Tallahassee Chan Center

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Tallahassee, FL
Tallahassee Chan Center

Tallahassee Chan Center (TCC) offers group meditation, workshops, retreats, outreach programs, and regular lectures. All are welcome! On the West Coast?

Our group consists of a community of helpful, resourceful, and gentle people. Guo Gu is the founder and teacher at TCC. The Tallahassee Chan Center (TCC) is a community of practitioners learning and living the Buddha’s teachings through the tradition of the Dharma Drum Lineage of Chan (Zen) Buddhism, as established by Chan Master Sheng Yen. TCC was founded in 2009 by our teacher Guo Gu (Dr. Jimmy

Yu), one of Master Sheng Yen’s senior and closest disciples. Dr. Yu was a monk for ten years, earned his doctorate in Buddhist Studies, and is now an associate professor of Buddhist Studies at Florida State University. Contact us for more information. The Chan (Zen) center hosts weekly sitting practice every Monday and Wednesday evenings at 6:30 pm, Sunday mornings at 9:30am, and meditation instructions on select Thursday evenings at 6:30 pm. All events are at our center located at 1310 North Paul Russell Road in Tallahassee. We have weekday morning meditations from Monday - Friday at 7:30am - 8:00am. Check out our West Coast meditation at 7:30am PST (10:30am EST), also Monday-Sunday. We offer meditation instructions on the 1st Thursday evenings of the month from 6:30-8pm. There is no set fee but donations are welcomed. Please feel free to stop by the Center. These instructions cover basic postures and methods of practice.

08/25/2026

Five Voices, One Path: A Collection of Zen Teachings

This course features select talks and meditations from a weekend of teachings with Jan Chozen Bays Roshi, Hogen Bays Roshi, Fred Eppsteiner, Angie Parrish and Guo Gu. Originally recorded February 2026.

Until midnight on September 24th this course is 50% off with code 5VOICES applied at checkout.

More info: https://courses.tallahasseechan.org/five-voices-one-path-a-collection-of-zen-teachings

08/21/2026

Half Day Retreat⁠
Sunday, August 30⁠
9am - 12:30pm ⁠
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This half-day Chan retreat aims to deepen your meditation practice. This retreat includes 30-minute sitting meditation periods, and will end with an opportunity for Q&A. A potluck lunch will follow the Q&A session, please bring a vegetarian dish to share.⁠
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The Half Day Retreat is held In-Person and Online⁠
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Register here: https://tallahasseechan.secure.retreat.guru/program/half-day-retreat-in-person-online-6/

08/20/2026

Friday, August 20th - Evening Bodhisattva Precepts Ceremony Recitation⁠
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The Tallahassee Chan Center will host a monthly ceremony on the third Friday of each month. ⁠
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For more information and Zoom links, please go here. ⁠
https://tallahasseechan.org/friday-ceremony/

08/11/2026

3-Day Mettā Meditation Retreat
Led by Tom Ledermann
Sept 11-13
Online & In Person

Mettā meditation provides a powerful method for cultivating compassion, gratitude, and genuine happiness. These qualities foster mental well-being, inner contentment, and happy relationships with others.

In this three-day retreat, we will deepen our Mettā practice through 30-minute guided sitting meditations, complemented by mindful yoga, walking meditation, mindful work, and prostrations. There will also be two Dharma talks.

Register here: https://tallahasseechan.secure.retreat.guru/program/3-day-metta-meditation-retreat/

08/05/2026

New to meditation? Curious but not sure where to start? This one's for you.

Join us for our Beginner Meditation Workshop, a warm and welcoming two-part introduction to the practice, open to absolute beginners and anyone looking to deepen their foundation. No experience needed. Across two sessions, you'll learn meditation conditions, methods, and postures, along with self-massage and other supporting techniques to help settle the body, mind, and spirit.

When: Sundays, September 13 and 20, 2:00-5:00pm
Where: Tallahassee Chan Center, 1310 N Paul Russell Rd
Cost: $70 suggested donation, pay-what-you-can available.

All levels welcome. Register at the link in bio.

07/31/2026

Events and Offerings: August 2026

**Please note: our regular weekly offerings (Sunday morning, Monday evening, and Wednesday evening meditations) are paused August 2-7 due to retreat programming.

Upcoming Retreats and Workshops:
August 7-Day Retreat with Guo Gu: July 31-August 7, online and in-person. A silent meditation retreat on silent illumination and huàtóu.

