Sitting is remembering the presence, vitality, and aliveness of simply being.

It is rediscovering an intimate, felt sense of connection, community, and belonging.

It is reimagining an ancient living practice system for becoming a fuller version of yourself. 

At Sitting Lab, we don't teach you to meditate or practice mindfulness.

We just sit. Quietly. Together. Daily. As a regular, deepening practice.

Why do we sit? Here are our top twenty-one reasons:

We sit to be fully present, meeting each moment with our full attention.

We sit to show up, as caring human beings, for ourselves and others.

We sit to see with clarity, to know ourselves, to understand our world.

We sit to go within, to metabolize our suffering, our pain, and our grief. 

We sit to cultivate our human capacities for wisdom and compassion.

We sit to be responsive, with truth, courage, authenticity, and humility. 

We sit to feel our way, trust our intuition, and allow our lives to unfold.

We sit to go slow, to do nothing, to rest, and relax in open awareness. 

We sit to embody and express our true human nature: our interbeing.

We sit to grow intimate, meaningful, and lasting practice friendships.

We sit to become settled, grounded, and steady in a consistent practice.

We sit to attune with our heart and create inner conditions of coherence.

We sit to let go, step back, and see with a bigger, boundless perspective. 

We sit to wonder, to be curious, and open up to a wider field of possibility. 

We sit to not-know, to experiment, to take small steps and try new things.

We sit to adapt, to re-orient ourselves, to align with our deepest intentions.

We sit to support one another, by encouraging gratitude and appreciation.

We sit to create safe, trustworthy spaces for growth and transformation.

We sit to give ourselves, with kindness, to co-weave a fabric of belonging.

We sit to realize our deep intention to serve life and benefit all  living beings. 

At Sitting Lab, our goal is to create safe, supportive, and intimate spaces that enable you to establish a regular, deepening practice and become the fullest version of yourself. 

To have a consistent practice is hard. The key to building a regular, deepening practice is having the support of practice friends. Now, creating a steady practice is easy––just show up and start sitting together with your new friends.

Our approach isn't about rigid formulas or religious dogma — it's a simple, flexible way of practice that gives you a direct and deep experience of who you truly are. This isn't a method to be followed, but instead, an invitation to simply show up and feel your way into an embodied and deeply nourishing sense of presence with others. — Robert Thomas

Our Inspiration:

My teaching is not a philosophy. It is the result of direct experience. My teaching is a means of practice, not something to hold onto or worship.  —  Buddha

Meet Robert Thomas and Polly Ryan, our Founding Spiritual Mentors

Sitting Lab is a new kind of practice community created by practitioners for practitioners. Here's a bit about our founding team:

Robert began practicing meditation as a monk in a Thai forest monastery over thirty years ago. He would go on to dedicate his life to sitting, spending six years in a remote Zen Buddhist monastery and two decades as a Zen priest in residence at the San Francisco Zen Center, Upaya Zen Center, and the Austin Zen Center. Robert attained the highest level of ordination in the Soto Zen lineage of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, receiving Dharma Transmission from his teacher, Norman Fischer, in 2009. He has led meditation practice communities since 2003 and is the former CEO of the San Francisco Zen Center, Mindful Schools, and the Tara Mandala International Buddhist Community. Robert now lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he spends time writing, making art, walking his dog, and helping people practice. 

Polly has been a devoted student of Tibetan Buddhism for over 35 years. She has degrees in music performance, music therapy, and counseling psychology and has been a licensed therapist for over 40 years. She has studied with Lama Tsultrim Allione for three decades in the lineage of Machig Labdrön and serves as a senior authorized teacher (Lopön) and Kaliyanamitra for Tara Mandala students. She has also studied extensively with Lama Alan Wallace and numerous other Tibetan and Bhutanese teachers. She has led and assisted many retreats in person and online, and in 2023 she co-led a Rinchen Trengwa research pilgrimage to Druk Zangri Khamar, Bhutan. Her passion is to bring to life the stories and wisdom of the women in Buddhism. She has three grown children and a granddaughter and lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

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What People Say About Their Sitting Lab Experience

I have found Sitting Lab to be an excellent place to sit with other meditators. Knowing this welcoming space is here five days a week has made a huge difference in my practice and my life. I have been doing multiple times a week for months and have found it to be incredibly helpful. Robert and Polly begin the sessions with guidance that is useful and nurturing. I am enormously grateful for this space and look forward to getting up early and joining the group as many times a week as possible. In a time of much turmoil and uncertainty Sitting Lab is grounding with consistency, openness and presence. 

