Minnesota Zen Meditation Center

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Minnesota Zen Meditation Center

Zen Buddhist temple and meditation center. We welcome all who want to learn more about Zen Buddhist meditation.

Minnesota Zen Meditation Center is a welcoming space for people to awaken wisdom and compassion, to embody Buddhist teachings, to honor our ancestors and descendants, and to joyfully serve our wider communities. Our vibrant community is committed to Zen practice and teachings, and offers daily sitting meditation, weekly classes and lectures, and monthly intensive meditation retreats. Our Center is located on the eastern shore of Lake Calhoun in south Minneapolis. People from all over the region come to here to listen to talks by teachers, attend classes and workshops, participate in retreats, attend services, and, most importantly, to do sitting meditation (zazen).

10/15/2026

Neurodiversity and Zen
with Anlor Davin (online) and Ben Connelly (in person)
Tuesday, October 20
7:30 - 8:15 pm presentation, 8:20 - 9:00 pm community voices
Attend in person at MZMC or online. Find Zoom link here:
https://www.mnzencenter.org/zoom-program-links.html

How can Zen practice be made more inclusive and supportive for neurodivergent individuals? What are the distinct contributions to Zen that neurodivergent people make? How can those who are not neurodivergent better understand and offer meaningful support?

This event will be guided by MZMC guiding teacher Ben Connelly, and Anlor Davin, an autistic Soto Zen priest, author of "Being Seen," and founder of AutSit, a Zen and mindfulness-based organization that serves autistic and neurodivergent individuals.

Following their discussion, we will leave a brief break for our regular Tuesday attendees who need to leave at the usual 8:15 time and then open the floor to neurodivergent practitioners to share their experiences. The event will conclude with a Q&A.

10/08/2026

Ben Connelly joined a multifaith crew for a press conference on MARCH and Minnesota Interfaith Power and Light's Healing Democracy initiatives.

09/29/2026

Join us this Saturday for meditation and reflection
Online Half-Day Retreat
with Monica Reede
Saturday, October 3, 8 am – 2 pm
Learn more or register:
https://www.mnzencenter.org/retreats-and-workshops.html

This retreat is an opportunity for people who live at a distance from MZMC, or who find it more convenient to practice at home, to experience intensive meditation practice. Because online retreats are designed specifically for folks practicing at home, they allow us to explore the intersection between meditation practice and daily life.

About Monica Reede: Monica began studying and practicing Soto Zen in the early 1990’s at MZMC and was ordained as a priest in 2022. She relocated to Ojai, CA and has been fortunate to find a second Zen community with the Santa Barbara Zen Center. She appreciates Zen for its ability to hold the infinite complexity of the whole within the simplicity of an in-breath and an out-breath.

09/24/2026

Join us for Fall Practice Period
with Ben Connelly and Jey Ehrenhalt
Koans: Passing Through the Gateless Barrier
Offered online and in person
Wednesday evenings, September 30 – November 18
https://www.mnzencenter.org/classes.html

Topic for this fall:
Koans, brief paradoxical Zen stories and questions, are one of the most unique aspects of the Zen tradition. They pose an impossible barrier to our conventional minds and encourage us to break through to a new and vibrant way of being. This practice period is an invitation to encounter Zen in its most spontaneous and dynamic form. We will focus on the koans in the Gateless Barrier collection, using Guo Gu's translation and commentary, "Passing Through the Gateless Barrier."

09/03/2026

Ben Connelly will join Tara Brach and Kaira Jewel Lingo for an exploration of Buddhist practice, social engagement, and upholding democracy. Registration link is in comments.

08/10/2026

Learn more about Zen Ritual and Liturgy:
What is at the heart of bowing and chanting?
with Ben Connelly and Deb Mielke
Six Wednesday evenings, August 19 - September 23
7:15 - 8:45 pm (Offered in person and online.)
Register
https://www.mnzencenter.org/store/p143/Zen_Ritual_and_Liturgy.html

Ritual is a basic component of our traditional style practice at MZMC and has been central to Buddhist and Zen practice for thousands of years. This class is an investigation of both how and why we do ritual: bowing, chanting, tending altars, and others. We'll also study the meaning and purpose for some of the chants we use at our Center.

