Brooklyn Zen Center is a home for a wide body of practitioners in Brooklyn, with public programming that actualizes our vision of socially-engaged dharma.
Boundless Mind Temple (BMT) is Brooklyn Zen Center’s home for in-person practice, located at 326 Clinton Street in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, in the parish house of Christ Church Cobble Hill — a progressive, welcoming community space that has generously opened its doors to BZC as part of its commitment to shared spiritual community.
BMT offers regular zazen, dharma talks by BZC’s own teachers and guest speakers, one-day, three-day, and five-day sesshins, classes, discussion groups, and community events. We emphasize lay practice, social engagement, and community — serving as both an entry point for newcomers and a home for long-term practitioners meeting the challenges of the world with compassion and presence.
All are welcome. See upcoming events here.
For directions and contact information, please visit our Contact page.
Brooklyn Zen Center began its Online Zendo during the COVID-19 pandemic and discovered that it not only helped the in-person community stay connected, but became an important practice space for sangha members in different locations, newcomers, and those who cannot access our in-person offerings. Our online community now reaches practitioners nationally and internationally.
We regularly offer dharma talks; classes, discussion groups, and community meetings online, as well as Monday – Friday morning zazen and service. See upcoming events here.
We also offer a podcast featuring audio from dharma talks across our community — freely offered and supported by the generosity of our listeners.
Brooklyn Zen Center was founded by Greg Snyder, Laura O’Loughlin, and Ian Case, whose vision and devotion brought this community into being. Our practice began in a basement apartment in Brooklyn — humble, intimate, and full of aspiration. It flourished at our temple at 505 Carroll Street in Gowanus, a beloved space that held our community through many years of growth and deepening practice.
During those years we also established Ancestral Heart Zen Temple, a residential monastery near Millerton, New York, and later the Millerton Zendo, a public-facing practice space in the local community. These locations were important chapters in BZC’s story — places where practitioners lived, trained, and cultivated deep connection with the land, the body, and the dharma.
When the COVID-19 pandemic closed our Carroll Street doors, we found our way to our current home at Christ Church Cobble Hill. The Millerton Zendo has since found new life as Mountain Colors Zen, an independent community continuing practice in the Millerton area. We closed Ancestral Heart with gratitude, choosing to refocus and deepen our commitment to practice in Brooklyn.
As BZC continues to evolve, we carry forward everything we learned and everything we love from those years. We are grateful for the community that gathered at each of these locations, and for all that grew there.