Iowa City Zen Center

For some 25 years now, ICZC has served primarily as a lay practice in the Soto Zen Buddhist tradition. We began in the mid-1970s as a small group of people sitting together in zazen, the Zen style of meditation. After starting out in borrowed space in the Wesley House, for many years we rented sitting space in the Unitarian Church. Three or four times a year Dainin Katagiri Roshi or one of his students would come from the Minnesota Zen Center to give a public lecture and lead sesshin (Zen retreat). In 1991, we moved to a small apartment at 226 S. Johnson, above Willowwind School, and we incorporated as a non-profit organization. In the fall of 2005, we put a down payment on a property located about a mile and a half northeast of our long-time location at Willowwind. The papers were all signed in mid-November, and we got to work. We will be completely moved in to our new location, at 1025 East Fairchild, by the end of the calendar year. As of January 1, 2006, all Iowa City Zen Center activities will be conducted in our new home! Currently, we offer a daily morning zazen schedule, evening zazen twice a week, and in the past few years, we have been privileged to have the guidance of various priests in the Soto Zen tradition to lead us in sesshin retreats. The Zen Center is governed by a board of directors. ICZC's sangha, or community of practitioners, periodically gathers to discuss practice and the running of the center. These meetings, when scheduled, are usually held on the first Saturday of the month following zazen. We would encourage all who are on our mailing list to join us for meditation and sangha meetings, and to take an active role in running and organizing the practice at Iowa City Zen Center. The Iowa City Zen Center is funded totally by donations and by fees for sesshins and other activities. If you would like to support us, we are a non-profit religious organization, so contributions are tax deductible.