–– Kathleen K., Health Care Professional

Sitting Lab deepens my commitment to practice daily. I feel the support of others to be consistent when I might be feeling lazy.  

–– Ernest B. PhD, Educational Therapist

Before I joined Sitting Lab, I wanted to meditate more regularly but had a hard time prioritizing the time for it. I would also feel too antsy to sit still for much more than five minutes. I've now been able to meditate more regularly (at least three times a week), and I'm amazed at my ability to simply "be" for our entire sitting sessions. After each session, I feel more centered, calm, and connected in a deep way with my fellow meditators. 

  –– Karla P., Professional Writer and Life Coach

Robert helped me get over the initial challenges of meditation. I'd tried in the past to meditate on a regular basis and was never able to. With this retreat, things started to click, and I began to relax into it instead of trying so hard and ultimately stopping. This made all the difference in me establishing a regular practice. I feel like I have a path forward now.

  — Edward P., retreat participant

Robert provided the group with an inspiring blend of yoga practice and meditation that was warm, non-judgmental, and fun. He took great care to address everyone's needs and encouraged each person to stretch their own comfort zone. I thank Robert for his mindful presence, good humor, commitment, and wisdom.

  — Barbara R., retreat participant

Become a Member and Start Sitting Together with Others

Become a member of the Sitting Lab community and get the support you need to grow and deepen your sitting practice. Sitting together with others in our Daily Open Sits is always free.

As a Sitting Lab Member, you get access to:

• All Daily Open Sittings.* 

• Community Practice Features (monthly themes, articles, daily quotes, and more).* 

• Member Profiles and Connections with Peers.* 

• Monthly Half or Full-day sittings** 

• Weekly Practice Talks.**

• Practice Accelerators (short micro-courses).**

• Deep Practice Groups.**

• One-on-One Practice Mentorship.**

* Free to all members ** Available to members at different levels

The Four Guiding Principles of a Sitting Practice

Sitting together provides the support and encouragement that makes a meditation practice human, sustainable, and meaningful. Below are the four core principles of our sitting practice and the foundation of our offerings.

1. Deep Vitality = Sitting With Stillness and Presence.

Sitting still and quiet, together with others, creates a deep sense of vitality and aliveness through the power of your human presence. This presence embodies and expresses your capacity for connection, generosity, empathy, and compassion. Showing up to sit with others, you become bigger, part of a collective intention to be vividly present in each moment, open to new experiences and possibilities, and ready to dedicate yourself to being of benefit to others.

At Sitting Lab, we empower you to commit to daily practice by gathering as friends who support and encourage you with a sense of stillness and presence that deeply nourishes you. Our short, live sittings enable you to easily show up and be fully present, go deeper and become more consistent, and transform together in a safe environment of mutual support. 

Having a sitting practice is hard. That's why we designed a system made of five key elements: practice, purpose, people, place, and path. This supports you to show up and sit with others. Showing up is how we get consistent in our practice. Being still and fully present together is how we cultivate an understanding of wisdom and compassion that transforms our lives. — Robert Thomas

Our Inspiration:

The most radical thing any of us can do at this time is to be fully present to what is happening in the world. — Joanna Macy, Buddhist teacher

The past is past. The future is important. You in the West should be creative in adapting the timeless essence of the Dharma to your own cultural times and circumstances. –– His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, Buddhist teacher

2. Deep Understanding = Sensing Your Way Into Wisdom. 

Having a regular sitting practice is hard, but a practice system enables the most essential step: showing up. You gain consistency, confidence, and continuity by simply showing up to sit with others. Sitting together helps you to directly experience and deeply understand who you are and how things are. Feeling your way deepens your capacity to embody and express your innate human capacity for wisdom. 

At Sitting Lab, practice is not a 'habit' to learn but an unfolding, intuitive process of understanding ourselves and our world. We create conditions that reveal and strengthen our innate human capacity for wisdom, enabling us to serve the world in deeply beneficial ways.

If we want to be able to meet the challenges of a meta-crisis world, we must learn to feel our way toward a deeper understanding and embodiment of who we really are. This requires us to embrace new ways to learn, to unlearn, and to re-learn. It asks us to 'not know' and sense our way into a relationship with our innate wisdom. –– Robert Thomas

Our Inspiration:

The you that goes in one side of the meditation experience is not the same you that comes out the other side. –– Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, Buddhist teacher.

