Brooklyn Zen Center’s guiding teacher Teah Strozer will be visiting Brooklyn to lead a three-week period of intensified practice in February. The period will begin on Tuesday evening, February 1st, and will conclude with a 5-day sesshin, which will go from February 16th to the 20th. During the period, there will be an expanded zazen schedule, dharma talks, discussion as well as opportunities for participants to have private practice discussion with Teah.
The theme of this winter’s practice period will be urban lay practice. As part of this investigation, we’ll be reading...
Zen priest, dharma teacher, and head teacher at Russian River Zendo, Surei Darlene Cohen died last night.
As many of you know, Darlene was one of the first teachers to visit Brooklyn Zen Center. She led our very first one-day sit. It was in no small part her enthusiasm and encouragement that led to the founding of the basement sitting group that is our community today. Her practical teaching so full of laughter, her often irreverent style that stood us all the more upright in the dharma, her insistence that all people no matter their physical circumstances should have...
Registration is closed.
Eight-week class led by Catherine Gammon
Thursdays, April 4 through May 23, 8:00pm to 9:15pm
$60 BZC members/$120 non-members
In this class we turn our attention to Shakyamuni Buddha's teaching for arousing mindfulness as the basis for the practice that leads to liberation from suffering.
The foundations of mindfulness that Shakyamuni Buddha taught are mindfulness of body, mindfulness of feeling (or sensation), mindfulness of mind,...
Please check out our growing archive of online dharma talks. The talks from Reb Anderson's winter 2012 retreat and many of Teah's recent talks (as well as some talks from Norman Fischer that he gave at BZC in 2008 and 2009) have all been posted online.
Please click on this link for audio recordings of recent talks.
Our recorded talks are offered free of charge and are made possible by the donations we receive. To support BZC's ongoing offering of the dharma, please consider making a donation by...
We are having a Membership Drive from November 12 through December 17th in continuing support of our community that is growing in so many ways! Our practice is thriving at Brooklyn Zen Center as more practitioners join our community and we deepen our practice together.
Our community has always carried a deep respect for our Zen Buddhist tradition with an aim to respond to the requests of the New York community and the world as it is today. Zen has always valued a spirit of mindful spontaneity and creativity in its cultivation of compassion and wisdom....
Brooklyn Zen Center will be welcoming in 2012 with a special celebration this coming New Year's Eve.
The festivities will start at 8 pm (doors open at 7:45) with a period of temple cleaning. At 9:20 we'll have noodle soup. Starting at 10:30 we'll sit three periods of zazen, the third of which will go until just past midnight. During the last period, we'll strike 108 bells that will ring in the New Year. It's a very sweet, joyful and peaceful way to celebrate this transition - and there's also something very powerful about sitting quietly in the zendo while the city...
Over the past year, many sangha members have asked about ways they can help out at Brooklyn Zen Center. BZC will be having an orientation for all interested volunteers on Saturday, January 21st, from 1:30 to 3:00pm (after lunch).
This orientation will offer a chance for those interested to come together and talk about how they would like to volunteer and to learn about the myriad opportunities -- from the kitchen to the zendo and beyond -- that are available. Tea and refreshments will be served.
Volunteer activity is a core part of our practice and is essential...
We'll be having our winter workday on Saturday, February 4th, from 9am to 5pm. The workday will take the place of our regularly scheduled Saturday program.
A workday is a great way to engage in the practice of mindful activity and a wonderful opportunity for members of the community to work together to care for our practice space. The day will combine periods of zazen with periods of mindful work, and there will be a break for lunch. No experience is necessary (although some familiarity with assembling Ikea furniture will come in handy)!
...
The Brooklyn Sit-a-thon is a borough-wide event where we join together on April 21st to spend a day in sitting meditation as a way to raise funds for the Awake Youth Project – a program coordinated by Brooklyn Zen Center in partnership with Brooklyn College Community Partnership to bring mindfulness and meditation programs to Brooklyn...
