Obaku Zen presents a daily discipline in which classical Zen meditation and Pure Land devotion are woven together into a single fabric of practice. Regular zazen, often supported by kōan study and sometimes walking meditation, provides the contemplative backbone: the body is settled, the breath clarified, and the mind directed toward insight. Alongside this, recitation of the Buddha’s name—nembutsu or nianfo, such as “Namo Amida Butsu” or “Namo Amituofo”—is cultivated not merely as petitionary prayer, but as a focused, rhythmic concentration that steadies awareness and opens the heart. In this way, meditative self-effort and devotional reliance are not treated as rivals but as complementary currents within one stream of training.

Daily ritual life reinforces this integration. Morning and evening services typically include chanting of sutras associated with both Zen and Pure Land, together with prostrations and offerings before Buddha images. These communal ceremonies, whether in a monastery or a lay setting, give form to gratitude, repentance, and dedication of merit, and they situate individual practice within a wider field of shared aspiration. Participation in temple ceremonies and observance of traditional Buddhist festivals extend this rhythm through the calendar, shaping a communal ethos that honors both meditative insight and devotional faith.

Outside the formal hall, ordinary activities are treated as opportunities for practice rather than interruptions to it. Work, family responsibilities, and social interactions are approached with mindful attention, so that eating, walking, speaking, and listening become extensions of meditation. Ethical conduct grounded in the precepts—non-harming, honesty, restraint, and compassion—serves as the practical measure of realization, ensuring that insight does not remain abstract. In this spirit, some practitioners may lean more heavily toward meditation, others toward devotion, yet both self-power and other-power are held together as mutually illuminating ways of embodying the Buddha-dharma in the midst of daily life.