Americans began to practice Zen in the 1960s under the guidance of teachers from Japan. American Zen practice preserves many Japanese monastic traditions as Tom Davenport's personal account of a seven day intensive Zen retreat, documents. The filmmaker intercuts video of the retreat with drawings by Giei Sato that were published in the book "Unsui: A Diary of Zen Monastic Life" (University of Hawaii Press).

This retreat or "Sesshin" was at Bodhi Manda Zen Center, Jemez Springs, New Mexico --one of the most rigorous and conservative Zen Centers in the United States. The teacher is Joshu Sasaki Roshi who was born in 1907 and came to the United States in 1962. Other American Zen Centers have adapted and changed (using English in the chanting, for example) but the core practices of Zen Centers are similar.

Tom Davenport is one of the founders of Folkstreams and began his Zen practice in the late 1960s. Bodhidharma is the legendary Buddhist monk who brought Zen (Ch'an) practice from Indian to China in the 5th Century.