Head teacher Teah Strozer's talks and teaching this spring will focus on the topic of time. Teah’s description of the subject is as follows:
This spring our community will be focusing on how we practice with time. There is no such thing as time. Time is a mental construct. But we live bound by it: losing it, wasting it. We're told to live 100% in the present moment, a moment of eternity. But we choose to live in linear time. In spiritual practice, we hope to be enlightened, later. Over the next few months, we’ll explore this notion of time with masters Eihei Dogen,...
Please join us on Thursday evening, May 31st, at 7pm for our third annual mindful walk across the Brooklyn Bridge with the Jewish Meditation Center of Brooklyn.
Once again, we'll be teaming up with the JMC for a wonderful celebration of community, mindfulness and the glorious city that we call home. We'll meet near the entrance to the bridge on the Manhattan side, across the street from City Hall at Park Row and Centre Street...
Brooklyn Zen Center Ino ("head of the meditation hall") Ian Case will be offering a series of trainings in zendo practice roles starting Wednesday, June 27th, and running through the Wednesdays in July (except July 4th). These classes will take place from 8pm to 9pm following evening zazen. All those interested are welcome.
Taking on a practice role, such as ringing the bells for zazen and service, is an excellent way to deepen and broaden one's practice and support the sangha at the same time. Participants in these trainings will be assigned a role in the ongoing summer...
We'll be having our fall workday on Saturday, November 17th, starting at 9am. For this workday, we'll be going to Red Hook to help sangha members and others in the community who are still recovering from the effects of Hurricane Sandy. Our plan is to meet at BZC at 9am and then head over to Red Hook together. The workday will take the place of our regularly scheduled Saturday program.
A workday is a great way to engage in the practice of mindful activity and a wonderful opportunity for members of the community to work together. The day will combine periods...
If Brooklyn Zen Center has been a source of encouragement for actualizing the deepest intentions you have for your life, please consider supporting our practice commmunity by renewing youyr membership or becoming a member of Brooklyn Zen Center for 2013.
Thanks to the heartfelt intention and commitment of our sangha, Brooklyn Zen Center has built a beautiful and stable practice center and now supports a resident teacher, Teah Strozer -- and continues to bring the dharma to Brooklyn through a range of offerings.
Please consider being a part of this...
Time: 8pm - 1am (doors open at 7:45)
The festivities will start at 8pm with a period of temple cleaning. At 9:30 we'll have noodle soup. Starting at 10:30, we'll sit three periods of zazen, the third of which will go until just past midnight. During the last period, we'll sound 108 bells that will ring in the New Year. This is a very sweet, joyful and peaceful way to celebrate this transition -- and there's also something very powerful about sitting quietly in the zendo while the city erupts with its own celebrations all around you. If you would like to attend,...
Please note that Brooklyn Zen Center will be operating on its winter interim schedule from December 16th through January 14th. During this time, we will switch over to a Saturday-only meditation schedule. (We also won't be offering zazen instruction during the interim.)
The schedule will be as follows:
10:00am Doors open
10:20am Zazen
11:00am Kinhin (walking meditation)
11:10am Zazen
11:50am End
The regular schedule will resume the week of January 14th. The next meditation instruction will be given on Saturday...
In response to the desire of sangha parents to share their practice with their children, Brooklyn Zen Center has established a family practice program featuring a mindfulness program for kids.
BZC Kids meets on the second Sunday of every month from 10:30 to noon. (The next meeting will be on Sunday, April 14th.) During this time, mindful games and play are integrated with mindful walking, breathing, sitting, listening, and the practice forms used at Brooklyn Zen Center. Kids ages four to twelve are recommended, but toddlers are also welcome. There is a suggested donation...
Brooklyn Zen Center will be having a Parinirvana ceremony on Wednesday evening, February 13th, at 8pm. This special ceremony commemorates the parinirvana (passing on) of Shakyamuni Buddha. All are welcome and encouraged to attend the ceremony and the periods of zazen beforehand.
Registration is closed.
Six-week class led by Teah Strozer
Mondays, March 25th through April 29th, 7:00pm to 8:15pm
$60 BZC members/$120 non-members
Zen Buddhism is a path to freedom from unnecessary suffering for ourselves and others. It is based on a few basic behaviors and principles. Most fundamentally, we all live one life. To realize and live that understanding is the reason we...
