Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, CA

For many years I have been interested in Zen Buddhism. I have spent time at the San Francisco Zen Center, Green Gulch Farm, CA, and Zen Mountain Monastery, NY, but I never got to Tassajara Zen Mountain Center in the wilderness of the Los Padres National Forest, CA.

I own three Tassajara cookbooks that often catch my eye as I pass my kitchen bookshelf. While living in Guam, I met a couple also interested in Zen and when they lived previously in CA the husband volunteered his services as a doctor for the monks at Tassajara. The couple filled my head with visions of sitting zazen, hiking amongst wildflowers, eating the most delicious natural food, and bathing in the water of hot springs. The doctor is now deceased, but three years ago his wife (my good friend) asked me if I would join her at Tassajara for a week long retreat that would honor her husband and celebrate her 70th birthday. I would have jumped at the chance, except the retreat started the weekend of my younger daughter's wedding.

So I continue to dream about a joyful stay at Tassajara, the oldest Japanese Buddhist Soto Zen Monastery in the USA. First, I will have to travel this road!

Anonymous
PA