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Green Gulch Farm Zen Center
Green Dragon Temple (or, Soryu-Ji)
Green Dragon Temple (or, Soryu-Ji)
Information
Denomination:  Soto Zen
Founded:  1972
Founder(s):  San Francisco Zen Center
Richard Baker
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Abbot(s):  Myogen Steve Stücky
Paul Haller
Priest(s):  Reb Anderson
Address:  1601 Shoreline Highway, Sausalito, California 94965
Country:  Flag of the United States USA
Phone:  (415) 383-3134
Website
Website:  Green Gulch Farm

Portal:Buddhism

Green Gulch Farm Zen Center, or Soryu-ji (meaning Green Dragon Temple) is a Soto Zen practice center located in Sausalito, California that practices in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki. In addition to its Zen training program, the center also manages an organic farm and gardens. Located in a valley seventeen miles north of San Francisco[1] and founded in 1972 by the San Francisco Zen Center and Zentatsu Richard Baker, the site offers a variety of workshops and classes throughout the year. In addition to meditation retreats, offerings include classes and workshops on the Japanese tea ceremony and gardening.[2] While Green Gulch Farm has a residential monastery and retreat center, guest house, and conference center[3], it has also become recognized as a place where organic farmers can come to learn the tools of their trade.[4] One of the original architects of the farm at Green Gulch was the renowned horticulturist Alan Chadwick—who then introduced the biodynamic farming techniques developed by Rudolph Steiner.[4]

Contents

[edit] History

Before his death in 1971, Shunryu Suzuki had asked that his sole Dharma heir—Zentatsu Richard Baker—look for a farming near the San Francisco area where a lay community of practitioners could live amongst one another. When Baker had found just such a place at Green Gulch Farm, some members of the San Francisco Zen Center were hesitant to commit themselves initially to such an endeavor. But Baker saw the area as a place for communal living, where entire families could come together and live as they practiced Zen Buddhism together. So, in the spring of 1972, the farm area was purchased from rancher George Wheelwright (a co-founder of Polaroid).[5][6] Community members quickly held various fundraising efforts and contructed their new community, converting a hay barn into the zendo, caring for the land, and building houses.[5]

Green Gulch operates, in addition to the Zen center, a 7 acre organic vegetable farm and 1 acre fruit, herb and flower garden.[7]

At the Mountain Gate Study Center, classes in Buddhist practice and philosophy are offered.[2]


Every Sunday Green Gulch opens to the public, beginning with zazen at 8:15 a.m., followed by a lecture at 10:15 a.m., tea at 11:15 a.m., and finally lunch at 12:45 a.m. (donations are suggested for these events).[8] The Green Gulch nursery and garden are open seven days a week, and throughout the year many classes are offered on gardening, pruning, flower arrangement and herb culture. During the summer Green Gulch also offers an apprenticeship program for those interested in becoming organic farmers.[3] Carmen Yuen writes, "The apprentices put nonviolence and mindfulness into action as they work. When digging the soil, they are careful not to expose the worms and split them in half—even if they will regenerate!"[9]


Guest houses include the Lindisfarne Guest House and the Wheelright Center. Lindisfarne is in the shape of an octagon, complete with twelve rooms, six baths and an atrium with a woodburning stove where guests can come to read or for conversation; Lindisfarne's kitchen offers its guests tea and snacks. For larger families, the Wheelwright Center has larger living areas for families and a suite equipped with a kitchen.[3]


As of 2006, Green Gulch Farm plans to team up with the National Park Service to help restore Muir Beach to its original beauty. They will apparently remove the parking lot area—which was originally comprised of wetlands—in order to restore the area to its original condition.[10]

Architect Sim Van der Ryn created his first composting toilet for Green Gulch Farm in 1974, built by David Chadwick and Ken Sawyer.[11] Stuart Cowan writes, "The first composter was built in a house at Green Gulch Farm, a Buddhist retreat in nearby Marin County. Soon Sim's neighbor built one, and people started calling for plans. The virtues of the system were that it saved ten to fifteen thousand gallons of water that otherwise would disappear down the toilet each year; it reduced the need for large leach fields, and it literally made people responsible for their own shit, an idea that was attractive to libertarians, organic purists, outlaw builders, and people engaged in reexamining and redesigning all aspects of their daily lives."[12]


Green Gulch Farm also provides organic produce around the year to Greens Restaurant in San Francisco, where Annie Somerville is executive chef.[13]

[edit] Resident teachers

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ McCormick, 45
  2. ^ a b Cooper, 233
  3. ^ a b c Ricci, 14-15
  4. ^ a b Davis, 170
  5. ^ a b Oda, 13-14
  6. ^ Richmond, xiii
  7. ^ Lage, 72
  8. ^ Jordan, 44
  9. ^ Yuen, 98
  10. ^ Surfer Magazine, 39
  11. ^ The Toilet Papers, 65
  12. ^ Ecological Design, 70-71
  13. ^ Imhoff, 220

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