Norman Fischer will be giving a poetry reading at Brooklyn Zen Center on Saturday, May 25th, at 7:30pm to celebrate the publication of The Strugglers, his latest collection of poetry. Tea and refreshments will be served, and copies of his book will be available for sale.
Norman founded and currently leads the Everyday Zen Foundation, a network of sanghas with chapters in Canada, the United States and Mexico. He offers teaching to sanghas around the country. Among his numerous publications, Norman has written nine volumes of poetry as...
Register here.
On Sunday, July 21st, Zen priest Catherine Gammon will be leading a one-day writing workshop, from 9am to 5pm.
Engaging playfully with imaginative writing as an opportunity to receive, express, study, and reveal our own presently arising body and mind, the group will write together from prompts, and read aloud, listen, and respond to one another's words. The group's writings and responses are explorations, and conversations will be based in imaginative and...
Please join us Wednesday evening, July 10th at 7pm for our fourth annual mindful walk across the Brooklyn Bridge with the Jewish Meditation Center of Brooklyn and The Mindfulness Project at NYU.
We'll be teaming up with the JMC and the Mindfulness Project for a wonderful celebration of community, mindfulness and the glorious city that we call home. We'll meet near the entrance to the...
We are having a Membership Drive from November 12 through December 17th in continuing support of our community that is growing in so many ways! Our practice is thriving at Brooklyn Zen Center as more practitioners join our community and we deepen our practice together.
Our community has always carried a deep respect for our Zen Buddhist tradition with an aim to respond to the requests of the New York community and the world as it is today. Zen has always valued a spirit of mindful spontaneity and creativity in its cultivation of compassion and wisdom....
Brooklyn Zen Center will be welcoming in 2012 with a special celebration this coming New Year's Eve.
The festivities will start at 8 pm (doors open at 7:45) with a period of temple cleaning. At 9:20 we'll have noodle soup. Starting at 10:30 we'll sit three periods of zazen, the third of which will go until just past midnight. During the last period, we'll strike 108 bells that will ring in the New Year. It's a very sweet, joyful and peaceful way to celebrate this transition - and there's also something very powerful about sitting quietly in the zendo while the city...
Over the past year, many sangha members have asked about ways they can help out at Brooklyn Zen Center. BZC will be having an orientation for all interested volunteers on Saturday, January 21st, from 1:30 to 3:00pm (after lunch).
This orientation will offer a chance for those interested to come together and talk about how they would like to volunteer and to learn about the myriad opportunities -- from the kitchen to the zendo and beyond -- that are available. Tea and refreshments will be served.
Volunteer activity is a core part of our practice and is essential...
We'll be having our winter workday on Saturday, February 4th, from 9am to 5pm. The workday will take the place of our regularly scheduled Saturday program.
A workday is a great way to engage in the practice of mindful activity and a wonderful opportunity for members of the community to work together to care for our practice space. The day will combine periods of zazen with periods of mindful work, and there will be a break for lunch. No experience is necessary (although some familiarity with assembling Ikea furniture will come in handy)!
...
The Brooklyn Sit-a-thon is a borough-wide event where we join together on April 21st to spend a day in sitting meditation as a way to raise funds for the Awake Youth Project – a program coordinated by Brooklyn Zen Center in partnership with Brooklyn College Community Partnership to bring mindfulness and meditation programs to Brooklyn...
Head teacher Teah Strozer's talks and teaching this spring will focus on the topic of time. Teah’s description of the subject is as follows:
This spring our community will be focusing on how we practice with time. There is no such thing as time. Time is a mental construct. But we live bound by it: losing it, wasting it. We're told to live 100% in the present moment, a moment of eternity. But we choose to live in linear time. In spiritual practice, we hope to be enlightened, later. Over the next few months, we’ll explore this notion of time with masters Eihei Dogen,...
Please join us on Thursday evening, May 31st, at 7pm for our third annual mindful walk across the Brooklyn Bridge with the Jewish Meditation Center of Brooklyn.
Once again, we'll be teaming up with the JMC for a wonderful celebration of community, mindfulness and the glorious city that we call home. We'll meet near the entrance to the bridge on the Manhattan side, across the street from City Hall at Park Row and Centre Street...
