat dates around the monastery schedule. You will find our practice schedule posted on
the White Wind Zen Community’s Website if you do not have a hard copy. 
Students practising in Ottawa or at a distance have many of the same concerns about
sitting retreats and so I have included some frequently asked questions and the answers:
Student: I like the idea of sitting a retreat, but I am not sure that my knees will co-operate with
sitting for 12 or 14 hours. Do you have any suggestions?
Jinmyo osho: We sit in half hour increments with a round of kinhin (slow walking between sitting
rounds). So don’t think of it as though you are going to be sitting for 12 straight hours. You’re
not. If you sit a one-day retreat, you will have free periods and a samu period of approximately an