The Engaged Zen Foundation is pleased to announce the formation of a new zendo for the City of Phoenix, Arizona. The zendo temple has been named Daihisan (Great Pain Relieving Mountain) - Jigen-ji (Compassionate Eye Temple) by Ven. Shodo Harada Roshi, abbot of Sogen-ji monastery in Okayama, Japan.

   

The Engaged Zen Foundation envisions the creation of an inner city zendo and community center serving the inner city of Phoenix directing particular attention to working with and training at-risk youth. Daihisan will be a center that fosters the acceptance of all people, without any regard whatsoever to religious or political beliefs, racial or ethnic background, age, economics, gender, sexual orientation or criminal history.

 

Daihisan will offer traditional Rinzai Zen training for all interested students regardless of religious tradition or lack thereof. In addition, Daihisan will serve as a grass roots organizing center for social justice work in the areas of racism, oppression, poverty, education, judicial reform, prison abolition and death penalty abolition. The zendo will offer educational opportunities for youth in literacy and academic support, we will emphasize a history training program dealing with the history of indigenous peoples, the history of oppression and the history of successful revolutionary movements. Daihisan will offer programs in street art, crafts, computer science, political action and community organizing.

 

The Foundation is actively soliciting support for Daihisan from foundations, organizations, groups and individuals to bring about the vision of making Zen training in the authentic Rinzai Zen tradition of the Samurai warriors of Japan accessible to minority communities. The discipline of zazen practice is incomparable in its depth and subtlety, and has never before in history been available to inner city youth. Highly disciplined Zen training alters the functioning of the mind of the practitioner and these changes manifest with the development of positive perspectives on life. Our initial intent is to provide training for at-risk youth to engage in the practice of zazen, sitting in dynamic, lucid awareness, thus serving, by enabling them, through their own efforts, to develop a disciplined, patient, nonviolent and compassionate frame of mind.

 

Over the coming months EZF will be seeking donations and grant funding to make Daihisan Zendo a reality in the heart of Phoenix. There is much work to be done, and fundraising is by far the most crucial.

 

We will endeavor to raise enough funding and support to obtain a suitable structure in the city which we can rebuild into a formal Zen training hall, community center, arts studio, offices for EZF and staff living quarters. There are a number of possibilities for the receipt of assistance from the local government in obtaining a structure at low cost with the proviso that funding is available for it to be properly refurbished and serve as a community resource.

 

The past 17 years of work with prisoners will continue and EZF will still maintain correspondence with and perform advocacy on behalf of prisoners. What Daihisan can do is showcase a model for working with young people before they become entangled with the criminal justice system and wind up in prison. We anticipate that our young students will be able to contribute to our work with prisoners via supervised prisoner correspondence and activism as part of their practice and training.

 

Daily Zen training with Ven. Kobutsu Malone Osho, and Rev. Dogo Graham Sensei  will be conducted at Daihisan in the near future. Please send us a donation today, help make history, help make Daihisan Zen Center a reality. Donate right now via credit card, or send a check to: 

 

The Engaged Zen Foundation

 

Daihisan Development Project

Post Office Box 213

Sedgwick, Maine 04676 USA