07/13/2026

Join us! MZMC is honored to host, Dr. Leni de Mik, a remarkable person and teacher, who has dedicated decades of her clinical practice to working with trauma survivors. "Leni reminds us that we are not powerless." --Parker Palmer

"How Shall I Stand Between River and Land: Heart Questions for Uncertain Times"
Book Study with Author Leni de Mik
Thursday nights July 16, 23, and 30
7: 00 - 8:30 pm Offered in-person only.
Register
https://www.mnzencenter.org/store/p161/Between_River_and_Land.html

Leni de Mik, a "Buddhist Christian" artist, psychologist, activist, and author, has borne witness to the deepest winters—enduring a childhood in Nazi-occupied Holland and surviving the Hunger Winter, as well as dedicating many decades to working with trauma survivors in clinical practice. Her new book, "How Shall I Stand Between River and Land?: Heart Questions for Uncertain Times," is an invitation to find balance and courage amidst the chaos of our times. The title points to the central question: How do we anchor ourselves while the world shifts beneath our feet? Her reflections remind us that the answer begins with inner awareness of the choices we make, revealing the ultimate truth: that every moment is a choice.

07/04/2026

This morning MZMC's guiding teacher helped to officiate a funeral for the 52 people who have died while detained by ICE since January 2025. May their families and friends be held in love, and may we practice for liberation for all.

06/20/2026

Day of Practice
with Ted O'Toole
Saturday, June 27, 8 am – 5 pm
Offered in person only. A vegetarian lunch is served.
Register: https://www.mnzencenter.org/store/p153/Day_of_Practice%2C_June.html

Settle into a day of the stillness and quiet of Zen. This restorative retreat offering will include a broad range of Soto Zen and MZMC activities, including a focus on creative writing as a path to mindfulness and self-awareness. The day will include zazen, kinhin, a dharma talk, work practice, and two outdoor walks followed by creative writing sessions guided by prompts. Participants will have the opportunity to share brief excerpts from their writing with the group but will not be required to do so.

This retreat will be less meditation intensive and physically rigorous than other MZMC retreats. It will be an opportunity for silent retreat, and an open door to total engagement with the present moment.

06/06/2026

Memorial for Tomoe Katagiri

With sadness, we bring you the news that Tomoe Katagiri passed away in Minneapolis on May 30th. She was 94 years old. When her husband, the late Dainin Katagiri, founded MZMC in 1972, Tomoe was by his side. Energetic and diligent, she helped to develop our center in countless ways. As one of the first people in North America to learn and teach the practice of sewing Buddhist ceremonial robes, Tomoe went on to become a master of Zen sewing. For over forty years she quietly guided students to sew the rakusu and okesa that they would wear, transmitting a deep reverence for Buddha’s robes, making lifelong friends, and passing on her skills to a new generation of teachers. Throughout her long life, Tomoe was a beloved model of devotion to sewing as spiritual practice and Buddhism as a caring way of life. You can learn more about Tomoe’s life and teaching at www.mnzencenter.org/tomoe-katagiri

Here is a passage from an article about Tomoe-san from Tricycle magazine: "Toward the end of our interview I asked Tomoe what is most important about Nyoho-e. She leaned in. 'Through sewing you learn a lot about the Dharma, Buddha's teaching. It’s not just sewing! One stitch. Tiny stitch. When you think how many yards you will sew, chanting the Buddha's name with every stitch, if you count all the stitches, you say, "I cannot do it!" But, if you do this stitch: one stitch. one stitch. one stitch continuously, you will finish. If you stop, if you quit, even if you are very good at stitching, you will never finish. Just continue! And when you continue with the stitching you will have many problems. Experience. Yes. That is your life. You can learn about oneness just chanting refuge in the Buddha with every stitch, and your life, that is dharma stitching.'"

MZMC will host a memorial service for Tomoe Katagiri on Sunday, June 28th, from 2:00 - 3:00 p.m. with reception to follow. Information about the service and a Zoom link will be posted here, as it is available:
https://www.mnzencenter.org/memorial-tomoe-katagiri.html

MZMC will offer memorial ekos during morning service on June 11th and July 16th.

With deep gratitude for the offerings and life of our beloved teacher Tomoe-san,

Ben Connelly, Guiding Teacher

Address

3343 E Bde Mka Ska Pkwy
Minneapolis, MN
55408

Website

http://www.mnzencenter.org/

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