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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.

The premier center for yoga and holistic living, the Himalayan Institute is a non-profit, international organization dedicated to serving humanity through educational, spiritual, and humanitarian programs. The Institute and its multi-varied activities and programs exemplify the spiritual heritage of mankind that unites East and West, spirituality and science, and ancient wisdom and modern technology. Founded in 1971 by Swami Rama of the Himalayas, the Institute draws on its roots in the yoga tradition to offer programs in self-transformation, yoga, meditation, and holistic health at its headquarters in Honesdale, Pennsylvania. Its services include global humanitarian projects as well as the Himalayan Institute Press, a holistic health center (Total Health Center), and an internationally acclaimed magazine, Yoga International.

A Baptist Church in Jacksonville Florida