Introducing ZPI Affiliate Group: Zürich Zen Center

To strengthen our planetary network, ZPI will feature newly affiliated groups.  Join HERE to explore some of the offerings of the organizations affiliated with ZPI, and visit here for a full list of these groups.  The following is an introduction to Zürich Zen Center.

What is your organization’s name?

Zürich Zen Center

What is your mission?

Zürich Zen Center has as mission to open it’s doors to daily spiritual life, based on the traditional Zen way and the ZPO Three Tenets. In this sense, we promote, participate and support activities and initiatives in harmony with the principles of socially engaged buddhism.

Where is your organization based?

Zürich Zen Center

How many regular members do you serve?

100

Tell us a bit about how the group was conceived?

We are long time practitioners in the traditional way of Buddhism, in addition to a deep sense of social responsibility. Due our personal and professional activities, we feel the need of manifest in our community the benefits of practicing a daily-life Dharma. When we transferred our residence to Switzerland, we had the opportunity to lead a Sangha, and besides the traditional practices, we started to engage in the ZP practice through our teacher’s Barbara and Roland Wegmüller. It was from here that we decided to give an institutional aspect to our Sangha. From this concept came a Zen Center, linking the traditional Dharma-Way with socially and ecologically engaged actions.

Tell us about one exciting project, retreat or other offering that you are currently working on?

Besides our regular practices, we are working on organizing a collective network for talent sharing in our Sangha (called System of Meritory Interactions), that promotes one-day retreats with a workshop, in a system of co-leadership: Sangha-members brings their talents and we – as monastics – will add some links with the teachings from traditional Dharma sources. Until now we did one about Pathwork-sewing style and another on Vegan cooking. We are also working on planning a Street Retreat in South Brazil as our first steps to organize a Native People BW Retreat in Brazil (at this point, our focus will be the Xavante Community, in the state of Goiás, covering 16 traditional native villages).

How do the Three Tenets inform your social engagement? 

Building a bridge between traditional Dharma and an alive and inspiring socially engaged approach. In another words, the Three Tenets are like an universal translator to the concepts of Dharma, bringing them from the head to the hearts of all beings.

What is the most meaningful challenge your organization faces?

As we are active as professionals – beside our role as monastics and Sangha leaders- we must put into action special skills to provide leadership with a quality that maintains a balance with our other roles. Also meaningful is the challenge of integrating two different cultures as Swiss and Brazilian.

Your main website URL

www.zurichzencenter.org

Your main contact email address for members

zurichzencenter.org@gmail.com

Learn more about Zürich Zen Center by visiting their website, and visit hive.zenpeacemakers.org to find more great work by our global affiliate network.  A complete list of our affiliated groups can be found here.

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Introducing ZPI Affiliate Group: Zürich Zen Center

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