welcome
Members, Friends and a Bridge to the Future
Thank you everyone for your generous support, friendships and memberships. Updates on our emerginging financial situation to follow soon here and in the email.
Considering membership or a one-time donation to the Bridge Fund? Please see the Support Page.
Thank you very much.
Founded in 1991, Red Cedar Zen Community (formerly known as Bellingham Zen Practice Group) is a cooperative group of Zen students practicing together in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki-roshi, author of Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind.
The Community's Guiding Teacher is Zoketsu Norman Fischer, former abbot of San Francisco Zen Center and head teacher of the Everyday Zen Foundation. Many members of the Group are students of Zoketsu's. The spirit of the group is to be open to all Zen students, and some members also study with other teachers. Zoketsu comes to the Bellingham and Vancouver area four or five times a year to lead retreats and sesshin. He is also available to group members for correspondence and interviews by phone.
The Community's Resident Priest and local teacher is Nomon Tim Burnett. Tim has been practicing Zen for twenty years and was ordained as a priest by Norman in 2000. Since completing his shuso (head monk) training in 2004 Tim has taken a more active teaching role in the sangha. Tim leads retreats, workshops, and classes, and is available to Sangha members for private practice discussion at all sangha meditation events right in Bellingham.
an invitation
The Red Cedar Zen Community invites you to join us in the practice of Zen meditation. By settling the heart and mind in this very moment, we can bring a little more peace and openness to our lives and our world. Our Soto way emphasizes the daily practice of sitting meditation (zazen) and the integration of formal practice and daily life.
We follow the traditional forms of the Soto school of Zen with a spirit of warmth and inclusion. Everyone interested in meditation, whether brand new, experienced in other traditions, or schooled in formal Zen, is welcome to join our practice.
Our weekly meetings are every Wednesdays nights at 7pm and Monday, Wednesday and Friday at noon at the Red Cedar Dharma Hall (see practice).
Orientations for new sitters are regularly offered at 6:30pm on Wednesdays and at other times by request. We also have retreats of one to seven days at the Hall and at rented facilities in the area (see events). The Dharma Hall is located at 1021 N. Forest Street, just south of Forest and Maple (two doors down from The Majestic). (see directions).
Meditation instruction and orientations are available for new students. Please call or write to arrange an orientation. You are also welcome to "just show up."
dharma hall
The Red Cedar Zen Community are the stewards of a shared center for meditation, mindfulness, and peace called the Red Cedar Dharma Hall. The center is available to other like minded groups for event rental or ongoing use. Per hour and membership rates are available. The Hall is quiet, warm and accessible to all. See the Red Cedar Dharma Hall website for more information.
Thank you for visiting our site. We invite you to join us in unfolding the Buddha Way as it runs through every moment of our lives.