Zen

The Yellow Springs Dharma Center Zen group has been meeting for practice on Saturday mornings since 1993.  If you are interested in joining us, please contact zen@ysdharma.org.  

Our practice is in the Diamond Sangha Tradition. The Diamond Sangha is a lay Zen Buddhist lineage grounded in the heritage of our Chinese and Japanese traditions and drawing upon both major streams of Zen, Sōtō and Rinzai. We work to further the way of practice and realization laid out by Chan and Zen masters down through the ages and especially by our founding teacher, Robert Aitken Rōshi. Communities of the Diamond Sangha are functionally independent and diverse in many respects yet united in a commitment to penetrating inquiry into the great matter of life-and-death and to the welfare of all beings, including the mountains and rivers themselves. We hold that practice and realization must be embodied not just in the way that we conduct ourselves at temples and training centers but also throughout our lives—in relationships personal and familial, social and environmental, economic and political.

Please explore the links here to learn more about the specifics of the Saturday practice, about retreats, our history, our teacher and our Zen ancestors.