Tassajara Zen Mountain Center Offers A Spiritual Trip for Summer

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Parent Category: Travel Info

Category: Travel Feature

Published on Thursday, 08 May 2014 13:03

Written by Brad Balfour

Every year, Tassajara Zen Mountain Center opens its doors to the public for its annual guest season which takes place from May 1 - September 14, 2014. San Francisco Zen Center (SFZC) continues its spiritual engagement and community building with the public opening of its Tassajara center every.

Zen and meditation seekers, yoga lovers, artisan foodies, and everyday people looking to unplug and rejuvenate come to experience a truly serene environment at Tassajara, the most remote and oldest Zen monastery in the United States. 

Located 25 miles southeast of Big Sur, CA, the 2014 Tassajara program offers disciplinary retreats led by expert teachers in six specialty areas

• Body and Mind
• Mindful Living
• Creative Expression 
• Engaging Earth
• Spiritual Practice
• Zen Study & Practice

Among the many 2014 guest season standout retreat leaders are the following

• Singer-Songwriter, Actor Jimmie Dale Gilmore
• Poet, Author, Zen Buddhist Priest Zoketsu Norman Fischer
• Internationally Renowned Poet Jane Hirshfield
• Tassajara: Dinner and Desserts author Dale Kent 
• Poet Naomi Shihab Nye
• More Love, Less Stuff author Andrew Mellen
• Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute CEO Marc Lesser (Google Meditation Workshops,)
• Zen Buddhist Priest and Life Coach Sessei Meg Levie (Google Meditation Workshops)
• The Hidden Lamp: Stories from 25 Centuries of Awakened Women authors Zenshin Florence Caplow & Reigetsu Susan Moon
• Celebrity Vinyasa Yoga Instructor Janet Stone
• Yoga Room Founding Director Donald Moyer (Berkeley, CA)

Shunryu Suzuki Roshi (Founder of San Francisco Zen Center, Author of the the modern spiritual classic and seminal Buddhist book, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind) founded SFZC in 1962.

In 1967, he established Tassajara as the first Zen training monastery outside of Japan. Suzuki Roshi searched for a mountain temple similar to the monasteries in Japan and China, and was able to purchase Tassajara through the support of the Zen community, friends, and patrons.

Today, Tassajara is internationally recognized as the most remote Zen center in the United States and beckons as a top destination for Buddhist practitioners and vacationers alike.

The retreat has come to host celebrity guests (Steve Jobs, CA Governor Jerry Brown, Joan Baez, etc.) and vacationers alike for more than 47 years. Tassajara is known to many through its widely popular hot springs, acclaimed vegetarian cuisine and celebrated artisan bread baking book by Ed Brown, The Tassajara Bread Book.

Nestled in a mountain valley, inland from the Big Sur coast in a remote part of the Ventana wilderness, Tassajara has been long known as a place for self-discovery, healing and an escape from the stresses of everyday life. 

Only accessible by 4-wheel drive vehicles via a 14-mile dirt road, Tassajara is an eco-efficient paradise garnering 100% of its energy from solar panels and the local hot springs. The hot springs have proven to be a main attraction of the Monterey/Salinas area following the native Esselen people's discovery of the springs in the 1870's; generations of settlers and visitors have come ever since seeking renewal and tranquility. 

Please see the list of retreats below, and for more detailed retreat info, visit: www.sfzc.org/tassajara. Various images of Tassajara can also be downloaded at this link.

San Francisco Zen Center Presents 
Tassajara Zen Mountain Center
(25 miles southeast of Big Sur, CA)

Guest Season 2014
May 1 - September 14, 2014

300 Page Street
San Francisco, CA, 94102
phone: 415-863-3136

email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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