Brooklyn Zen Center Ino ("head of the meditation hall") Ian Case will be offering a series of trainings in zendo practice roles starting Wednesday, June 27th, and running through the Wednesdays in July (except July 4th). These classes will take place from 8pm to 9pm following evening zazen. All those interested are welcome.
Taking on a practice role, such as ringing the bells for zazen and service, is an excellent way to deepen and broaden one's practice and support the sangha at the same time. Participants in these trainings will be assigned a role in the ongoing summer...
We'll be having our fall workday on Saturday, November 17th, starting at 9am. For this workday, we'll be going to Red Hook to help sangha members and others in the community who are still recovering from the effects of Hurricane Sandy. Our plan is to meet at BZC at 9am and then head over to Red Hook together. The workday will take the place of our regularly scheduled Saturday program.
A workday is a great way to engage in the practice of mindful activity and a wonderful opportunity for members of the community to work together. The day will combine periods...
If Brooklyn Zen Center has been a source of encouragement for actualizing the deepest intentions you have for your life, please consider supporting our practice commmunity by renewing youyr membership or becoming a member of Brooklyn Zen Center for 2013.
Thanks to the heartfelt intention and commitment of our sangha, Brooklyn Zen Center has built a beautiful and stable practice center and now supports a resident teacher, Teah Strozer -- and continues to bring the dharma to Brooklyn through a range of offerings.
Please consider being a part of this...
Time: 8pm - 1am (doors open at 7:45)
The festivities will start at 8pm with a period of temple cleaning. At 9:30 we'll have noodle soup. Starting at 10:30, we'll sit three periods of zazen, the third of which will go until just past midnight. During the last period, we'll sound 108 bells that will ring in the New Year. This is a very sweet, joyful and peaceful way to celebrate this transition -- and there's also something very powerful about sitting quietly in the zendo while the city erupts with its own celebrations all around you. If you would like to attend,...
Please note that Brooklyn Zen Center will be operating on its winter interim schedule from December 16th through January 14th. During this time, we will switch over to a Saturday-only meditation schedule. (We also won't be offering zazen instruction during the interim.)
The schedule will be as follows:
10:00am Doors open
10:20am Zazen
11:00am Kinhin (walking meditation)
11:10am Zazen
11:50am End
The regular schedule will resume the week of January 14th. The next meditation instruction will be given on Saturday...
In response to the desire of sangha parents to share their practice with their children, Brooklyn Zen Center has established a family practice program featuring a mindfulness program for kids.
BZC Kids meets on the second Sunday of every month from 10:30 to noon. (The next meeting will be on Sunday, April 14th.) During this time, mindful games and play are integrated with mindful walking, breathing, sitting, listening, and the practice forms used at Brooklyn Zen Center. Kids ages four to twelve are recommended, but toddlers are also welcome. There is a suggested donation...
Brooklyn Zen Center will be having a Parinirvana ceremony on Wednesday evening, February 13th, at 8pm. This special ceremony commemorates the parinirvana (passing on) of Shakyamuni Buddha. All are welcome and encouraged to attend the ceremony and the periods of zazen beforehand.
Please join us Wednesday evening, July 10th at 7pm for our fourth annual mindful walk across the Brooklyn Bridge with the Jewish Meditation Center of Brooklyn and The Mindfulness Project at NYU.
We'll be teaming up with the JMC and the Mindfulness Project for a wonderful celebration of community, mindfulness and the glorious city that we call home. We'll meet near the entrance to the...
Though the culture of our community has never been one of strong requirements, there are a few customs that might be helpful to know for those new to practice at Brooklyn Zen Center.
___
ARRIVING AND LEAVING
When there are consecutive zazen periods, please feel free to come for either or both of the periods. If arriving for the first period of zazen, please try to be seated in the zendo five minutes before the beginning of the meditation period. If arriving for the second period, we ask that you try to arrive during the ten-minute...
