Ithaca Zen Ctr Competitors

San Francisco Zen Center was established in 1962 by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi (1904-1971) and his American students. Suzuki Roshi is known to countless readers as the author of the modern spiritual classic, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind. The purpose of San Francisco Zen Center is to make accessible and embody the wisdom and compassion of the Buddha as expressed in the Soto Zen tradition established by Dogen Zenji in 13th-century Japan and conveyed to us by Suzuki Roshi and other Buddhist teachers. Our practice flows from the insight that all beings are Buddha, and that sitting in meditation is itself the realization of Buddha nature, or enlightenment. Today, San Francisco Zen Center is one of the largest Buddhist sanghas outside Asia. It has three practice places: City Center, in the vibrant heart of San Francisco; Green Gulch Farm, whose organic fields meet the ocean in Marin County; and Tassajara Zen Mountain Center—the first Zen training monastery in the West—in the Ventana Wilderness inland from Big Sur. These three complementary practice centers offer daily meditation, regular monastic retreats and practice periods, classes, lectures, and workshops. Zen Center is a practice place for a diverse population of students, visitors, lay people, priests, and monks guided by teachers who follow in Suzuki Roshi's style of warm hand and heart to warm hand and heart. All are welcome. Zen Center programs also reach out to the community, helping prisoners, the homeless, and those in recovery; protecting the environment; and working for peace. See our outreach program for details. Suzuki Roshi's disciples and students of his disciples now lead dharma groups around the country.

Founded in 2003, the Garrison Institute is a not-for-profit, non-sectarian organization exploring the intersection of contemplation and engaged action in the world. The mission is to apply the transformative power of contemplation to today's pressing social and environmental concerns, helping build a more compassionate, resilient future. We seek to create conditions for positive, systemic social and environmental change through a collaborative endeavor of science and spirituality.

Founded in 1966 by the late Roshi Philip Kapleau, author of The Three Pillars of Zen, the Rochester Zen Center is one of the oldest and largest organizations dedicated to the practice of Zen Buddhism in this country. In 1986 Bodhin Kjolhede was formally installed as Roshi Kapleau's Dharma-successor and Abbot of the Center. Roshi Kjolhede continues to lead the Zen Center today. The Zen Center’s activities include introductory workshops, daily meditation sessions, a residential training program, and retreats at the Zen Center’s Chapin Mill Retreat Center near Batavia, New York. Affiliate groups and sister centers are located in Madison, Chicago, Cleveland, Mexico City, Stockholm, Berlin, Helsinki, and Auckland.