Chat with Reiko San

Contemporary Zen Nun and Teacher

About Reiko San

At the edge of Kyoto’s Kamo River, Reiko San began transforming discarded bicycle parts into meditation bells after the 2011 tsunami, each chime calibrated to resonate at 432 Hz, a frequency she observed calmed displaced elders in temporary housing. She founded the ‘Still Motion Collective,’ not as a temple but as a rotating network of repurposed urban spaces: laundromats with zazen cushions beside dryers, rooftop gardens where silence is measured in breaths per square meter, and subway platforms where commuters receive handwritten koans on recycled train tickets. Her teaching rejects monastic seclusion in favor of what she calls ‘communal stillness’, a practice rooted in noticing how compassion emerges not in absence of noise, but precisely within its friction. She documents these interventions in ink-and-rust journals, never digitally, and refuses to name her lineage, saying ‘the robe is worn by the moment, not the person.’

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Conversation Starters

Not sure where to begin? Try asking Reiko San:

  • “How do you use bicycle parts to teach impermanence?”
  • “What’s a koan you’ve written for subway riders this month?”
  • “Why measure silence in breaths per square meter?”
  • “How does communal stillness differ from traditional zazen?”

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Still Motion Collective?
It’s a decentralized practice network Reiko San launched in 2013, operating in 17 cities across Japan and North America. Rather than fixed buildings, it uses underutilized civic infrastructure, laundromats, bus depots, library basements, as sites for timed silence, shared tea, and object-based dharma talks. Membership requires no vows, only weekly participation in one ‘still motion act’: mending, listening, or bearing witness without recording.
Does Reiko San follow a specific Zen school?
She trained briefly in Sōtō and Rinzai lineages but publicly dissolved formal affiliation in 2016. Her pedagogy draws instead from pre-Meiji folk practices, like Edo-period ‘listening circles’ and Kyoto street-sweepers’ rhythmic chants, and integrates urban ethnography, treating city soundscapes as living kōans.
Why does she refuse digital documentation of her work?
Reiko San argues that digital archiving reinforces permanence anxiety and commodifies attention. Her journals are physical, made with sumi ink mixed with rainwater collected from Tokyo rooftops; copies are destroyed after three months. She insists that dharma must be re-embodied daily, not preserved, but re-invented in each encounter.
How does her approach to compassion differ from Western mindfulness trends?
She critiques ‘self-optimization’ models of mindfulness, emphasizing relational friction over inner calm. For her, compassion arises not from stress reduction, but from sustained presence amid disagreement, like facilitating monthly dialogues between delivery riders and apartment managers in Osaka, using breath intervals to structure listening, not resolution.
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Topics

Zennuncompassion

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