Name: Green Gulch Zen Center
Item: Green Gulch Zen Center
Author: Send an Enquiry

Green Gulch Farm Zen Center offers a unique opportunity for Buddhist practice. It is a place where we learn about Buddhism, not only through meditation and study, but also by through working and living together in ordinary situations. This emphasis on activity, on our everyday life, is traditional in Zen Practice. At Green Gulch, beginning students as well as priests and lay people with many years of experience in Zen Practice, live and work together, “negotiating the Way.”

The residential community consists of about 55 people including full-time staff members, short-term residents, and children. Our schedule throughout the year includes zazen (meditation), sutra chanting, lectures, discussions, work and individual instruction with Green Gulch priests and lay leaders.

Visiting Students

Green Gulch has a variety of ways to be in residence.

Guest Practice Retreatants stay in our guest facilities, join residents in early morning meditation and work with the community until noon, with afternoons and evenings free. This is a good way to combine a private retreat with participation in the life and practice of the community. The program is available Sunday through Thursday, with a three-night minimum. You can find a schedule, rates and booking information on our Guest Retreats page.

Guest Students reside in student housing and participate in the full meditation and work schedule and attend classes, lectures, and ceremonies. This program offers short-term residency to those interested in beginning or deepening Zen practice with the support of a community. There is a seven-day minimum. Cost, schedule, program description and an application are on our Guest Student page.

Practice Period is an opportunity to live in our community and intensify your practice over an eight week period, through increased meditation and study and contact with Zen Center teachers. These are times of intensive formal Zen training emphasizing zazen, ceremonies, study and daily work. Practice Period students commit to be in residence for the entire term. Space permitting, we may also accept short-term participants.

Green Gulch offers two 8-week Practice Periods each year. They begin in October and February, and end with a 7 day sesshin. A 3 1/2 week “Intensive” which includes a 5 day sesshin is held in January.

Work Practice Apprentices participate fully in the daily life of the residential community in three-month or six-month residential programs. Work apprentices reside in student housing and are asked to remain at Green Gulch during the first month of residency. Upon successful completion of the program, students are eligible for Practice Period scholarships. A two-week stay as a guest student is prerequisite for applying for this program. For more information and an application see our Work Practice Apprenticeship Program web page.

The Farm and Garden Apprenticeship is a six-month apprenticeship in Zen practice and organic farming and gardening. The apprentices join the meditation and class schedule and focus on farm and garden work and study. Apprentices earn two practice periods. The program runs from mid-April to mid-October. A two-week stay as a guest student is a prerequisite for applying for the program. For more information and an application call 415.354.0420 or email Green Gulch Farm and Garden.

Tenshin Reb Anderson (Senior Dharma Teacher)
Tenshin Reb Anderson was born in Mississippi, grew up in Minnesota, and left advanced study in mathematics and Western psychology to come to Zen Center in 1967. He practiced with Suzuki Roshi, who ordained him as a priest in 1970 and gave him the name Tenshin Zenki ("Naturally Real, The Whole Works"). He received dharma transmission in 1983 and served as abbot of San Francisco Zen Center's three training centers (City Center, Green Gulch Farm, and Tassajara Zen Mountain Center) from 1986 to 1995. Tenshin Reb Anderson continues to teach at Zen Center, living with his family at Green Gulch Farm. He is author of Warm Smiles from Cold Mountains: Dharma Talks on Zen Meditation and Being Upright: Zen Meditation and the Bodhisattva Precepts. Published in 2012: The Third Turning of the Wheel: Wisdom of the Samdhinirmocana Sutra, a guidebook to the workings of consciousness and compassionate awakening.

Eijun Linda Cutts (Central Abbess)
Eijun Linda Cutts came to San Francisco Zen Center in 1971 and was ordained as a priest in 1975. She has lived at Tassajara and San Francisco City Center, and has resided at Green Gulch Farm since 1993. In 1996 Linda received dharma transmission from Tenshin Reb Anderson. Having served as Abbess of San Francisco Zen Center from 2000 to 2007, she was appointed Abiding Abbess of Green Gulch Farm Zen Center in 2010, and Central Abbess of SFZC in 2014. She continues to teach and lead practice periods and retreats at Tassajara, Green Gulch, Mexico, Italy and elsewhere, and has been leading Yoga-Zen retreats and workshops for many years. Linda sits on the Steering Committee of the California Interfaith Power and Light (CIPL), an interfaith group dedicated to addressing climate change through faith-based education and skillful action. She is also on the Board of the Consciousness, Mindfulness & Compassion (CM&C) International Association.

Shokuchi Deirdre Carrigan is an ordained Soto Zen priest in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, founder of San Francisco Zen Center, and has been teaching yoga since 1989. She met her teachers, Zen Master Tenshin Reb Anderson and Senior Iyengar Yoga Teacher Donald Moyer, in a Zen and Yoga retreat at Green Gulch Farm 30 years ago and has been practicing both Zen meditation and yoga in the Iyengar tradition since that time. She has been living at Green Gulch Farm since 2007 and has been co-leading Zen and Yoga retreats at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center since 2001.

Weekly Schedule*

Mornings
5:00 am Zazen (sitting meditation)
5:40 Kinhin (walking meditation)
5:50 Zazen
6:30 Service
7:00 Soji (temple cleaning)

Afternoons
5:00 pm Zazen
5:50 Service

Wednesday Morning
During the growing season only
5:00 am Zazen (sitting meditation)
5:40 Refuges
5:50 Change into work clothes and work in the garden or fields until 7 am
Contact office for more information.

Wednesday Evening
During farming season—May through September
7:15 pm Lecture/Dharma event
During practice periods-October through April
7:30 pm Lecture/Dharma event
Contact office for more information.

*Though the meditation hall (zendo) is usually open daily for meditation, the schedule varies at times; for example, following sesshins there is an interim, during which the first period of meditation is at 5:50 am. Also, the evening sitting is offered on days that vary according to the season. Please call our office (see below) for the current schedule.

Sunday Morning Schedule
Same as weekdays, until
8:15 am Zazen Meditation Instruction**
9:15 Zazen
10:00 Public lecture: Dharma talk (hearing assistance available)
11:15 Tea
11:45 Discussion with lecturer
12:15 Lunch: $15 donation requested***

Green Gulch Zen Center

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