Zen — a teacher in your pocket
Zen is a self-hosted zen master. You sit, you speak what is alive in your practice, and he answers you in his own voice, drawing on his library. Over time he also teaches you the classics, talk by talk. Everything you say stays private to you.
The three rooms
🧘
Zazen
Just sit. The bells keep the time.
🎙️
Teisho
Speak a reflection, receive a personal talk.
📖
Dharma
Study the classics, concept by concept.
Switch rooms with the tabs at the top of the app.
A day’s practice — the loop
The app gives the most when the parts feed each other. A simple, powerful rhythm:
1 · Sit
Open Zazen, set the length, and sit with the bells until the mind settles.
↓
2 · Speak
Go to Teisho and, while it’s fresh, say the one true thing from the sitting — a question, a doubt, what you noticed.
↓
3 · Sit & listen
A ~10-minute teisho is made in the master’s voice. Set the phone down and listen — sitting quietly, eyes soft. (A walk works too, if you prefer.)
↓
4 · Return
Tap mark complete or send a one-line bow back to the master. Tomorrow, sit again — he remembers.
How a teisho is made
Your reflection
(spoken or typed)
＋
↓
The master
He finds the single most alive thing in your words and teaches to it, quoting his books by name.
↓
Your teisho — in his voice
A short, direct talk, yours alone, ending with one thing to sit with.
Speak honestly and specifically — one real thing beats a summary of your week.
Prefer voice over typing when you can; the master hears how you say it.
A talk that lands can be expanded into a 30- or 50-minute guidance (open it, tap expand).
The study path (Dharma)
The Dharma room teaches the classics as a course. It opens with three foundational talks; each unlocks the next only after you take its short spoken quiz. From the fourth talk on, the master adapts to what you did and didn’t grasp.
Talk 1 → quiz
Speak your answers; passing unlocks the next.
↓
↓
↓
Talk 4 and on — adapts to you
The master re-teaches what you missed, with a fresh story, and moves you on as you understand.
Take every quiz — it is how the path opens and how the teaching fits itself to you.
Make it yours
📚
The library
In Settings → The master’s library, switch books on/off or upload your own. The master only quotes what’s on.
🎙️
Voices
In Settings → Voices, record or upload a voice and choose which speaks your teishos and which your dharma talks.
The player
Minimize (⌄, top-left) to tuck a talk into a bar and keep listening while you move around the app — jot feedback, browse, or just sit. ✕ (top-right) stops it.
Readers can mark complete at the end of a talk; the study path uses this and the quiz to move you forward.
Install the app (Settings → Install app) for a full-screen, home-screen version.
Privacy & your key
Your reflections, teishos, journal, library, and voices are encrypted with a key held only on your phone — not even the server can read them. Your password only signs you in; the key unlocks your practice.
Back up your key from Settings → Encryption key and keep it safe. If you lose it, past teishos can’t be recovered.
For maximum benefit
- Sit before you speak — let the reflection come from stillness, not the head.
- Say one true thing, concretely. Vagueness in, vagueness out.
- Listen away from the screen — sitting quietly, eyes soft (or walking, if you prefer). Let it work on you.
- Answer back with a bow or mark complete; the master builds on it next time.
- Take the quizzes — they open the path and tune the teaching to you.
- Revisit — expand a teisho that struck you into a longer guidance.
- Keep your key backed up.
Share it
Know someone who sits alone? There is a page that makes the case for trying Zen for seven mornings — send it their way: the seven-morning invitation. (They will still need an invite from you to get in.)
Return, and sit.