About Us

Flint first came to Minnesota in March of 2017 to offer a retreat style workshop on Waking Up and Growing Up, integrating his experience and training in the Hakomi method and Internal Family Systems.  This first retreat was offered by MN Trauma Project, a 501(c)3 organization offering trainings for mental health professionals.  Additional retreats took place in Fall 2017, Fall 2018, and Fall 2019.  With each retreat, small groups of attendees continued to meet afterwards for meditation, reflection, and connection and the retreats gradually shifted from a focus on therapy and mindfulness to Zen Buddhist practice.  This coalesced into a unified, regularly meeting community beginning in 2020.  

As the pandemic settled onto the world in 2020, the group shifted online, meeting on Zoom for Zazen and relational practice.  These bi-weekly gatherings became a refuge for a growing community, offering an opportunity to deepen our Zen practice and spiritual friendship.  We continued to host online retreats with Flint between 2020-2023 and returned to an annual hybrid retreat in 2022.  We completed our first community Precepts course in 2022.

We are a community of like-minded, like-hearted individuals who have found that the practices of Zen Buddhism support and deepen our capacity to skillfully and compassionately meet everyday life and people.  While many within this community are currently or historically engaged in the helping professions, that is neither a requirement or an expectation.  Indeed the varied roles that we hold or have held professionally all benefit from our practice of sitting, meeting what arises, and determining what action or response appropriately follows.  

Coming Soon