Profile
Upaya Zen Center is a Zen Buddhist practice, service, and training center. Our vision focuses on the integration of practice and social action, bringing together wisdom and compassion. We are a global community for those working to create racial, economic, and environmental justice, compassionate care for the most vulnerable, and a place of committed, daily contemplative practice and learning through its retreats, trainings, and programs, free Dharma podcasts and community services.
Upaya’s mission is to provide a context for community practice, education in Buddhism and social service in the areas of death and dying, prison work, the environment, women’s rights, and peacework. It endeavors to fulfill the vision of the Five Buddha Family Mandala, by understanding the integration of all of its functions.
In addition to daily Zazen and weekly Dharma talks, Upaya offers a robust training program that includes both in-person and online short programs and retreats, Buddhist Chaplaincy Training, contemplative training for doctors and clinicians, and socially engaged programs such as the local prison and street ministry programs and G.R.A.C.E. education training for correctional officers.
Upaya’s programs are designed to be accessible to all, with most programs being dana-based and available online via Zoom and Upaya’s YouTube Channel.
For those discerning a path of deeper practice, Upaya’s long-term Residential Training Program is an opportunity to step out of the pace of ordinary life and into a spiritual community grounded in Zen practice, service, and study. The daily life of a resident involves study, intensive meditation, liturgy, work practice, and local community service. Residents participate in a diverse course of study on socially engaged Buddhism, Buddhist studies, and contemplative science.
