ZEN GARLAND ORDER
member groups working together on practice paths, values, liturgy, standards and certifications for training and empowerments

ZEN GARLAND COMMUNITY STUDY CENTER & SEMINARY
offering classes and workshops in meditation, wisdom, ethics, embodiment and training tracks for teaching and ordination

ZEN GARLAND SOCIAL ACTION PROJECTS
assisting individuals and communities develop the skills and resources they need to help themselves

ZEN GARLAND’S HEAD TEMPLE HIGH MOUNTAIN CRYSTAL LAKE
a welcoming community hosting daily Zen practice and retreats, and managing the Community Study Center & Seminary

Mission

Zen Garland is founded on the wellspring of wisdom and compassion: we care for all creation because it is our Self.

Zen Garland is created to help fulfill our vows to awaken all creation, and Roshi Genki's vows to transmit enlightenment and Zen Garland's mission mind-to-mind to successors.

Zen Garland is committed to the spiritual transformation of individuals, families and communities. Zen Garland offers deep contemplative practice, a strong curriculum of classes and experiential opportunities for spiritual development, and direct engagement in projects for social justice.

Our training place is the world and daily life, not a refuge from it. Our approach is to practice with all aspects of our lives, including the complex dimensions of our emotions, sexuality, relationships and work.

Practice

Our welcoming community provides daily meditation, liturgy and retreats, and manages the Community Study Center & Seminary.

Zen Garland has a General Path that serves as a foundation for spiritual development uniting us all. This Path offers a holistic, phased approach to spiritual development in the following areas: Zen Meditation, Spiritual Guidance with Zen Garland Teachers, Ethics, Social Justice and Social Service, Embodiment, Character Development, and study of Zen Buddhist and other spiritual sources and commentaries.

In addition we offer four advanced Practice Paths – Zen Buddhism, Christian Zen, Native American Zen and Aikido Zen. All these Paths offer Expressions, including Spiritual Development, Teaching, Ordination as a Priest or Minister.

We also offer certification tracks in Pastoral Counseling, Tara Care: Buddhist Hospice Training and Chaplaincy.

Order

Roshi Genki has chosen to develop an order for Zen that maintains the rigorous standards of traditional transmission, while expressing the values and needs of our time: equality between genders, an openness to orientation, engagement in the struggles for social justice, multi-faith and multi-racial cooperation, and the inclusion of psychological dimensions of character development.

The establishment of Practice Paths in Zen Garland and the empowerments and ordinations of Zen teachers, Zen priests and Zen ministers leading Practice Paths flow from Roshi Paul Genki Kahn’s empowerment as a Zen Buddhist priest, master teacher, lineage and precept holder. Zen realization and actualization are the heart of our spirituality and beyond form and formlessness. Being so, Zen can express itself in infinite forms. The Zen Garland Practice Paths transmit the heart of Zen, share a General Path that provides common ground, and offer such unique expressions for spiritual practice as Christian Zen, Native American Zen, Aikido Zen.

The Zen Garland Order consists of Member Groups from various faiths and forms of practice, united in Zen Garland’s vision, values, and teachings. We share the holistic Zen Garland core practices and teaching standards, while supporting each other's diversity of expression.