Monterey Bay Zen Center

HISTORY
The Monterey Bay Zen Center was founded in 1988 in Carmel, California. Sobun Katherine Thanas (Karin Sobun), a resident teacher at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center in the Big Sur Ventana, agreed to teach at MBZC weekly. 

The group met for a short time at the Unitarian Universalist church and then moved to the Carl Cherry Center for the Arts in Carmel. In 1997, Monterey Bay Zen Center received nonprofit status from the State of California.

MBZC is a Buddhist meditation community following the Soto Zen tradition brought to Japan by the 13th century Japanese Master Eihei Dogen. In 1959, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi introduced this tradition in San Francisco.  He founded the San Francisco Zen Center and Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, and taught meditation as inseparable from everyday life.

OUR FOUNDER
Sobun Katherine Thanas trained for more than 20 years at San Francisco Zen Center with Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, Dainin Katagiri Roshi, Zentatsu Baker Roshi, and Tenshin Anderson Roshi. She was ordained as a Soto Zen priest in 1975, received Dharma Transmission in 1988 from Tenshin Anderson Roshi, and later that year became founding teacher at MBZC where she taught until her decease. In 2002 she was installed as the first Abbot of Santa Cruz Zen Center, where she stayed until her passing in 2012.

TEACHING
Soto Zen meditation, as taught at Monterey Bay Zen Center, consists of sitting upright and still on a floor cushion, bench, or chair, while paying attention to the breath. Meditation is central to the practice of Zen Buddhism because through meditation people are able to observe the habitual patterns of their minds and learn to truly experience the present moment — the “here and now.”

Darlene Cohen of the Russian River Zendo developed suggestions on alternative postures for meditation. A couple of her books are still in print. (Darlene passed in 2011.)

A summary of traditional Soto zazen instruction is found at Soto-Net. 

ZAZEN, CLASSES and ACTIVITIES
Weekly evening zazen sessions are held on Tuesday nights from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Cherry Center in Carmel, which includes 40 minutes of sitting meditation, 10 minutes of walking meditation, a short ceremony, and then an hour lecture.

Meditation instruction is offered free of charge the first Tuesday of each month at 5:30 p.m.

MBZC offers many other sitting opportunities, classes and workshops through the week and during the year. Please check the calendar by clicking here or the schedule tab at the top of any page.