It's very important that we re-learn the art of resting and relaxing. It allows us to clear our minds, focus, and find creative solutions to problems. — Thich Nhat Hanh, Buddhist teacher

3. Deep Connection = Nurturing Friendships and Belonging.

Many of today's meditation approaches focus on individual effort. We believe it's much better to grow and deepen your practice together with friends. Practice friends' caring support and encouragement is the best way for you to overcome challenges and deepen your practice.

At Sitting Lab, we're creating a new kind of meditation environment built on peer friendship rather than top-down hierarchy. Together, we create a connecting space that is kind and welcoming. When you get stuck or lose motivation, real friends are there to help you.

A practice that goes deeper doesn't happen in isolation. It thrives in the rich soil of caring support, shared experience, and kind encouragement. At Sitting Lab, we emphasize the intimacy of authentic practice connections because safety and trust are essential preconditions for our deep growth and transformation. — Robert Thomas

Our Inspiration:

Friendship is the most important element in the spiritual path. Everything else naturally flows from it. –– Norman Fischer, Buddhist teacher

Meditation practice in the 21st Century should become a collective practice. Without a community of friends, we cannot achieve much. — Thich Nhat Hanh, Buddhist teacher

4. Deep Adaptivity = Creating the Conditions to Transform.

Instead of chasing after special states, sitting practice is a process that goes slow and steady. Our sitting system creates conditions for continuous adaptation through small steps and micro-adjustments, resulting in a natural, gradual unfolding and deepening of your practice.

At Sitting Lab, we go beyond mindfulness or stress relief. We open the doors to profound personal and collective transformation. Embracing slow and lasting change, your unique practice path evolves at the speed of trust. This is an adaptive, co-emergent process of awakening.

When we sit, we see that everything is moving and changing, and boundlessly interconnected. When we see each moment like this, we see everything as co-operation––as the simultaneity of our 'inter-being' and 'inter-becoming.' This is what enables us to awaken to the adaptive possibilities of our life. — Robert Thomas

Our Inspiration:

(When we sit) we see that nothing is stagnant, and nothing is fully separate, that who we are, what we are is intimately woven into the nature of life itself. Out of this sense of connection, love and compassion arise.” — Sharon Salzberg, Buddhist teacher

It's very important that we re-learn the art of resting and relaxing. It allows us to clear our minds, focus, and find creative solutions to problems. — Thich Nhat Hanh, Buddhist teacher

The Old Ways of Meditating Don't Work Anymore.

Having a regular, deepening practice was always difficult, but the usual obstacles—lack of time, confusion about methods, access to support, a trustworthy community, religious dogma, and sustaining motivation—have become even harder to navigate in today's world. 

That's why we offer a new approach:

• Authentic human connection instead of AI and algorithms

• Subtle simplicity, not complicated religious philosophies

• Community support rather than isolated solitary effort

• Openness, flexibility, and experimentation instead of rules

• A slow, intuitive, deepening path, not quick-fix programs

Sitting Lab is here so that you can:

• Easily show up from the safety and comfort of your space

• Establish a consistent and sustainable sitting practice 

• Build real, human, trustworthy practice relationships

• Feel your way to a sense of inner calm, stillness, and clarity

• Develop your capacity for wisdom, adaptivity, and resilience

• Deepen your practice and help others do the same

The Sitting Lab Manifesto

The Future of Meditation Is...

Beyond-thinking. Systems-oriented. Authentic-being. Meaning-making. Intention-clarifying. Slow-going. Presence-generating. Wellbeing-centering. Wonder-appreciating. Commitment-making. Simplicity-embracing. Connection-cultivating. View-expanding. Friendship-powered. Inclusivity-emphasizing. Belonging-actualizing. Community-building. Relationship-nurturing. Practice-nourishing. Experiment-inviting. Creativity-inspiring. Adaptivity-enabling. Possibility-seeing. Safety-prioritizing. Feeling-optimizing. Emergence-enabling. Curiosity-orienting. Science-recognizing. Path-finding. Non-thinking. Truth-seeking. Perspective-shifting. Experience-deepening. Compassion-encouraging. Kindness-caring. Empathy-feeling. Tenderness-knowing. Wisdom-awakening. And Benefit-creating.