Mokugyo is a meditation app rooted in Zen practice and open to any style. It has two parts: a timer for silent sitting, and the Heart Sutra, chanted in time with a mokugyo — the wooden fish that keeps the beat in Zen temples.
Sit in silence
Tap Begin and a singing bowl opens your sitting. A short countdown helps you settle, then your chosen time passes in silence: 5 to 60 minutes on iPhone, 5 to 45 on Apple Watch. When it ends, the bowl sounds again and rings out fully. The bowl was measured from a recording of a real singing bowl and is created as it sounds — there are no audio files.
Chant the Heart Sutra
Tap the heart to chant the Hannya Shingyō (般若心経), the Heart Sutra as chanted in Japanese temples. It is written in romanised Japanese, word by word as in a chant book, and each syllable lights up in turn as it is chanted, like karaoke. A twelve-second countdown lights the opening line, maka hannya haramita shingyo, for you to sing as the temple bell sounds and fades; then the mokugyo keeps a steady beat — quick syllables like shiki share one strike, as in temple chanting — and after a moment’s pause the closing han nya shin gyo is sung without it. Choose the pace and the text size that suit you in Preferences.
On your wrist, and in Health
The Apple Watch app does both, and keeps going with your wrist down. With your permission, each sitting is saved to the Health app as Mindful Minutes.
Private by design
No accounts, no ads, no tracking. Nothing you do in Mokugyo leaves your device.
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