Soji is a period of mindful work, often following zazen: sweeping the walkway, raking leaves, shaking out zendo cushions. In Soji, you enter a task for a set period of time, attending to it as fully as possible.

“When you study Buddhism, you should have a general house-cleaning of your mind. You must take everything out of your room and clean it thoroughly. If it is necessary, you may bring everything back in again. You may want many things, so one by one you can bring them back. But if they are not necessary, there is no need to keep them.”

— Suzuki Roshi, from Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind

The framework of soji can allow us to enter a task that might feel otherwise difficult, wth a refreshed sense of engagement and curiosity.

On December 22, we will have an O-Soji - a big clean-up of the Wall Street zendo, to wipe the karmic slate clean before New Year’s Day, as is the tradition in Japan. We hope to offer the opportunity to participate in soji practice on a monthly basis, transforming what we might normally consider as mundane tasks into ceremony.

“ ...cleaning is not drudgery, some pain in the ass job you have to get done. Rather, it’s a very rich sensory experience. It’s a meditation. And just as cleaning is meditation, so everything can be meditation. This is part of what Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche called ‘meditation in action’.”

— Jon Bernie