Tassajara Zen Mountain Center

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Tassajara Zen Mountain Center
Zendo at Tassajara
Zendo at Tassajara
Information
Denomination:  Soto Zen
Founded:  1966
Founder(s):  Shunryu Suzuki
Abbot(s):  Paul Haller
Address:  39171 Tassajara Road Carmel Valley, CA 93924
Country:  Flag of the United States United States
Phone:  (831) 659-2229
(415) 865-1895
Website
Website:  http://sfzc.org/tassajara/

Portal:Buddhism

The Tassajara Zen Mountain Center in the Ventana Wilderness area of the Los Padres National Forest, southeast of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, is the oldest Japanese Buddhist Sōtō Zen monastery in the United States.

Contents

[edit] History

The Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, or Zenshinji (Zen Mind Temple),[1] was established by the San Francisco Zen Center in 1966, during Shunryu Suzuki's tenure as its first abbot, after it purchased the Tassajara Hot Springs property from Robert and Anna Beck.[2] The traditional name, ‘Tassajara,’[3] is from an indigenous Esselen word which means ‘place where meat is hung to dry.’

Renowned as a Sōtō Zen training center, Tassajara attracts serious practitioners; each member of its senior teaching staff has decades of practice experience.[citation needed] Within the American Zen community, as well as internationally (especially Japan), Tassajara is admired for the rigor of its practice.[citation needed] Many alumni have started centers of their own, mainly in the U.S. and abroad.[citation needed] For this reason Tassajara is known for its mission of teaching teachers.[citation needed]

[edit] Calendars and schedules

Practice periods

A practice period (ango in Japanese) denotes a period of intensive monastic practice. During the fall (September-December) and spring (January-April) practice periods, Tassajara is closed to the public. The rigorous schedule is a defining feature. Activity revolves around zazen (meditation), scholarship, and work.[4]

Guest season

After the practice periods, Tassajara re-opens to the public from mid-April through early September.[5] For students, this period also allows them to earn credits toward the fall and spring practice periods. The guest season, with less rigorous daily schedules,[6] is a cornerstone of Tassajara's economic well-being.[1]

The guest program includes a major kitchen operation: Tassajara is renowned for its vegetarian cuisine.[7][8] Tassajara personnel also founded the Tassajara Bakery in Ashbury Heights[9] and Greens Restaurant at Fort Mason in the Marina District[8] in San Francisco. Edward Espe Brown's Tassajara Bread Book, published by Shambhala Publications in 1970 and revised in 1986 and 1995[10], is often credited as a major catalyst for the popularity of artisanal baking in the United States, while Brown's Tassajara Recipe Book[11] is the best known of several books of general vegetarian cuisine produced by several authors connected with the Center.

[edit] See also

[edit] Gallery

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Frederick C. Crews, review of Michael Downing's Shoes Outside the Door: Desire, Devotion, and Excess at San Francisco Zen Center (28 March 2002). Zen & the Art of Success. The New York Review of Books (abstract) reprint on cuke.com. “[The] 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.”
  2. ^ David Chadwick (19 February 2002). "Interview with Robert Beck.". cuke.com.
  3. ^ Janet Fullwood (29 November 2006). "Serene escapes: Where less is more.". sacramento Bee.
  4. ^ Pure Standards and Guidelines for Practice Period (PDF). San Francisco Zen Center.
  5. ^ Guidelines of Conduct & Precepts for Summer Practice (PDF). San Francisco Zen Center.
  6. ^ Summer Work Practice. San Francisco Zen Center.
  7. ^ Alan Liddle (29 September 1986). "Fresh seafood, produce mold 565 Clay's success - San Francisco restaurant." (html). Nation's Restaurant News.
  8. ^ a b Eileen Hansen, review of Greens Restaurant (29 August 2004). It's good to be greens. San Francisco Chronicle.
  9. ^ Peter Sinton (10 April 1999). "Staff of Life Not Enough For Tassajara." (html). San Francisco Chronicle (photo).
  10. ^ Brown, Edward Espe, The Tassajara Bread Book, 25th Anniversary Edition. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 1995, ISBN 9781570620898.
  11. ^ Brown, Edward Espe. The Tassajara Recipe Book, revised edition. Boston, Shambhala Publications, 2000, ISBN 1570625808.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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