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The Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, the first Japanese Buddhist Sōtō Zen monastery in the United States, was established by Shunryu Suzuki in 1966 in the Ventana Wilderness area of the California Los Padres National Forest east of Big Sur.
Tassajara, or Zenshinji (Zen Mind Temple), is part of the San Francisco Zen Center, which includes City Center (Beginner's Mind Temple) and Green Gulch Farm (Green Dragon Temple) in Marin County. SFZC and Tassajara personnel also founded the Tassajara Bakery and Greens Restaurant in San Francisco.
Reputation
Renowned as a Sōtō Zen training center, Tassajara attracts serious practitioners; each member of its senior teaching staff has decades of practice experience. Within the American Zen community, as well as internationally (especially Japan), Tassajara is admired for the rigor of its practice. Many alumni have started centers of their own, mainly in the U.S. and abroad. For this reason Tassajara is known for its mission of teaching teachers.
Calendars and schedules
- Practice periods
A practice period, ango in Japanese, denotes a period of intensive monastic practice. During the fall practice period (September-December) and the spring practice period (January-April), Tassajara is closed to the public. The schedule is a defining feature and activity revolves around meditation, scholarship, and work.
- Guest season
After the practice periods, Tassajara re-opens to the public from mid-April through early September. For students, this period also allows them to earn credits toward the fall and spring practice periods. The guest program is the cornerstone of Tassajara's economic well-being and the chief focus turns to the needs of the guests. This includes a major kitchen operation: Tassajara is famous for its vegetarian cuisine.
References
- ^ Frederick C. Crews, review of Shoes Outside the Door: Desire, Devotion, and Excess at San Francisco Zen Center by Michael Downing. (28 March 2002). ""Zen & the Art of Success."" (html). The New York Times (reprint on cuke.com).
book begins with, and then encircles in widening orbits, a conference held in March 1983 at Zenshinji, or Zen Mind Temple, better known to the world as Tassajara … Tassajara in summer sees too much traffic to be called a true monastery. Rather, it is part training camp, part profitable tourist enterprise, and part showcase for potential donors who may be inspired to support Zen Center's instruction in zazen.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); External link in|work= - Peter Sinton (10 April 1999). ""Staff of Life Not Enough For Tassajara."" (html). San Francisco Chronicle.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Eileen Hansen, review of Greens Restaurant (29 August 2004). ""It's good to be greens."" (html). San Francisco Chronicle.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ""Pure Standards and Guidelines for Practice Period."" (pdf). sfzc.org.
- ""Guidelines of Conduct & Precepts for Summer Practice."" (pdf). sfzc.org.
- ""Summer Work Practice."" (html). sfzc.org.
See also
External links
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