“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s mind there are few.” – Shunryu Suzuki Roshi
It is this opportunity and flexibility available to the beginner's mind that we deeply value in our Zen practice. So if you are new to practice, welcome! We have a saying, "not knowing is most intimate," and in this spirit we welcome all beginning practitioners. If you are new to Zen and are curious about a supportive way to enter the practice, here are a few suggestions.
GETTING STARTED
...
The following are customs for sesshins (Zen meditation retreats).
Please try to arrive and be settled at your seat at least five minutes before the first period of zazen in the morning as well as throughout the day. The signal for zazen will be two hits on the bell in the common area 10 minutes before zazen begins. At the sound of the bell, please go to the zendo directly. There will be one hit on the bell 5 minutes before zazen at which time we are to already be settled in for zazen.
Maintaining silence throughout the sesshin is a great support...
ATTENDANCE
Please pay for all days that you plan to attend. If you are attending any part of a day, we ask that you pay for the entire day. We also require a two-day minimum attendance for retreats of three days or more to cultivate both a sense of continuity for those participating as well as the deep stillness that is at the heart of the practice of...
Here are a few suggestions that might be of interest - some on Zen and some on Buddhism more generally. Enjoy!
Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind - Shunryu Suzuki
Not Always...
Please note that Urban Zen sessions have ended for the summer and will resume in the fall. Please check back for updates!
How do we find calm in an urban environment? Zen meditation is practicing being awake. We’ll begin with a short period of silent meditation. While we will focus on meditation and mindfulness training, we will also do some free writing and explore what thoughts and feelings arise on the page. Then we'll have a cup of tea and some 'real talk' about our ideas and dreams and how we can live a more peaceful...
Teen Meditation at Brooklyn Zen Center is:
- meditation for teens by teens
- open, creative, authentic, compassionate, & fun!
- bringing mindfulness into our lives, relationships, schools, families & communities
- creating a healthier, happier & more peaceful world through self-understanding
- welcoming of all teens no matter your background
At every meeting we meditate, discuss our...
Step 11 says, “Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.”
How do we understand God or Higher Power in the context of Buddhist practice? What is Buddhist prayer and meditation? How does a recovering addict integrate their program with Buddhism?
The Brooklyn 12-Step Sangha is open to people from any recovery program seeking to understand Buddhism. We’ll meet weekly to meditate, read from Buddhist 12-Step literature and...
In response to the desire of sangha parents to share their practice with their children, Brooklyn Zen Center has established a family practice program featuring a mindfulness program for kids.
BZC Kids meets on the second Sunday of every month from 10:30 to noon. During this time, mindful games and play are integrated with mindful walking, breathing, sitting, listening, and the practice forms used at Brooklyn Zen Center. Kids ages four to twelve are recommended, but toddlers are also welcome. There is a suggested donation of $10 for all non-BZC members. ...
Registration is closed.
Zoketsu Norman Fischer will be visiting Brooklyn Zen Center to lead a one-day retreat and workshop on Saturday, May 25th from 9am to 5pm. The doors will open at 8:30am. The workshop will be based on his most recent book, Training in Compassion: Zen Teachings on the Practice of Lojong.
Lojong is the...
Registration for the retreat is closed.
Brooklyn Zen Center will wrap up the spring teaching season with a five-day silent retreat with head teacher Teah Strozer from Wednesday, June 5th to Sunday the 9th. The retreat will officially open with an orientation on Tuesday evening, June 4th, at 7:30pm.
The retreat will feature periods of sitting and walking meditation, mindful work practice and daily dharma talks. There will also be an opportunity for participants to meet with Teah for private practice discussion. The schedule will go...
Soto Zen teacher, translator and author Shohaku Okumura will be visiting Brooklyn Zen Center to lead a 5-day Genzo-e retreat from July 24-28, 2013. Genzo-e is a meditation and study retreat in which participants deeply investigate the teachings of Dogen Zenji, the 13th-century founder of Soto Zen. Rev. Shohaku Okumura is one of the world's foremost teachers on Dogen's practice and philosophy.
For this retreat, we will be studying two fascicles of Dogen's Shobogenzo, "Zenki (Total Function)" and "Tsuki (Moon)." The retreat will be limited to 50 participants...






