Healing Through Practice: A Four-Part Workshop with Dewaine Rester begins August 9, hybrid. Meditation, breathwork, and movement to reduce suffering and steady the mind, especially for those navigating illness, pain, grief, or caregiving.

3-Day Metta Meditation Retreat with Tom Ledermann: September 11–13, hybrid. Deepen your practice of loving-kindness through sitting meditation, mindful yoga, walking meditation, and prostrations.

Embodied Experiencing in Daily Life with Ashley M. begins September 13, hybrid. Four weeks of practice in daily life culminating in an immersive weekend retreat.

Beginner Meditation Workshop: 2-Part: September 13 and 20, in-person only. A comprehensive introduction to meditation for practitioners of all levels, covering conditions, methods, postures, and stages of practice.

Join us in person for our sangha social on August 31, 6:30–8:30pm, celebrating community and birthdays!

More info: https://tallahasseechan.org/

07/09/2026

Readings of the Gateless Barrier⁠
A Special Tricycle Virtual Event⁠
Tuesday, July 28th 1pm ⁠
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Explore the history, gender politics, and practice implications of one of Zen’s most important koan collections.⁠
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The Gateless Barrier (Ch.: Wumenguan; Jp.: Mumonkan) is a 13th-century collection of forty-eight gong’ans, or koans, compiled by the Chan master Wumen Huikai to provoke awakening in the reader. In Readings of The Gateless Barrier, editor Jimmy Yu (also known as Guo Gu) brings together ten essays by leading scholars and practitioners, alongside a new translation by Yu, the Sheng Yen Professor of Chinese Buddhist Studies at Florida State University. ⁠
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On July 28 at 1 p.m. ET, Yu and contributor Natasha Heller will discuss the text’s origins, cultural context, and lasting hold on Zen practice. Drawing from Heller’s chapter, “A Gate of Their Own? Women in Wumen’s World,” they’ll discuss why women only appear in four of the forty-eight cases, and what this means for a text central to a tradition in which women have long held a defining role. Join Yu and Heller to learn more about these four figures and what their marginal presence suggests about gender and authority in Chan Buddhism more broadly.⁠
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Register and more info: https://tricycle.org/events/gateless-barrier-women/?utm_source=Klaviyo&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=July+Premium+Event+Promo+–+June+6,+2026&_kx=ytCqIb8gLPQ2jDfFcUYAnFWnTR3OrbGZBh0vm1Uleo8.RHzCw6

06/30/2026

Registration Open!⁠
⁠
3-Day Mettā Meditation Retreat⁠
Led by Tom Ledermann⁠
Sept 11-13⁠
Online & In Person⁠
⁠
Mettā meditation provides a powerful method for cultivating compassion, gratitude, and genuine happiness. These qualities foster mental well-being, inner contentment, and happy relationships with others.⁠
⁠
In this three-day retreat, we will deepen our Mettā practice through 30-minute guided sitting meditations, complemented by mindful yoga, walking meditation, mindful work, and prostrations. There will also be two Dharma talks.⁠
⁠
Register here: https://tallahasseechan.secure.retreat.guru/program/3-day-metta-meditation-retreat/

06/25/2026

Guo Gu talks about the importance of our feeling tone, or intention when engaging in seated meditation.

Taken from his short talk on Right Intention - watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4DahVKcKxI

06/23/2026

Embodied Experiencing in Daily Life with Ashley M

Begins Sunday, September 13th |

Hybrid 4 week
In-Person and Online Series & 3 Day Retreat

An important part of Chan practice for lay people is to see that the coalescing of feelings and perceptions that make up our vexations is merely the manifestation of selfing. Learning to directly see this process unfold, and not allow any “self” to solidify, is an important practice toward liberation. One method that helps us practice this is embodied experiencing.

This program offers an opportunity to practice deeply with this method through four weeks of supported, specialized practice in daily life, concluding with an immersive weekend retreat.

Each week emphasizes a different theme. You will practice on that theme for a week, receive guidance, and share your experience with a group via Zoom. At the concluding 3-day retreat, which is available either in-person or hybrid, you can use these methods in greater depth and without ordinary distractions to deepen your practice.

More info: https://tallahasseechan.org/event/embodied-experiencing-in-daily-life/2026-09-13/

Register here: https://tallahasseechan.secure.retreat.guru/program/embodied-experiencing-in-daily-life/

Address

1310 North Paul Russell
Tallahassee, FL
32301

Website

http://TallahasseeChan.org/

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