American Zen College

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American Zen College is an institution founded in 1976 by Zen master Goshun Shin on a twelve-acre site near Germantown, Maryland, for the purpose of studying and practicing Zen Buddhism.

Its founder, Goshun Shin, is a Ph.D. who was ordained a priest of the Jogye Order in 1956. He had served as the abbot of three Zen monasteries in South Korea before arriving in the United States in 1969. He founded new Zen institutions in Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, and Washington D.C. before establishing the college.

The college includes a 7,000 square foot building, which contains a library, kitchen, dining room, offices, and guest quarters. The pre-existing farm buildings on the site have been renovated into a dormitory/residence area and an art gallery. It also contains an azalea garden which surrounds a pagoda of carved Indian limestone containing the remains of Gautama Buddha/Buddha Sakyamuni, which were donated to the college by the national treasury of South Korea.