What is Zen?

Awakening Together Zen Community follows the teaching, traditions, and guidance of our primary teacher Flint Sparks, who is part of the dharma lineage of Charlotte Joko Beck, Zenkei Blanche Hartman, and Shunryu Suzuki Roshi.  

What is Soto Zen?

Awakening Together Zen Community is part of the Soto Zen tradition, which is defined by Soto Zen Buddhist Association:

“Soto Zen Buddhism is distinguished by its focus on the down-to-earth practice. It encourages awareness of the workings of one’s own mind as a means of living mindfully in all areas of daily life – at home, at work and in the community.

In his “Instructions for the Cook,” Dogen taught that cooking and caring for other people were as important as sitting zazen and chanting sutras.

Soto Zen is for those who want to practice Zen in everything they do. In coming face to face with their life in all its aspects, they come to know themselves and find their relationship to all other things. They learn to be truly here and to serve in all ways.”

Practice and Teachings

In our community of practice, we enact and embody the traditional forms (bowing, chants, Zazen, Kinhin) of Soto Zen and draw upon the teachings of our teachers within the Soto Zen lineage, other Buddhist traditions, as well as other observers of the human experience, nature, and the world (artists, poets, philosophers, psychologists, & theologians).