Hartford Street Zen Center

I’ve attended meditation services here sporadically, but over several decades, and it’s always a welcome respite from the hectic day. I hope to return again soon!

This Soto Zen temple is a wonderful intimate place for contemplation and to practice Zen Buddhism. Make sure to visit the garden behind the center. You can stop by on a Saturday for free meditation instruction at 8:30 am and stay for zazen at 9:25 am, a short dharma talk at 10:15 am and tea and cookies with the group,It has an amazing history. Hartford Street Zen Center was founded by Issan Tommy Dorsey whose life story is told in the book Street Zen by David Schneider (winner of the Tricycle Prize for Best Book on Buddhism in America). Issan, who served as the temples first abbot, founded Maitri Hospice at Hartford Street Zen Center. The beat poet Zenshin Philip Whalen was the temples third abbot. He read at the famous Six Gallery reading in 1955 that marked the launch of the West Coast Beats into the public eye. Whalen appears, in barely fictionalized form, as the character Warren Coughlin in Jack Kerouacs The Dharma Bums, which includes an account of that reading.

Beautiful Zen center

Accessible, not pretentious.