Immersion in Zen Buddhist community

We welcome you to stay with us for an experience of immersion in Zen Buddhist community. You will live in a small cohort and practice intimately with the sangha that lives and works nearby.

Practice at Ashland Zen Center has evolved in the pioneering spirit of American Zen over the past 30 years to merge householder practice and monastic forms.  

The year-round schedule at Ashland Zen Center is a half-day on Sunday through Friday and an evening on Wednesday. Each week’s practice includes thirteen periods of zazen, a dharma talk, and fifteen hours of samu. A detailed schedule is available on our website. Each Residency Period includes a sesshin or practice event; these are offered throughout the year.

Residents share simply furnished living quarters, zendo, library, community kitchen, dining hall, laundry, indoor soaking tub, outdoor spa, and ceramics studio.

Spring, Summer and Fall Residency Periods are recommended as they coincide with the natural rhythms of the seasons. Seasonal activity  includes planting and harvesting the vegetable garden, caring for the grounds, facilities, plants trees, buildings, and stocking our Little Zen Farm Stand. We put up the food harvest, cook our meals, and clean up after ourselves. We look after the needs of guests who rent our furnished accommodations and we clean and care for the rental spaces between guest stays.

Our temple is on an acre of land in a small mountain town in Southern Oregon where the Cascade and Siskiyou mountain ranges meet.

The Residency Period fee is $870 per month. This includes housing and breakfast and lunch on weekdays. Residents have kitchen, pantry and refrigerator space for preparation of personal meals in the evening and on Saturdays. A dana offering for sesshins and other practice events is appropriate.

Residency Period housing is shared. The two primary locations for accommodation during Residency Periods are a 476 sq ft furnished studio called 'the Dorm' view photos and a 672 sqft, furnished one-bedroom apartment called 'the Mountain Suite' View photos

The minimum stay for a Residency is one month, and can be arranged at any time of year in addition to the scheduled Spring, Summer and Fall Resiidency Period dates.

Residency includes full participation in Ashland Zen Center’s schedule and full participation in practice events that take place during your Residency Period.

To explore coming to Ashland Zen Center for a Student Residency fill out and return the Application and Agreement, both downloadable below.