SHIKANTAZA, RESTING IN THE LIVING FIELD, 14 & 15.11.2026

A two day workshop with Bernd Bender

Saturday–Sunday, November 14–15, 2026
11:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. each day

Saikenji Zen Temple Athens

“The zazen I speak of is not learning meditation. It is simply the doorway to rest and joy.”—Zen master Dogen

What does it actually mean to “just sit”?

Shikantaza (Zazen), often translated as “just sitting,” is one of the simplest instructions in Zen practice—and at the same time one of the most subtle. If we are not trying to concentrate on a particular object, control our thoughts, or achieve a special meditative state, how do we actually practice? What are we resting in? And how can the instruction “just sit” become something more than an idea?

In this two-day workshop, Bernd Bender will explore shikantaza through a three-stage model of zazen. The model is not meant as a rigid sequence or a ladder of attainment, but as a way of noticing different dimensions that may open within the same practice.

In the first stage we settle into the felt and breathing body. Rather than observing the body from a distance, we allow attention to rest in the immediacy of bodily experience—in breath, sensation, weight, movement, warmth, tension, and release. We begin with what is immediately present and allow ourselves to rest in it.

In the second stage awareness opens to include what appears around us as well: sounds, space, light, movement, and the presence of the world. Inner and outer experience are no longer treated as separate domains. As both are allowed to appear within awareness at the same time, the boundary between inside and outside, self and other, may become softer and more permeable.

We begin to notice a distinction between the constantly changing contents of our experience—sensations, thoughts, emotions, sounds—and the open field of awareness in which they appear. Rather than being absorbed in particular experiences or trying to change them, we explore what it means to rest in this openness, allowing everything to arise and pass away. We may discover a sense of steadiness in the midst of the unsteadiness of our immediate experience.

In the third stage even the sense of “I” that seems to be meditating, observing, thinking, and perceiving can be experienced as something arising within this same field. The meditator is no longer standing outside experience. The feeling of self appears in the same way as breath, sound, thought, or sensation. As the sense of self softens back into the field from which it arises, just sitting reveals itself as a liberating practice.

The workshop is intended as a practical exploration. Over the two days, we will move between periods of silent zazen and guided meditation, talks and short practice impulses from Bernd, and group discussion in which we can reflect together on what we actually encounter in our sitting.

The aim is not to master three techniques, but to deepen our understanding of the deceptively simple instruction: just sit.

Some experience of meditation is helpful, but the workshop is open to anyone interested in exploring shikantaza more deeply.

Language

English with Greek translation when necessary

Suggested Donations

Regular Rate: € 80
Reduced Rate: € 40
Supporter Rate: € 100
Benefactor Rate: € 200

The workshop is open to everyone. Limited financial resources should not prevent anyone from participating.

For further information and to register your participation please send us an email: [email protected]

About Bernd Bender

Bernd Bender is the guiding teacher of Akazienzendo Berlin and has been practicing Zen since 1987. He lived at San Francisco Zen Center for 18 years, where he was ordained as a Zen priest in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. He received Dharma transmission in 2017. Since 2012, he has lived in Berlin, where he offers regular Zen meditation, courses, talks, and secular meditation and mindfulness workshops, and accompanies people on their spiritual path.