Tassajara Zen Mountain Center

Infobox Buddhist temple
name = Tassajara Zen Mountain Center


img_size =
img_capt = Zendo at Tassajara
landscape =
denomination = Soto Zen
founded = 1966
closed =
founder = Shunryu Suzuki
teacher =
director =
roshi =
abbot = Paul Haller
priest =
rinpoche =
reverend =
address = 39171 Tassajara Road Carmel Valley, CA 93924
country = flagicon|USA United States
phone = [phone]
[phone]
website = [http://sfzc.org/tassajara/ http://sfzc.org/tassajara/] 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.

History

The Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, or Zenshinji (Zen Mind Temple),cite web |url= http://www.cuke.com/bibliography/shoes/crews%20review%20of%20shoes.html |title= Zen & the Art of Success |author= Frederick C. Crews, review of Michael Downing's "Shoes Outside the Door: Desire, Devotion, and Excess at San Francisco Zen Center" |work= The New York Review of Books ( [http://www.nybooks.com/articles/article-preview?article_id=15221 abstract] ) reprint on cuke.com |date= 28 March 2002 |quote= [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. ] 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.cite web |url= http://www.cuke.com/Cucumber%20Project/interviews/beck.html |title= "Interview with Robert Beck." |author= David Chadwick |work= cuke.com |date= 19 February 2002 |quote= ] The traditional name, ‘Tassajara,’cite web |url= http://www.sacbee.com/fullwood/story/11456.html |title= "Serene escapes: Where less is more." |author= Janet Fullwood |work= sacramento Bee |date= 29 November 2006 |quote= ] 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.fact|date=July 2007 Within the American Zen community, as well as internationally (especially Japan), Tassajara is admired for the rigor of its practice.fact|date=July 2007 Many alumni have started centers of their own, mainly in the U.S. and abroad.fact|date=July 2007 For this reason Tassajara is known for its mission of teaching teachers.fact|date=July 2007

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.cite web |url= http://www.sfzc.org/tassajara/docs/zmc_pp_guidelines.pdf |title= Pure Standards and Guidelines for Practice Period |format= PDF |work= San Francisco Zen Center |quote= ]

;"Guest season"After the practice periods, Tassajara re-opens to the public from mid-April through early September.cite web |url= http://sfzc.org/tassajara/documents/ZenshinjiSummerGuidelines.pdf |title= Guidelines of Conduct & Precepts for Summer Practice |format= PDF |work= San Francisco Zen Center |quote= ] 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,cite web |url= http://sfzc.org/tassajara/summerwork.php |title= Summer Work Practice |work= San Francisco Zen Center |quote= ] is a cornerstone of Tassajara's economic well-being.

The guest program includes a major kitchen operation: Tassajara is renowned for its vegetarian cuisine.cite web |url= http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3190/is_v20/ai_4468096 |title= "Fresh seafood, produce mold 565 Clay's success - San Francisco restaurant." |author= Alan Liddle |format= html |work= Nation's Restaurant News |date= 29 September 1986 |quote= ] cite web |url= http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/08/29/CMGK781M0T1.DTL |title= It's good to be greens |author= Eileen Hansen, review of Greens Restaurant |work= San Francisco Chronicle |date= 29 August 2004 |quote= ] Tassajara personnel also founded the Tassajara Bakery in Ashbury Heightscite web |url= http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/1999/04/10/BU97721.DTL&type=travel |title= "Staff of Life Not Enough For Tassajara." |author= Peter Sinton |format= html |work= San Francisco Chronicle ( [http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2003/08/05/BU266916.DTL&o=0 photo] )|date= 10 April 1999 |quote= ] and Greens Restaurant at Fort Mason in the Marina Districtcite web |url= http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/08/29/CMGK781M0T1.DTL |title= "It's good to be greens." |author= Eileen Hansen, review of Greens Restaurant |format= html |work= San Francisco Chronicle |date= 29 August 2004 |quote= ] in San Francisco. Edward Espe Brown's "Tassajara Bread Book", published by Shambhala Publications in 1970 and revised in 1986 and 1995 [Brown, Edward Espe, "The Tassajara Bread Book, 25th Anniversary Edition". Boston: Shambhala Publications, 1995, ISBN 9781570620898.] , is often credited as a major catalyst for the popularity of artisanal baking in the United States, while Brown's "Tassajara Recipe Book" [Brown, Edward Espe. "The Tassajara Recipe Book", revised edition. Boston, Shambhala Publications, 2000, ISBN 1570625808.] is the best known of several books of general vegetarian cuisine produced by several authors connected with the Center.

ee also

*Timeline of Zen Buddhism in the United States

Gallery

References

See also

* American Zen Teachers Association
* Soto Zen Buddhist Association
* Retreat (spiritual)

External links

* [http://sfzc.org/tassajara/ Tassajara Zen Mountain Center website]